WOODVILLE &045; All Latasha Williams wants is a region championship.

She and her Wilkinson County teammates took their lumps the last two seasons prior to the district tournament, including last year’s swoon midway through that derailed a promising start. This year the Lady Wildcats are trying to avoid all that, and they made a big statement with a 49-39 win over a good Franklin County team Tuesday.

The win put the Lady Wildcats all alone in first in Region 7-3A with three games remaining.

&uot;This was one we needed,&uot; Wilkinson head coach Edwin White said. &uot;We think people will take us seriously now. People are paying attention to us now. The girls were really looking forward to (the game). They had been talking about it all week, and everybody was intense.

&uot;That’s seven games in a row we’ve won, and we’ll try to finish this thing out strong. No one knows how this thing will shake out, but I feel confident we’ll be in the thick of it.&uot;

The win gave the Lady Wildcats the No. 1 spot for the moment, but their real goal was to beat Franklin by 11 points to own the tie-breaker. The Lady Bulldogs won the first meeting of the two teams 56-45 in Meadville.

Wilkinson had a 12-point lead late in the game but couldn’t finish it off. Hopefully for them that won’t come into play &045; Wilkinson doesn’t plan on losing any time soon &045; as games with Amite County, Hazlehurst and North Pike await.

&uot;Hopefully if we keep winning, we’ll be district champs,&uot; Williams said. &uot;That’s my goal as a senior. It was the game to determine who wins district. We had to beat them by 11, but we’re still up by one game. We played good defense on them. The first time we played them (starter) Erika Lewis was out and we started a freshman.&uot;

The Lady Wildcats (8-1, 17-5) picked it up on both ends midway through the third quarter to pull away. Franklin County had trouble knocking down shots in a stretch where Wilkinson was all about connecting from the field and running the floor.

Williams put up six points in her team’s 12-0 run that ended with a bucket from Toni Anthony with 4:00 left for a 33-26 Wilkinson lead. It turned the tables on a Franklin team that led by three at halftime and had a bucket three seconds in from Victoria Hunt for a 26-21 lead.

&uot;Just missed shots,&uot; Franklin head coach Charles Moore said. &uot;In the first half I felt like we should have gotten a double-digit lead. We missed some easy shots. Victoria’s shots weren’t falling. Our effort was tremendous, and I thought we got after it.&uot;

The 12-0 run turned the tide and gave Wilkinson some breathing room on the scoreboard, although the Lady Bulldogs (6-2, 15-5) answered quickly with buckets from Shalenia Wilcher and Hunt to trim the lead to 33-30.

Williams &045; who finished with a team-high 16 points &045; put in two buckets at the end of the quarter, including a putback on a shot from Kim Griffin, for a 37-30 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

&uot;We basically back out in a man-to-man set and tried to put pressure on the ball,&uot; White said. &uot;We wanted to hang in there in the first half, and in the third quarter we tried to get most of our turnovers. It worked out to our advantage. I knew they were tired, and we were tired. We did a good job of substituting and staying fresh.&uot;

The Lady Bulldogs had just five field goals the entire second half, and a drought at the start of the second half gave Wilkinson County more momentum. Ashley Dennis scored on a putback to start a 8-2 run that Lewis ended with a short jumper off the glass with 1:46 left for a 45-33 lead.

The Lady Wildcats had their lead out to 13 when Griffin hit two free throws with 39 seconds left, but Hunt nailed a 3-pointer from almost NBA range to trim the lead back down to 10.

&uot;If they get another loss, we’ll be tied,&uot; Moore said. &uot;It’s out of our hands now. That’s what makes it tough. We lost control of our own destiny. We’ve got big games left. We’ve got Hazlehurst left, who has been to me one of the more successful teams in district in the three years I’ve been here.&uot;

Franklin had the upper hand for most of the first half, building a five-point lead late in the second quarter. Kala Smith’s bucket with 1:03 left put the lead at 24-19, but Dennis tossed in a basket with 12 seconds left for a 24-21 halftime lead.

&uot;We had to take away their outside shooting,&uot; Williams said. &uot;Our big girls had the advantage, and we had to take away their shooters. We (had some turnovers), and we had to come back in the second half and play man-to-man and box-and-one. Our coach told us to come out and do what we needed to do.&uot;