WESSON — The Co-Lin Lady Wolves battled the Jones County JuniorCollege Lady Bobcats tooth-and-nail from the start to the finish.And at the end, it came down to free throws.

The Lady Bobcats led the Lady Wolves 59-58 with 22.4 secondsleft to play when Co-Lin freshman forward Rhonda Dumas was fouledand hit the first of two free throws to tie the game at 59-all.Sophomore forward Kristin Ellis grabbed the loose ball and hit ajumper to give the Lady Wolves a 61-59 lead with 19 secondsremaining.

Seconds later, Jones Co. head women’s coach Sandra Sumrall wasassessed a technical foul. Co-Lin women’s coach Gwyn Young sentsophomore guard Shalenia Wilcher to the free throw line whereWilcher netted both freebies to push the hosts lead to 63-59. TheLady Wolves followed up with a steal and freshman guard TeAirraWilbert was fouled with 10 seconds left in the game. Wilbert sackedboth free throws for the 65-59 lead and secured the big SouthDivision win.

“We played great at the end to get back into it,” said CoachYoung following the game. “It was a good win for us.”

Co-Lin improved to 4-3 in the South and 13-4 on the season.Jones Co. fell to 9-9 overall and 2-5 in division action.

Thursday, Co-Lin travels to Poplarville to meet Pearl River fora division doubleheader. The women begin play at 5 p.m. immediatelyfollowed by the men.

Both teams exchanged the lead several times in the first half.Dumas hit a bucket that put the Lady Wolves up 24-22 with 32seconds remaining. Shasta Mills, a 6-3 freshman center from ofLaurel, hit a basket for the Lady Bobcats with 10 seconds left totie the game at 24-all.

“In the first half, we missed a lot of our first shots,”explained Young. “We ran a matchup zone and that helped us get backin it.”

In the second half, Co-Lin posted 6-point lead, 37-31, at the15:54 mark. They later pushed it seven points, 40-33, on a freethrow from sophomore guard Reisha Bullock with 13:47 left toplay.

Jones Co. came back and quickly retook the lead and went by sixpoints, 55-49, with 1:49 remaining. Then Co-Lin began its comeback,putting together an impressive 16-4 run on Jones Co. for thevictory.

Mills led Jones Co. with six points in the first half. Co-Linheld her scoreless in the second half.

“In the second half, we played pretty good,” stated Young. “Wetook a seven-point lead but Jones County came back hard.”

Jones County shot 48 percent from the field compared to Co-Lin33 percent, according to Young.

Powering the Lady Wolves with 15 points apiece were sophomoreforward Alisha Mason and Ellis. On the backboards, Ellis led with14 rebounds and 3 blocked shots. Mason pulled down 8 rebounds andblocked 2 shots. Bullock finished with 11 points and 6 steals.

The Lady Bobcats got 14 points and 6 rebounds from Kate Hubbard.Brittany Leverett netted 12 points and grabbed 3 rebounds beforefouling out with 10 seconds left in the contest.

“We just made some good plays,” added Young. “We made our freethrows at the end.”

Co-Lin was 21 of 34 from the free throw line. Jones was 15 of24.