LIBERTY – The Loyd Star Hornets and the Lady Hornets will play for the district championship after winning their game Thursday night in the second round of the Region 7-2A tournament.

In the girls contest, the Lady Hornets survived a cold shooting night to beat the West Lincoln Lady Bears 17-16.

In the boys’ game, the Hornets came out strong and defeated the Amite County Trojans 71-61.

The Lady Hornets will face the Amite County Lady Trojans in the championship contest at 7 p.m. tonight. The Hornets (19-5) will take on the Bassfield Yellowjacket for the boys’ championship at 8:30 p.m.

Loyd Star 17, West Lincoln 16 

The Lady Hornets and the Lady Bears experienced a cold shooting night Thursday night as they fought hard to advance to the title game.

In the opening quarter, both teams went scoreless, until the second quarter when the Lady Hornets scored 10 points to take a 10-0 lead into halftime.

In the third quarter, the Lady Bears came out and quickly took the lead from Loyd Star with a 12-0 run to lead 12-10.

In the final period, the Lady Hornets outscored the Lady Bears 7-4 to edge West Lincoln for the win.

“This was cold shooting night for both teams,” said Loyd Star coach Gene “Moochie” Britt. “Both teams did a good job playing hard defensively as both of us struggle to make the shots.”

McKenzie Smith directed the Lady Hornets on offense with nine points, four rebounds and three blocked shots. Marcy Givens scored five points and had four rebounds.

Alli Mullins led the Lady Bears with eight points. Hanna Moak and Demeshia Deer provided four points each.

Loyd Star 71, Amite County 61 

The Hornets came out and quickly set the tone of the contest as they grabbed a 17-11 lead after one quarter of action.

In the second quarter, Loyd Star continued to increased the lead with a 19-12 run to carry a 36-23 lead into halftime.

In the second half, the Hornets managed to fight through Amite County’s comeback to collect the win as the Trojans outscored the Hornets 38-35 in the final two frames.

“The guys played a good game both offensively and defensively,” said Britt. Overall we shot the ball well and played extremely good team ball from start to finish.”

Edrick Alsworth and Javion Beard pumped in a team-high 20 points apiece to lead the Hornets. Alsworth also had double-double night with 10 rebounds and five assists. Levi Redd contributed 13 points and had six rebounds.

Darrion Robinson led the Trojans with 23 points. Dkenyace Roberts provided 15 points and Tyrese Hackett scored 12 points.