JACKSON — Danny Crawford’s game plan was simple: score in the lane.
The West Lowndes High School boys basketball coach knew his Panthers were going to have a decided height advantage against Houlka High, which had four players six foot or taller. The Panthers have 11 players six foot or taller.
West Lowndes capitalized on the height advantage and scored 52 points in the paint on its way to a 70-55 victory in a Mississippi High School Activities Association Class A State Championship semifinal Monday night at Mississippi Coliseum.
“We tried to utilize our size inside,” Crawford said. “We’ve got some good guys that really can score and rebound in there, so we just tried to go inside. That’s our strength, inside first and outside second. That’s how basketball’s played.”
West Lowndes (26-8) will play Ashland High (25-7), which beat Simmons High 72-69 on Monday, at 2:30 p.m. Thursday for the state championship at Mississippi Coliseum.
JaQuante Bell had 24 points and 15 rebounds to lead the Panthers. TyShun Spencer added 17 points and 14 rebounds.
Trailing 52-42, Houlka went on an 11-3 run to cut the deficit to 55-53 with 3 minutes, 48 seconds remaining. Madarius Hobson (team-high 24 points) scored six points in the stretch, including two free throws that cut the lead to two. Lawrence Gladney (16 points) added a 3-pointer that gave the Wildcats hope.
But the Panthers scored 10 points in the paint in a 15-0 run to put the game away. Bell pulled down an offensive rebound and went back up strong to make the basket and get the foul. He converted the free throw to push the lead to 58-53.
“We know what we can do down there,” Spencer said. “If we’re ever in trouble scoring the ball, they know how to get it inside, and we now how to box out and get it in there.”
The Panthers scored 20 of their 25 points in the fourth quarter in the paint and shot 29 of 65 (44.6 percent) from the field.
Crawford said his team didn’t panic when the Wildcats rallied because they had been there earlier this season. He said his team saw leads slip away and wound up losing games, but they learned those lessons. He credited tough competition like Columbus High and New Hope High for getting his team ready for this postseason run and overcoming obstacles.
Bell and Spencer controlled the paint with their length and size. Bell, a 6-foot-5 junior, and Spencer, a 6-4 senior, combined for 16 points and 15 rebounds to help the Panthers build a 28-24 halftime lead.
“It was good because we needed to do everything we had to do to help our team finish strong,” Bell said. “Me and him controlled the boards, and we knew we had to do it for the team.”
The Panthers outrebounded the Wildcats 48-30 and had 20 offensive rebounds to Houlka’s 12. Crawford said he knew his team was going to control the glass coming in and he wanted his players to be aggressive.
Bell had three offensive rebounds on one possession before he finally scored to give the Panthers a 54-46 lead with 5:20 left.
Spencer agreed that offensive rebounds were as much a difference as the Panthers’ size advantage.
“When I rebound, I rebound with my heart,” Spencer said. “Even when I feel like I don’t rebound with my heart, I still have it in the back of my head that I’m going to rebound with my heart because I feel like I can do it.”
Spencer and Bell had seven offensive rebounds apiece.
The Panthers outscored the Wildcats in every quarter expect the second, when Houlka found a rhythm and scored 15 points to West Lowndes’ 12. Crawford was glad Bell and Spencer stepped up to overcome Houlka’s scrappiness.
“They were just being aggressive on the offensive and defensive boards,” Crawford said. “With a team like Houlka that likes to get up and down and run, we controlled the boards and that kind of slowed them down. That was our mind-set, and our team goal coming in to control the glass.”
Bell and Spencer might be hard for Ashland to handle too because it also will be at a height disadvantage. Either way, Spencer wants his team to stick to the game plan.
“The size advantage was really the key,” Spencer said. “We had to make good decisions and we had to make good moves. We had to make our shots even when they fouled us.”
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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