CANTON — Adams County Christian School’s road to the MAIS Class AA State Tournament championship game was halted by a relentless defensive effort by Simpson Academy in the second half as the Cougars upset the Rebels 51-41 Friday night in a boys’ semifinal game at Canton Academy.

ACCS, the South No. 1 seed, was just two quarters away from advancing to the state title game after going into halftime with a 25-23 lead over South No. 3 seed Simpson Academy. But turnovers and the inability to get the ball to Brandon Brooks proved to be costly in the second half.

“The second half, they just made more plays than we did,” Rebels head coach Richy Spears said. “We made costly mistakes, and they capitalized on them. We just couldn’t get the ball inside (to Brandon). They did a good job of keeping it out of there.”

The Cougars outscored the Rebels 12-7 in the third quarter and 16-9 in the fourth quarter. Brooks was held to just two points — his lowest scoring output of the season. Brody Cole led ACCS with 11 points and Lester Wells added eight points.

The Rebels led at the end of a back-and-forth first quarter 15-13 and both teams scored 10 points in the second quarter.

ACCS (27-4) will take on Indianola Academy in the third-place game at 6 p.m. today. The winner of that game will advance to the Overall Tournament as the Class AA No. 3 seed while the loser will see its season come to an end.

Natchez High 48, Pearl River Central 29

BROOKHAVEN — Daryl Jones led Natchez High School with a game-high 19 points as the Bulldogs pulled away in the second half to defeat the Pearl River Central Blue Devils 48-29 Friday night in the boys’ third-place game of the MHSAA Division 6-5A Tournament at Brookhaven High School.

In the first half, Pearl River Central point guard/shooting guard Alex Travis kept getting past Natchez High’s defense and accounted for the majority of the Blue Devils’ offense. And that allowed the No. 4 seeded team to stay in the game against the third-seeded Bulldogs at halftime.

“Normally, we have to get away from what we do (when we play them),” Bulldogs assistant coach David Haywood said. “They have a good little guard who was getting to the basket on penetration. In the second half, we decided to pack it in in the paint.”

The Bulldogs put up 12 points in the third quarter and 13 points in the fourth quarter while limiting the Blue Devils to seven and four points, respectively. Travis ended up with 17 points to lead Pearl River Central, but very few of those occurred after halftime.

Dominique Mazique finished with 10 points and Micheal Morris added eight points for the Bulldogs.

Natchez High (12-8) will be the Division 6-5A No. 3 seed and will be on the road in the first round of the Class 5A South State Playoffs at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Pelahatchie 70, Cathedral 64

VICKSBURG — The Cathedral High School Green Wave had a chance to tie the ball game with less than two minutes to go in the ball game, but it was not meant to be as they lost to the Pelahatchie High School Chiefs 70-64 Friday night in the boys’ championship game of the MHSAA Division 7-1A Tournament at St. Aloysius High School.

Cathedral was trailing Pelahatchie 62-59 when Alex Weadock took a 3-pointer that went in and out and R.J. Givens grabbed the rebound, made the putback and was fouled to give him an old-fashioned 3-point play opportunity.

But Givens missed the free throw that would have tied the game at 62-all with 1:30 remaining. After a couple of Cathedral players tipped the ball, a mad scramble ensued and Pelahatchie got the ball and the result was a lay-up by the Chiefs and a 64-61 lead.

“That was a monumental play. That was a pivotal point in the game,” Cathedral head coach Peter Arnold said. “We had come all the way back from 17 points down. It was gut-wrenching. If we had gotten it, we would have had them. The ball just didn’t bounce our way. ”

The second-seeded Green Wave stayed right with top-seeded Pelahatchie for much of the first quarter and was down by just two points, 18-16, at the end of that quarter. But the second quarter belonged to the Chiefs, who outscored the Green Wave 20-9 for a 38-25 halftime lead.

Cathedral outscored Pelahatchie 21-15 in the third quarter and 18-17 in the fourth quarter.

Both Givens and Weadock finished with 14 points while James Coley led the Green Wave in scoring with 19 points and Wyatt Boothe added 13 points.

Cathedral (10-10), the No. 2 seed out of Division 7-1A, will play host to Division 6-1A No. 3 seed McAdams Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the first round of the MHSAA Class 1A South State Playoffs.

Franklin County 60, Jefferson County 54

WOODVILLE — Vincent Briggs had a game-high 19 points while both Danzell Allen and Cameron Young added 13 points each as the Franklin County High School Bulldogs defeated the Jefferson County High School Tigers 60-54 Friday night in the boys’ consolation game of the MHSAA Division 7-3A Tournament at Wilkinson County High School.