CLINTON – Guard Hayden Eustachy paced Presbyterian ChristianSchool with 20 points and the Bobcats shot 52 percent from thefield Wednesday night as they overwhelmed Brookhaven Academy’s boys67-40. By comparison, the Cougars (29-7) shot a cold 30 percentfrom the field and never found their shooting touch in the spaciousconfines of Mississippi College’s A.E. Wood Coliseum.

Eustachy, a talented 6-foot senior, is the son of Southern Missbasketball coach Larry Eustachy. He leads the Bobcats (25-9) intoFriday night’s semifinals of the MAIS Overall Tournament, meetingGreenville Christian, a surprise 60-53 winner over Jackson Preplast night.

Defending Overall champion Madison-Ridgeland Academy will playBowling Green in the other semifinals game tomorrow night.

The Cougars, fresh from winning a sixth straight AA state title forCoach Dale Watts, couldn’t handle the PCS quickness and post play.They fell behind 33-19 at halftime.

“We picked a bad time to have a bad game,” said Watts, outside thetomb-like silence of BA’s dressing room. “I really thought thisteam had the ability to come up here and compete. We worked hard toget back up here.”

Senior forward Jake Reed led the Cougars and all scorers with 22points and 14 rebounds. He was the only BA player in doubledigits.

“I knew No. 1 (Eustachy) was good but I was really concerned aboutNo. 5 (James Akers), their point guard,” said Watts. “He makes thepeople around him better. He sets up the perimeter shots and getsthe ball inside. We couldn’t stop their dribble-driveinside.”

Akers, a 5-9 junior, accounted for 9 assists and 3 steals, plusscoring 7 points.

Watts said his usually sharp-shooting team had trouble adjusting tothe goals at MC. “We couldn’t stop (Bobcats) and we tried too hardon offense. We missed easy layups.”

The Bobcats, supported by a large, boisterous crowd of followers,increased their lead to 20 points, 45-25, on a short jumper byHunter Hawkins, with 3:06 left in the third frame. Hawkins, a 6-3sophomore post, finished with 14 points and six rebounds.

“Our seniors, Jake Reed and Jamison Powell, did an exemplary job ofleading us this season,” said Watts. “They helped us win sixstraight championships.”

The Bobcats, coached by Gary Harris, raced to an early 9-0 lead andnever looked back. Reed broke the ice with a putback at the 3:32mark and Powell followed with a layup, reducing the deficit to9-4.