By By Marty Stamper/The Meridian Star
Dec. 28, 2001
DECATUR – Central Academy and Starkville Academy advanced to the girls' semifinals of the fifth-annual MPSA Mississippi Classic at East Central Community College with quarterfinal wins Thursday.
Central defeated Indianola Academy 45-40, while Starkville rolled past Newton County Academy 44-14.
Kemper Academy remained in the losers' bracket with a 55-19 drubbing of University Christian School.
In today's girls' games, Lamar School, 3-10, faces Kemper Academy, 13-4, at 10 a.m. and Newton County Academy, 4-11, takes on Indianola Academy, 8-13, at 1 p.m. in elimination games.
In the winner's bracket, Leake Academy, 12-3, plays Washington School, 9-4, at 4 p.m. and top-seeded Starkville Academy, 16-2, takes on Central Academy, 6-10, at 7.
Central 45
Indianola 40
For only the second time this season, the Lady Vikings had their full team intact and it paid off in a five-point win over the defending tournament champion.
Central trailed 9-8 after one quarter, but used an 11-2 advantage in the second period to take a 19-11 lead into halftime. Indianola rallied to within 25-24 to start the fourth quarter.
Leslie Hancock led Central, 6-10, with 17 points. Meagan Stokes, making only her second appearance of the season after suffering a torn ACL in a summer camp at MRA, added nine points. Carrie Coker scored five, with Lindley Simpson, Olivia Reed, and Kadee Snow each having four.
Indianola, 8-13, got a game-high 27 points from Kassie Buck and six each from Heather Andrews and Kimberly Crawford.
Starkville 44
Newton 14
The Lady Vols scored 28 of the game's first 30 points as they improved to 16-2 with the winner's bracket victory.Starkville led 33-4 at halftime.
Casey McMahan led NCA, 4-11, with 13 of her team's 14 points.
Starkville got eight points from Jessica Wall, seven each from Ashley Johnson and Rachel Waldrop, and six from Whitney Westbrook.
Kemper 55
University Christian 19
Blair Johnson led 10 Kemper scorers in the elimination game with 11 points.
Kemper led 15-6 after one quarter and took a 32-8 advantage into halftime. The Lady Rams were up 43-12 to start the fourth quarter.
Kemper, 13-4, also got seven points from both Eve Darnell and Jodi Darnell, and six each from Leslie Beach and Megan Whitaker.
Sasha Myers led UCS, 2-16, with eight points.
Marty Stamper is a sports writer for The Meridian Star. E-mailhimat mstamper@themeridianstar.com or call him at 693-1551, ext. 3235.