NATCHEZ — The combined girls basketball team of Morgantown and Robert Lewis Magnet School won the Southwestern Junior High Athletic Conference Championship last month.

The Lady Bulldogs won 31-26 over the Port Gibson Junior High Lady Blue Waves in the finals. Jaliyah Wright, one of 14 junior high basketball players on the Lady Bulldogs team, said she was relieved when the team finally won the championship.

“It felt good to win my first ever championship with the team,” Wright said. “We didn’t want it to end up like last year when we lost to them.”

In the game, Wright scored six points while fellow teammate Gabrielle Hill scored seven points. The Lady Bulldogs played against the Lady Blue Waves for the third time in the season.

The first game between the two teams was on Nov. 11 where Port Gibson won by one point. Morgantown Middle School played against Port Gibson for a second time on Nov. 21 and the Lady Bulldogs won by one point.

“When we played Port Gibson in the championship, I didn’t feel any fear,” Hill said. “But I did feel like we were going to do our best in the game.”

Before the season started, Willie Woods, the coach of the Lady Bulldogs, said the only reason he came back to coach the team was to defeat Port Gibson and win the championship.

Woods with fellow coach Bonita Hamilton by his side led the Lady Bulldogs to avenge last season’s championship loss. Woods and Hamilton have coached together for 20 years. As opposed to coaching teams in the past, Hamilton said coaching the Bulldogs this season was very productive.

“Last year we came very close to becoming district champs,” Hamilton said. “This year was pretty sweet. We thought we would have a lot of work to do. In the end, hard work does pay off, the girls were motivated to win and wanted to develop their game.”

Woods said he is proud of the Bulldogs hard work during the season and in the games. Woods said both he and Hamilton worked the players hard and are proud of the Lady Bulldogs’ efforts in the season.

“I wanted them to win this season because I have coached a lot of teams in the past who have won this championship,” Woods said. “We deserved to win the championship this year.”