NATCHEZ – The West Lincoln Bears warmed upfor another  rematch withpowerful Piney Woods by trouncing the Hinds AHS Bulldogs 61-45Thursday night in the semifinals of the Region 7-1A Tournament atCathedral. The Bears (23-4) were powered by junior guard JaredCase’s 31 points.

    West Lincoln plays Piney Woods tonight at 8:30 in the title game.Bogue Chitto’s girls edged West Lincoln 39-34 to gain a berth intonight’s 7 p.m. title test against No. 1 seed Hinds AHS.

    Consolation action begins at 4 p.m. with West Lincoln’s girlsplaying  Piney Woods at 4.Cathedral’s boys play  Hinds AHS at 5:30.All eight teams advance to next week’s South Mississippiplayoffs.

    Piney Woods beat the Cathedral boys 58-50 last night. Hinds AHSwhipped the Piney Woods girls 72-27.

W. Lincoln 61, Hinds AHS45

Freshman guard Duane Marshall joined Casein double digits as the Bears beat Hinds AHS for the third timethis season. Case also made 4 assists.

    “We went four minutes in first quarter  before we scored,” said West Lincolncoach Lane Young. “We struggled until about midway in the secondquarter when we really played well defensively and our shotsstarted falling.”

    The Bears led 30-17 at halftime.

    West Lincoln’s Lucas Burris and Darius Clark were in early foultrouble. Young said LeKeith Ward and Marshall made bigcontributions coming off the bench.

    “We need a big crowd here tonight to pull for us against PineyWoods,” said Young. His Bears have lost twice to the Tornadoes thisseason.

    On the backboards, De Price, Sam Bivens and Case each had 7rebounds.

B. Chitto 39, W. Lincoln34

    “We made a few big plays at the end,” said BC girls coach ChristiTerrell. “We shot very poorly from the free throw line and the gamecould have gone either way.”

    Terrell’s girls trailed 15-14 at halftime. The Lady Cats were ledby Rheagan Welch’s 10 points. Earlneshia Dillon grabbed 7 reboundsand Mattie Avants made 6 steals.

    “We kept the tempo like we wanted to but we couldn’t make playsdown the stretch to win the game,” said Coach Young. “Bogue Chittodid a great job at the end to beat us.”

    The Lady Bears (7-19) got 9 points from senior guard Marisa Pruski.Center Bentley Sills had 8 points and 8 rebounds. Beth Montgomeryhad 7 points and 7 boards.