MEADVILLE &045; In what was a must-win situation for Franklin County, Victoria Hunt, Kayla Smith and even an injured Shareka Hunt came up big for the Lady Bulldogs as they got off to a good start and never let up as they defeated the Hazlehurst Lady Indians 72-59 Tuesday in a pivotal Division 7-3A game for both teams.

&uot;Hazlehurst has a good team,&uot; Lady Bulldogs head coach Charles Moore said. &uot;It really tightened up the district. I believe us, Hazlehurst and Port Gibson all have three losses, and Hazlehurst and Port Gibson play each other Friday.&uot;

Franklin County (8-3, 18-6) indeed moved into a three-way tie for second place with Hazlehurst (8-3, 16-12) and Port Gibson (8-3, 13-8), one game back of division-leading Wilkinson County (9-2, 18-6).

And the Lady Bulldogs did it with a stifling defense from the opening tip. The first quarter was key for Franklin County as they led Hazlehurst 21-14 at the end of that quarter.

&uot;We did a good job in the first quarter hitting the offensive boards, and that was Kayla and Ashley Weathersby,&uot; Moore said. &uot;Smith is a first-time starter. Our center (Shareka Hunt) was injured the last time we played them. She has a strained MCL, but she did play. I thought we played inspired.&uot;

Victoria Hunt led the way for Franklin County with a game-high 30 points.

The Lady Bulldogs then outscored the Lady Indians 14-9 in the second quarter to take a 35-23 halftime lead, and Hazlehurst never recovered in the second half.

Block 59, Delhi 53

DELHI, La. &045; The visiting Lady Bears came back from a 21-10 deficit after one quarter of play to trail by just one at halftime, but they needed to rally in the fourth quarter to defeat the host Lady Bears in a pivotal District 4-1A game for Block.

Block (7-1, 14-8) got back in the game by outscoring Delhi (3-5, 6-15) 17-7 in the second quarter and were down just 28-27 at the half. Delhi led 38-36 at the end of the third but was not able to maintain the momentum in the fourth.

Ashley Green led Block with 13 points.

Wingfield 47, Jefferson County 33

FAYETTE &045; The Lady Falcons put the game away with a 21-9 advantage in the fourth quarter to escape with the 14-point win. Wingfield finally took the lead at 26-24 thanks to a 10-7 edge in the third quarter. Once the fourth quarter began, Jefferson County (5-21) never recovered.

Vanteska Williams led JC with 14 points.

Monterey 34, Choudrant 29

MONTEREY, La. &045; The Lady Wolves overcame a sluggish first half by outscoring the Lady Aggies by a combined 20-12 in the second half to pull out the five-point win.

Monterey (21-11) trailed Choudrant 8-6 at the end of the first quarter and 17-14 at halftime. The Lady Wolves cut the lead to one at the end of the third quarter and used a 10-4 advantage to rally for the win.

Brittany Woodruff led Monterey with 13.

West Lincoln 69, Cathedral 30

BROOKHAVEN &045; The Lady Bears didn’t waste any time with Cathedral and tightened their grip on the Division 7-1A regular-season title in the process.

The Lady Bears (11-0, 20&045;3) led 20-4 at the end of the first quarter and 37-8 at halftime. The Lady Wave (1-10, 5-18) put up 11 points in each of the third and fourth quarters.

Mattie Smith and Kristian Dobard led Cathedral with 11 points each.

Natchez def. Callaway

JACKSON &045; The Lady Bulldogs defeated Callaway by forfeit after Callaway had played the maximum number of games allowed by the MHSAA.

&045;

Patrick Jones