Southaven girls win region semifinal over DeSoto Central

from CommercialAppeal.com

Gayle Morgan starred three years at forward for the Southaven girls basketball team from 1987-91.

This year, however, she felt it was essential that she get back in the habit of supporting the Lady Chargers.

She couldn’t have picked a better time to return to her old stomping ground, considering Southaven is enjoying arguably is best season in school history.

In Tuesday night’s semifinals of the MHSAA Region 1-6A tournament, the surging Lady Chargers extended their undefeated streak to a school-record 26 games by coasting to 57-36 victory over host DeSoto Central at Shan Whiteside Memorial Gymnasium.



Top-seeded Southaven (26-1), ranked No. 9 in The Commercial Appeal’s Dandy Dozen, trailed only once at 3-2 before manufacturing a pivotal 15-0 run to take control. The Lady Chargers led, 22-5, after the opening quarter, 16 of which came from sophomore guard A’Queen Hayes. Then, after Southaven extending its advantage to 36-10 at the half, Morgan --- who sat five rows behind the Lady Chargers’ bench --- smiled and began pumping her fist for a Southaven squad that advanced to Friday’s region championship against Horn Lake.

“I mean, I’m an alumni just following a good team,” Morgan said of the Lady Chargers, ranked No. 2 in Mississippi by Maxpreps.com. “I love to see these girls doing what I used to do. It reminds me of me.”

During pregame warm-ups, the Lady Chargers wore T-shirts in memory of their longtime athletic director, Odis McCord, who died January 16 after a long battle with cancer. The Lady Chargers have dedicated the remainder of the season to McCord.

“He’s the only athletic director this school had ever known,” said Southaven principal Shane Jones, a 1997 graduate of the school. “He’d been here since the school opened in 1971. So you’re talking about every student that’s ever come through Southaven, coach McCord was their athletic director.”

Hayes scored a game-high 24 points for Southaven. Najuana Strickland’s eight points led DeSoto Central, which ends the season at 13-12.

In other Region 1-6A tournament games:

Horn Lake (girls) 54, Olive Branch 39: The second-seeded Lady Eagles (22-3), seeking their third consecutive appearance in the Class 6A state tournament, had three starters to score in double figures en route to cruising to Friday’s final. Savannah Kimmons scored 17 points, Jasmine Edwards had 13, and Brittany Biggins added 10 for the Lady Eagles.

“I would just say we played hard,” Biggins said. “Olive Branch has a physical team, but we just kept out composure.”

Shameka Richmond’s 13 points led Olive Branch, which ends the year at 10-13.