Lady Lions blow past Myrtle, advance to semis
Feb. 27—BIGGERSVILLE — The Biggersville girls are hitting their stride at the right time.
The Lady Lions put together a dominant performance for an 81-56 win over Myrtle in Friday night's Class 1A quarterfinal matchup.
Biggersville (18-8) will face West Lowndes on Monday at the Mississippi Coliseum at 9 a.m. It's their first trip to Jackson since 2018, and their first semifinals appearance since 2016.
"We're certainly happy to be making that trip back down there," Biggersville coach Cliff Little said.
The Lady Lions are averaging 84.3 points per game through the first three rounds of the playoffs. Friday, Biggersville placed five players in double figures — all five players are sophomores.
Goldee Butler led with 19 points and 14 rebounds. Leileigh Moody pitched in 17 points. Guards Hannah Seago and Marlee McAlister totaled 14 points each, while Asia Stafford added 12 points and 12 boards.
"Learning to play with each other has been a process," said Little. "Luckily, we are coming together at a really good time. It seems like it's been a different girl in different stretches to step up for us."
Little mentioned that his team's game plan coming in was to focus on stopping Myrtle's Kinsley Gordon, who averages 24.2 points per game. But the Lady Hawks (17-9) came out firing with three makes from 3-point range — two from Breanna Smith and one from Lexi Hutcheson as they built a 12-7 lead.
"We had to adjust and play more man-to-man after that," Little said.
The adjustment paid off, and Gordon couldn't make Biggersville pay for it. She finished 6 of 31 from the field, scoring 21 points to lead Myrtle.
As a team, Myrtle was 18 of 78 (23%) from the field.
"Getting in foul trouble really hurt, but they hit and we didn't, so they deserve it," said Myrtle coach Chris Greer. "They played really well. They could've beat the Lakers tonight."
Raykiah Strickland totaled 14 points and nine rebounds for Myrtle. Smith pitched in 13.
Three-Pointers
Turning Point: Down 12-7, Biggersville went on a 24-5 run that bled into the start of the second quarter behind 12 first-half points from Moody.
Point Maker: Moody finished with 17 points on 5 of 9 shooting from the field, and 6 of 7 from the charity stripe.
Talking Point: "Leileigh can score in so many ways. It's not a surprise to us that she led us in that first half." — Little
