The Provine Lady Rams used their defense to pull away late in the fourth quarter to defeat the Natchez Lady Bulldogs 69-60 Friday night at Natchez High to win the Division 6-5A championship.

Natchez will visit Harrison Central Monday in a first round South State 5A playoff game. The Lady Rebels beat Gulfport 60-55.

Tosha Christmas had nine of her game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter for the Lady Rams.

The first quarter did not start off well for the Lady Bulldogs (10-21) as Provine jumped out to an 8-2 lead.

Natchez High’s Angel Taylor took over as she scored eight of the team’s next 10 points to give the Lady Bulldogs a 12-8 lead late in the quarter.

After the Lady Rams (19-9) took a 24-19 lead early in the second quarter, the Lady Bulldogs went on a 7-2 run to tie the score at 26 with about two minutes remaining.

Provine would then go a 6-1 run of its own to take a 32-27 halftime lead.

Natchez then regained at 38-36 with 4:42 left in the third quarter on a Christen West jumper and extended the lead to four on a jumper by Taylor.

While Taylor had to sit out most of second half due to foul trouble, West, JaKeisha Hawkins and Crystal Sylvester kept the Lady Bulldogs in the game.

However, Provine went on a 12-2 run late in the third quarter to take a 48-42 lead after three quarters of play.

The fourth quarter saw the Lady Bulldogs tie the score twice, first at 56 on a jumper by Hawkins with 3:21 remaining and then at 58 after two free throws by Taylor with 2:55 left to play.

Unfortunately for the Lady Bulldogs, Taylor fouled out with 2:05 left and they never recovered from that. Taylor finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds.

The Lady Rams took advantage of the situation and went on an 11-2 run to end the game and win the title.

West finished with 12 points and six rebounds, Hawkins had 11 points, four rebounds and three steals and Sylvester had 11 points and 11 rebounds for Natchez.

Tonya Thomas had 12 points and Victoria Anderson had 10 for the Lady Rams.

The Lady Bulldogs will go on the road in the first round of South State on Tuesday.