Union girls claim district tournament title
The Union Lady Yellowjackets won the Region 6-2A basketball championship Friday night with a 49-36 victory over Philadelphia in the finals.
The Union boys placed second in the tournament, losing to 59-45 to Newton High School in the finals. The tournament was held at Scott Central.
Both Philadelphia teams qualified for the state Class 2A tournaments. The state tournament was to have started Monday. With a winter storm moving across Mississippi that brought snow, ice and temperatures in the teens and lower, the Mississippi High School Activities Association has moved the first round to Thursday (girls) and Friday (boys).
On Thursday, the Union girls will host Bogue Chitto while the Philadelphia girls will host Wesson.
On Friday, the Union boys will host Wesson and Philadelphia will visit Loyd Star.
The Lady Yellowjackets under coach Matt Wilbanks, have shown continued improvement in his four years as head coach.
“We won 15 games my first season, 17 his second season, and 23 last year,” Wilbanks said. “We have won 22 games so far this year and we won the district tournament. They say this is the first time Union has won the tournament since 1993.
“These girls were eighth graders and ninth graders when I started. We made it to the second round of the playoffs last year. We’ll see how we do from here on out.”
The Lady Yellowjackets opened the district tournament with a 37-36 win over Lake. Union carried a 35-33 lead into the final quarter and held on for the win.
Kamyia Russell led with 12 points while Keirra Russell scored seven.
The Lady Yellowjackets would face Philadelphia in the finals. The Lady Tornadoes had beaten them twice in the regular season but Union came on strong in the third quarter. The Lady Tornadoes led 16-14 at the half. But Union came on to outscore Philadelphia 21-8. The Lady Yellowjackets carried a 35-24 lead into the final quarter and held on for the win. Kamyia Russell led Union with 23 points while Georgia Cooper added 12 points.
The Philadelphia girls entered the tournament as the No. 5 seed. But they managed to beat the No. 1 seeded Newton girls and advanced to the finals.
The Lady Tornadoes defeated Scott Central 64-57 in the play-in game. Philadelphia led 36-25 at the half. Zhaira Leflore led the Lady Tornadoes with 27 points while Jaiden Burnside added 22.
Philadelphia advanced to the semifinals where they knocked off Newton 47-45. Philadelphia led 25-18 at the half. Leflore led the Lady Tornadoes with 22 points.
That put the Lady Tornadoes in the finals where they lost to Union. Leflore scored 22 points to lead the Lady Tornadoes.
Boys bracket
The Union boys dropped a 59-45 decision to Newton High School in the championship game.
Newton led 18-12 at the half. The Tigers then took control of the game as they outpointed Union 23-13 in the third quarter.
Jamarcus Jones scored 20 points to lead the Yellowjackets and Bryce Young added 10 points.]
Union defeated the Philadelphia boys 75-71 in the semifinals. Union led 34-23 at the half and held off a Tornado rally in the second half. Jones led with 32 points and EJ Campbell put in 17. Stats for Philadelphia were not available.
The Philadelphia boys lost the consolation game to Scott Central and entered the state tournament as the No. 4 team.