MADISON &045; The shot chart had Jackson Prep shooting at 68 percent, but it sure didn’t seem like it.

Not from where anyone could have been standing inside the MRA gym Friday night.

The Patriots finished the game with 10 3-pointers &045; seven in the first half &045; to put away Adams County Christian School 64-45 to advance to the MPSA Class AAA state championship today at 7:30 p.m. against MRA, a 69-68 winner over Hillcrest Christian in overtime.

The Rebels, who lost to Prep for the first time in their last three tries, will play for the consolation title at 6 p.m. today against Hillcrest.

&uot;They made us do some things we didn’t want to do in our zone,&uot; AC head coach Ricky Gray said. &uot;I’ve never seen them shoot that well. That’s how they beat Jackson Academy (in the first round). They had a good game plan, and they did a good job. I think the biggest thing for us to do is get home and rested. We’ve got a great opportunity ahead of us. We’ve got to find the energy to go again.&uot;

If it’s energy you’re looking for, the Patriots seem to have plenty of it. They opened the state tournament with a win over JA, the top-seeded team from the North, avenged two tough losses to Adams Christian in the semifinal and have plenty of momentum heading into today’s championship game.

Even though the Patriots are the fourth seed out of the South, don’t forget they lost just one district game during the regular season.

&uot;We felt like we were better than a No. 4 seed,&uot; Prep head coach Rod Delaney said. &uot;We had lost only one conference game all year, and that was to Adams in Natchez. We take one game at a time at this point in the year. There was a lot of motivation (tonight) twice to those guys, but that’s a good basketball team. I’ve always been impressed with how those guys never quit.&uot;

The Rebels didn’t quit until the end mounted a noteable threat in the third quarter to make things interesting. Prep, who led by 19 on two occasions in the third quarter, got the lead down to 11 with 1:12 left on a basket from Beau Brashier.

The Patriots came down and played for the last bucket, and they got a &045; you guessed it &045; 3-pointer from Bob Corkern with a second left to grab the momentum back and take a 53-39 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Jo Jo Tann started the fourth with another triple, and the Patriots’ lead went to 23 before the Rebels could score.

Tann led all scorers with 16 points.

&uot;If they play like that, they’re going to be hard to beat by anybody,&uot; Gray said. &uot;I think we were kind of shellshocked (early) with the crowd and the noise, and we got ourselves in a hole. When you play somebody as many times as we have, they know exactly where we’re going to be. They did a good job of taking away our strengths.&uot;

The Patriots had their hottest point in the first quarter when they went to the 3-point shot against AC’s zone to take the lead. They connected on three in the first quarter and four in the second &045; all coming from six different players.

But just as important was Prep’s man-to-man defense that kept the Rebels from answering from behind the arc. The Rebels hit just two 3-pointers.

The Patriots put in three straight triples in the first quarter &045; all from different players &045; with Corkern tossing in the last with 1:28 left for a 23-9 lead.

&uot;We shot the ball really well,&uot; Delaney said. &uot;We hit seven 3-pointers in the first half. We’ve always been able to shoot the ball well. We got some good looks out of their zone. We played good, fundamental defense, which is something we do well. You want to stop (Beau) Brashier and (Dustin) Case from really hurting you. We did a good job of boxing out and going to the offensive boards. It’s what we stress every day.&uot;

The Rebels found themselves down 14 before trailing 25-13 heading into the second quarter. Prep got the lead to 30-17 with 4:34 left in the second before the Rebels got a 3-pointer from Caleb Walker to spark an 8-2 run that ended with a three-point play from Luke Ogden at the 3:02 mark to trim the lead to 33-25.

Then the Patriots went back to what was working &045; 3-pointers from Jonathan Ford and Tann for a 39-25 lead before Tann put in a layup off a steal with 46 seconds left for a 41-25 lead that stood up until halftime.

The Rebels went to the 1-3-1 in the second half but couldn’t get Prep out of its offense.

&uot;They made some adjustments, and we didn’t rotate to it,&uot; Gray said. &uot;They shuffled some people around. They did a tremendous job of attacking gaps. They did a great job &045; better than they did in the first two games. You’ve got to give them credit. They did a great job on both ends of the floor.&uot;

Case and Glenn Williams each led AC with 10 points.