UTICA — The first quarter of Friday afternoon’s girls’ consolation game at the MHSAA Region 7-1A Tournament, at Hinds Agricultural High School, couldn’t have gone any worse for the Cathedral Lady Green Wave.

Nothing went through the basket for Cathedral — literally. The Lady Green Wave didn’t score a single point and fell behind 13-0 to the West Lincoln Lady Bears. And they almost pulled out an incredible comeback after that disappointing start.

But almost wasn’t good enough as West Lincoln ended up taking a 41-25 win to finish to end up as the region’s surprising No. 3 seed heading into the first round of the MHSAA Class 1A South State Playoffs, which take place Monday.

Cathedral was led by Taylor Beesley and Sarah Beth Willard with five points each and Akua Kumi had four points.

“The first quarter we came out cold. We couldn’t make anything. They played great defense and we could not score,” Lady Green Wave head coach Randy Smith said. “Second quarter, it was the same thing, except we played better defense.”

Cathedral outscored West Lincoln 4-2 in the second quarter to go into halftime down 15-4. And then the game got really interesting as the Lady Green Wave went on an 11-1 run to make it a 16-15 ball game midway through the third quarter.

However, the Lady Bears hit some shots to stretch their lead back to double digits and went into the fourth quarter with a 30-17 advantage.

“Then in the fourth quarter, they hit a couple of threes and started hitting their free throws. We really made a comeback. We just couldn’t sustain it,” Smith said.

Destiny Allen led West Lincoln with 10 points while Katie Hester and Layton Sills added eight points apiece.

Cathedral (11-16) will be the No. 4 seed out of Region 7-1A in the first round of the Class 1A South State Playoffs and will be on the road Monday against the Region 6-1A champion, either Sebastopol or McAdams, at a time to be determined.

Jefferson County girls 46, Crystal Springs 38

PRENTISS — Keionne January led Jefferson County with a game-high 14 points, Dionna Jackson had 11 points and Brandy Buck was back for the Lady Tigers as they defeated the Crystal Springs Lady Tigers Friday afternoon in the girls’ consolation game of the MHSAA Region 7-3A Tournament at Prentiss High School.

Buck returned to the lineup for Jefferson County after missing the team’s first two tournament games with an injury. She ended up scoring seven points, but her senior leadership was vital to the Lady Tigers’ come-from-behind win after trailing Crystal Springs 11-7 after one quarter of play and 19-11 at halftime.

Jefferson County took the lead late in the third quarter and ended up outscoring Crystal Springs 20-9 in that quarter for a 31-28 lead. The No. 5 seed Lady Tigers from Jefferson County put the game away with a 15-10 advantage over the No. 3 seed Lady Tigers from Crystal Springs in the fourth quarter.

Diamond Smith contributed for Jefferson County with nine points. Crystal Springs was led by Dominique Jackson with 10 points and ShaQuan Byther chipped in with nine points.

Jefferson County will be the No. 3 seed out of Region 7-3A and will take on the Region 6-3A No. 2 seed, the loser of the McLaurin/Forest game, next Monday at 7 p.m. That game will be played at Florence High School.

Jefferson County boys 75, Crystal Springs 48

PRENTISS — Jefferson County’s trio of Nicholas Brown, Jadarius Harried and Jarmel Anderson combined to score 58 points as the Tigers from Fayette took care of the Crystal Springs Tigers Friday night in the boys’ consolation game of the MHSAA Region 7-3A Tournament.

Brown led Jefferson County, the No. 3 seed, with 21 points while Harried ended up with 19 points and Anderson added 18 points. The three stepped up with Ry’Ale Brown being held to just five points.

Jefferson County jumped out to an 18-8 lead over No. 5 seed Crystal Springs at the end of the first quarter, but Crystal Springs managed to stay in the game thanks to an 18-14 advantage in the second quarter to go into halftime down by just six points at 32-26.

But any thoughts of Crystal Springs pulling off the upset quickly came to an end after Jefferson County put up 24 points while its defense held Crystal Springs to just six points to make it a 56-34 ball game.

Crystal Springs was led by Joshua Windom with a game-high 26 points, but the team’s next leading scorer was Jamario Benson with eight points.

Jefferson County (19-11) will the No. 3 seed out of Region 7-3A in the first round of the MHSAA Class 3A South State Playoffs. The No. 2 seed from Region 6-3A that the Tigers will play at in the first round, as well as what day and time the two teams will play, are to be determined.