Jerdice Collins led Franklin County High School with a game-high 20 points as the Region 7-3A champion and No. 1 seed Bulldogs cruised to a 57-30 win over the Raleigh High School Lions Tuesday night in the first round of the 2018 MHSAA Class 3A Boys’ State Tournament.

While Franklin County’s defense dominated Region 6-3A No. 4 seed Raleigh throughout the game, the Bulldogs struggled offensively in the first quarter and led the Lions just 7-5 by quarter’s end.

“We got off to kind of a slow start. We relied on our defense, which has been our calling card this season,” Bulldogs head coach Rickey O’Quinn said. “We kept our defensive intensity for four quarters.”

And that stingy defense allowed Franklin County to pull away from Raleigh over the next two quarters. The Bulldogs outscored the Lions 16-8 in the second quarter to go into halftime with a 23-13 lead. The third quarter was more of the same as the Bulldogs put up 23 points while holding the Lions to a mere six points for a 46-20 advantage.

“Rebounding-wise, we did pretty good. They didn’t get many second shots, and we didn’t turn the ball over a lot,” O’Quinn said.

MaKyilan Covington scored nine points while Cameron Young added eight points and John Starks Jr. poured in seven points for Franklin County. Vontrelle Booth led Raleigh with 13 points.

Franklin County (23-5) will host the winner of the Southeast Lauderdale/Jefferson Davis County game for a second-round match-up at 7 p.m. Saturday.

Pearl River Central 61, Natchez High 59

CARRIERE — The Pearl River Central High School Blue Devils squeaked out a 61-59 win over the Natchez High School Bulldogs Tuesday night in the first round of the 2018 MHSAA Class 5A Boys’ State Tournament.

A.J. Banks led Region 7 No. 2 seed Pearl River Central with a game-high 23 points and Willie Reece added 16 points as the Blue Devils ended the season for the Bulldogs.

The Blue Devils went into halftime trailing Natchez High 29-28 before outscoring the Bulldogs 15-14 in the third quarter to tie the game at 43-43. Then they won the game with an 18-16 edge in the fourth quarter.

Izzy Holmes led Region 6 No. 3 seed Natchez High (18-9) with 21 points, while Melvin Myles had 14 points and Charles Credit added 11 points.

Crystal Springs 58, Jefferson County 30

CRYSTAL SPRINGS — The Jefferson County High School Tigers saw their season come to an end Tuesday night as they were upended by the Region 6 No. 1 seed Crystal Springs High School Tigers 58-30 in the first round the 2018 MHSAA Class 3A Boys’ State Tournament

No other information on the game was available.

Jefferson County, the Region 7 No. 4 seed, finished with an overall record of 6-20.