NATCHEZ — The Natchez High School girls made their presence felt early on against Wingfield High School Friday night in a 63-34 victory.

The Lady Bulldogs jumped out to a 16-4 lead in the first quarter after tallying six steals and taking advantage of two more Wingfield turnovers.

“When you’re able to get those steals like that, it really changes the momentum of the game, because it brings us up, and it kind of gets to them mentally,” NHS head coach Alphaka Moore said.

“Right then, we have the upper hand, and if we can do that early on in the game, that’s going to be a plus for us. Going into the postseason and trying to get to (the state championship game), we need to continuously be able to do things like that.”

By the half, NHS was ahead 28-11, and the third quarter was more of the same for the Lady Bulldogs. NHS outscored Wingfield 13-8 in the first five minutes of the third quarter, including an 8-0 run midway through the frame off Wingfield turnovers.

Moore then elected to put in her backups for the rest of the quarter, and Wingfield managed to cut NHS’s lead to 43-24 at the end of the third.

But the starters came back out for the fourth quarter to put the Lady Falcons away, as NHS outscored Wingfield 16-5 in the first six minutes of the fourth.

Kiana Jones led NHS in scoring with 12 points, and Zyaire Ewing added 10 points for the Lady Bulldogs.

With their sights set on the ultimate prize, Moore said her team would have to continue showing improvement the rest of the way.

“We continuously have to have the same mindset and same gameplay. We just have to have more focus,” Moore said.

NHS rose to 19-2 on the season, 6-0 in MHSAA Division 6-5A.

NHS boys 75, Wingfield 65

De’Arius Griffin scored a game-high 22 points as the Bulldogs improved to .500 in divisional play in a 75-65 win against Wingfield Friday.

Dominique Mazique and Keylan Wimley both tallied 13 points for NHS, which led 35-21 at the half. Gary Woods added 12 points for the Bulldogs.

NHS (13-8, 3-3) will host Lawrence Country Tuesday.