Horn Lake lose to Northwest Rankin

 from CommercialAppeal.com

The opportunity was there so that Horn Lake didn't have to share the Mississippi High School Activities Association basketball record books with Hernando anymore.

But Saturday night's 66-63 loss to Northwest Rankin at Jackson's Mississippi Coliseum prevented the Lady Eagles from capturing their second consecutive MHSAA Class 6A state championship.

It also kept them tied in overall hoops titles with the 1969 Hernando squad, coached by current DeSoto County school board member Theron Long. The Lady Tigers were Class A champs.

It was a rematch of the North Half championship played Feb. 19 at Horn Lake. On that day, the Lady Eagles earned a 53-42 win and later defeated Meridian in the state semifinals.

Arkansas-Monticello signee Taylor Beverly had a state tournament to remember for Northwest Rankin (24-8). The senior forward followed up her 26-point performance in Wednesday's semifinal victory over Jim Hill with 28 points and 12 rebounds against Horn Lake. The last of her game-high seven blocks came with one second remaining, which denied the Lady Eagles from potentially tying the contest.

"Biggest play of the night," said Lady Cougar coach Angela Reynolds. "I told her any time she felt like she was getting tired, look over at the gold ball (the championship trophy).

"Words just can't express how I feel right now. I'm excited. The girls are excited. We came a long way," Reynolds said.

The Lady Eagles drew up their last shot during a timeout with 3.7 seconds left.

"We had a couple of good options," said Horn Lake coach Janna Lyons, "but Beverly got a strong block and that cut our chances of knocking down that basket."

Horn Lake (23-4) never led in the contest, yet exhibited plenty of determination by rallying from a 12-point deficit at the start of the fourth period. Lytia Coleman's 3-pointer cut the NW Rankin lead to 49-48 with just under five minutes remaining.

Another spark plug was Brittany Grant, who scored 14 of her team-high 20 points in the fourth. Also finishing in double figures for the Lady Eagles was Coleman (14), Rosalyn Odum (11) and Savannah Kimmons (10).

Said Lyons: "Tough loss. In the locker room, I might have been a little not-too-sympathetic to them, but I told them I hope it burns and they can remember it so that we don't have to feel that same way next year at this time."

This was NW Rankin's first appearance at the state tournament. Reynolds was a member of the 1994 Pearl team that won the Class 5A title.

Parris Ladner, a freshman, and Santoya Bilbro each scored 11 points for the Lady Cougars.