Season comes to end for Lady Warriors

The Choctaw Central Lady Warriors' quest for a Class 4A girls basketball state championship came to an end last weekend as they dropped a 70-61 loss to Pontotoc in the quarterfinals.

The game was played at Itta Bena on the campus of Mississippi Valley State University.

The teams were tied at 14-14 after the first quarter. The game remained even at the half with the score tied at 33-33.

But in the third quarter, Pontotoc would outscore the Lady Warriors 23-11 and carried a 56-44 lead into the final eight minutes.

The Lady Warriors fought back, outscoring Pontotoc 17-14. But Pontotoc held on for the win.

"It was an even game except for the third quarter and we came out pretty flat," Coach Bill Smith said. "We didn't quite make our goal this year and it was disappointing."

Meloney Thames and Leilaya McMillan both scored 12 points to lead the Lady Warriors.

Choctaw Central fans can look forward to next season with four starters expected to be back from this year's team which finished with a 28-5 record.