WESSON – The No. 21 ranked Co-Lin Lady Wolves opened South Division play defeating the Hinds Lady Bulldogs 58-45 Thursday night.

Co-Lin (7-0, 1-0) travels to Poplarville on Monday to take on the Pearl River Lady Wildcats. Tip off is at 5:30 p.m. Listen live at www.colinathletics.com or on WMJU 104.3 FM in Brookhaven.

The Lady Wolves jumped out to a to an early 15-2 lead at the 4:01 mark in the first quarter and led 15-7 at the end of the quarter. Led by freshman Princess Cohen’s 13 first half points, Co-Lin took a 34-20 lead into halftime.

The beginning of the second half looked like the Lady Wolves were going to run away with the game as Alexis Collins hit a 3-pointer to start the half giving the Lady Wolves a 37-20 lead. But the Lady Bulldogs would whittle away at the lead, going on a 9-4 run to pull within six at 44-38 with 9:54 remaining in the game. The Lady Wolves would go on a 6-0 run to increase their lead to 12 at 50-38 with 7:22 left and would hold on to a 58-45 win.

“We started off the game with a lot of energy, but I thought Hinds matched what we had energy wise,” said Lady Wolves head coach Gwyn Young. “I thought they played really tough on defense and knocked us out of what our game plan was with their zone. We finally made a few shots. It’s not really an offense you can run against it, you’ve just got to find open spaces and gaps and try and get into it. I thought our press really helped and we made some good plays. We had way too many turnovers, hopefully we can learn from the game and get better on offense, especially in trying to attack the zone.

Cohen led the Lady Wolves with 15 points. Collins added 14 points, seven rebounds, and six assists. Tytiana Hall chipped in 10 points. Sophomore Jamiliah Sanders added 10 points, four steals and five rebounds.

For Hinds, Alexia Williams came off the bench to score 13 points. Isheer Davis led on the backboards with 6 rebounds.

The Lady Wolves shot 37 percent from the floor (20-of-54) while the Lady Bulldogs shot 31 percent (18-of-58). Co-Lin also led the Hinds in 3-point shooting with 31 percent (5-of-16) to 15 percent (2-of-13) and at the free throw line at 77 percent (13-of-17) to 64 percent (7-of-11).