STARKVILLE — Senior Hannah White felt giddy after the Columbus High School girls basketball team won a game Tuesday night.
“Winning at Starkville is a big deal,” White said. “They are always one of the best programs in the state. They don’t lose at home, so for us to come here and play well enough to win is exciting. This was just big. Everybody was excited. It doesn’t matter how you win. You just have to find a way to win.”
Columbus built a 12-point halftime lead, lost the lead, but then found a way to take a 32-25 victory against Starkville at the Bee Hive.
“Two years since we won here, so this is special,” Columbus coach Yvonne Hairston said. “Just lost our composure there in the second half. Proud we regrouped and found a way to win the game. Defensively, we were outstanding.”
In the opening half, Starkville (1-2) missed all 24 shots it took from the field.
The teams were tied 2-2 after one quarter. The Lady Falcons outscored the Lady Jackets 13-1 in the second quarter for a 15-3 halftime lead.
“Locked them down on the defensive end,” Columbus forward JaTyler Turner said. “Everybody was playing great defense.”
Starkville scored its first basket with 5 minutes, 56 seconds left in the third quarter. From there, things fell in place, as the home team used a 15-0 run to take an 18-17 lead.
Starkville coach Kristie Williams was pleased with the defensive effort that kept her team afloat before the big run.
“We’ve got to find a way to score the basketball,” Williams said. “It’s pretty evident we don’t shoot the basketball well from outside and we have to have that driving mentality to get easy buckets. Until we get that going, we’re going to have games where we’ve just got to keep fighting to pull it out.”
A 3-pointer by White tied the game at 22 with seven minutes remaining. The Lady Falcons used a 9-0 run to build a 28-22 lead.
“We got too relaxed after we built the lead in the first half,” White said. “Once we fell behind, we switched back to man (defense) and that allowed us to take control again. We let up a little bit because they weren’t scoring. However, Starkville is always good. We should have done a better job of fighting off their run.”
Amaria Strong scored all 12 of her points in the third quarter for Starkville (1-2).
“We just had to find a way to stop (Strong) once she got going,” Hairston said. “Proud of how we kept our composure and found a way to make sure to win the game.”
n In other action Tuesday, the New Hope High boys lost to Northeast Lauderdale 56-55. The New Hope girls lost to Northeast Lauderdale 59-26.
n On Monday, Steele Altmyer had 25 points in the Heritage Academy boys basketball team’s 59-42 victory against Lamar School.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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