Stomach’s churn, fans scream, coaches nervously tap their feet or clutch a towel.

It means only one thing. It’s tournament time.

But this time of year, college basketball isn’t the only thing that has a great tournament with high quality play and great finishes.

The high school kids have their own version of “March Madness”

The MPSA, MHSAA and LHSAA have all had great tournaments that have either just wrapped up, as in the MPSA’s case, or are entering the final stretch.

And once again, the Miss-Lou has been greatly represented in all three tournaments.

The Trinity boys carried the torch for the Miss-Lou schools in the MPSA, winning the South State tournament and finishing runner-up in the Class AA State Tournament to advance to the Overall tourney at Mississippi College.

Even though they fell to Hillcrest Christian in the quarterfinals of the tournament, it was an outstanding year for the Saints, who advanced to Overall for the second consecutive year despite moving up from Class A to Class AA.

Jefferson County also had its season ended Saturday night with a 72-70 loss to the North region’s top seed Columbia.

Despite outstanding performances from both Kadon Day and Percy Turner, who scored 28 and 26 points, respectively, the Tigers weren’t able to mount a final comeback against the Wildcats.

However, the loss shouldn’t put a damper on Jefferson County’s outstanding season.

Anytime you can win your district tournament and advance all the way to the state semifinals, you should consider it a job well done.

While Trinity and Jefferson County’s seasons have concluded, two area high school’s are still going strong and are just two wins away from a state championship.

The Ferriday boys took a thrilling 42-36 win over Episcopal of Baton Rouge Friday night at home and advance to the Cajundome on the University of Louisiana-Lafayette campus for the LHSAA Top 28 Tournament.

The Trojans need to pick up two wins in Lafayette in order to claim a state championship.

They’re on quite a roll, having won 21 consecutive games after starting the season with a 6-7 record.

The last time Ferriday tasted defeat was a 56-52 loss to Vidalia in the finals of the Vidalia tournament on Dec. 15.

The Franklin County girls are picking up right where the Bulldog football team left off, getting back to Jackson to compete for a state title.

The Lady Bulldogs will play at 1 p.m. Monday against the North region’s No. 1 seed Alcorn Central.

The Lady Bulldogs have been on a hot streak lately, winning their district tournament championship and finishing runner-up in the South State Tournament to Southeast Lauderdale.

Here’s hoping they can do the football team one better, by not only advancing to the state championship game, but winning it as well.

As another year of high school hoops comes to an end, I want to say congratulations to all our area teams, not just the ones who made it to the top.

No matter how it turns out for any of our schools, it has been yet another great season of high school basketball.

Jeff Edwards is the sports editor of The Natchez Democrat. He can be reached at 601-445-3633 or jeff.edwards@natchezdemocrat.com.