After traveling up to Coldwater and defeating the Lady Wildcats of Independence High 64-57 in the 3A North State play-in game, Coach Matt Waldrop’s 19-13 South Pontotoc Lady Cougars continued their winning ways with an opening night 66-57 win over Rolling Fork’s South Delta Lady Bulldogs at the 3A Girls North State Tournament hosted by Belmont High.

“We had two good wins in a row against Independence and South Delta,” Waldrop said.

Just one win away from a trip to Jackson and the 3A State Tour-nament, the South Pontotoc girls needed a win over the Lady Tigers of Ripley in the tournament’s semi-finals on Saturday night.

But the Lady Cougars’ winning season came to an end at 19-14 when they were knocked out of the tournament 70-26 by a hard charging Ripley team.

“We could not get out and guard their quickness. They have two players that are ridiculously quick off the dribble” Coach Waldrop explained.



“The best chance we thought we would have was to pack it in, but they were able to hit from the perimeter ... something they have not been able to do on a regular basis all season.”

Ripley hit seven 3-pointers, with five coming from one player, Mersades Carter.



“We didn’t account for her. They shot the three pretty well.”

The South girls got out of that defense, “but they (Ripley) would get by you on the dribble and shoot about a six-foot jumper.”



Scoring in single digits in all four periods, the South girls fell behind quickly and were unable to recover.

“If they had played a zone press, we could have shot some layups against it,” Waldrop added, “but with a man-to-man press, you have to dribble the basketball and we couldn’t do that.



“We couldn’t get it down the floor enough.”



According to Coach Waldrop, his charges have not faced a man-to-man press this season of that nature.



Senior post player Lana Goggins led the Lady Cougars in scoring in her last game with nine points in the loss on Saturday night.

Since the 2001 season, this is the most far a South Pontotoc Lady Cougar team has come in post-season play.



Two years ago Coach Waldrop’s Lady Cougars were Region 2-3A Champions, but were put out before they reached the North State Tournament’s semi-finals.

“As a whole, you hate to lose when that last win would have given you 20 wins and a trip to Jackson ... plus, on top of it being a blowout,” Waldrop said.

“It certainly hurts.”

Friday’s game

After holding a very slim 40-38 lead going into fourth period, the Lady Cougars fought off a late charge by the Lady Bulldogs and outscored them 26-19 in the quarter to take the 66-57 first-round North State Tournament win at Belmont High School

.

South Pontotoc was led in scoring by four Lady Cougars in double figures.



Lana Goggins scored a game-high 25 points, followed by sophomore guard Emily Henson with 14, sophomore guard Elizabeth Henson with 13 and junior guard Cortney Collums with 10 points in the big North State Tournament victory.