NATCHEZ &8212; A firm believer in the power of a good halftime speech, Trinity head coach Melanie Hall delivered one at the break with her club trailing by four.

This time, however, it may have been personal.

Personal for her, for the teams she&8217;s coached at Trinity the last seven years and all the players who came in before then. As far as Hall can tell, it&8217;s been a whopping 26 years since a Trinity Episcopal team has beaten Brookhaven Academy in girls&8217; basketball.

It was 1980. Hall&8217;s senior year in high school. No player on this year&8217;s team was born then, but they all felt the passion from Hall&8217;s halftime speech and used a strong second half to down Brookhaven 46-34.

Twenty-six years, they&8217;ll say, is a long time.

&8220;To God be the glory,&8221; said Hall, known as Melanie Pintard during that last win over Brookhaven. &8220;Every night you get a chance to play ball &8212; that&8217;s a privilege. The first half we played so poorly, and we had been playing real well since the break. We had a heart-to-heart at halftime, and the girls decided this was our ball game and we&8217;ll do whatever it takes to get this ball game.

&8220;You saw two different teams out there. That&8217;s what I was so proud of &8212; the intensity and the heart that every one of my players came out with in the second half.&8221;

It was definitely something this bunch of Lady Saints will remember, and it was a win that still didn&8217;t come easy against a Brookhaven team that&8217;s in a rebuilding mode from last season. The Lady Cougars made things tough and made Trinity work for the win on the defensive end, just as any Brookhaven Academy team would do.

But a funny thing happened in the second half. The Lady Saints&8217; inside game may set the tone for everything else, and the outside game picked it up a notch to take over the game.

Mallory Archer canned three 3-pointers over a span of just over two minutes to turn the game around.

&8220;She took over &8212; Mallory took over the game,&8221; BA head coach Barry Gray said. &8220;She&8217;s probably the best player in our conference, and she showed why. She&8217;s been starting since the ninth grade. We were mixing it up defensively, and I thought our defense was OK except for backing away from Archer.&8221;

Leave it to a senior to pick up her game in a big situation like this one. Archer had just one bucket the entire first half, and the Lady Saints (5-1, 13-6) trailed 20-16 at the break. Archer hit her first 3-pointer at the 4:21 mark that broke up as 20-20 tie, hit the second just over a minute later and drained the third one at the 1:55 mark for a 29-24 Trinity lead.

Archer&8217;s input capped a 19-4 Trinity advantage in the third quarter.

&8220;I was furious (at half),&8221; said Archer, who finished with 15 points. &8220;I told myself at halftime I was going to start playing ball. That first half I didn&8217;t know where I was. We all kind of threw in our opinions on what we were doing wrong and listened to each other. It really got us going in the second half.&8221;

The run opened things up for Trinity and pulled Brookhaven out of its zone defense. Molly Butts tossed in a putback after Archer tried for a fourth triple, and Butts then got a steal and converted a layup to extend the run. Archer finished the quarter with a jumper at the buzzer for a 35-24 lead heading into the fourth.

And it didn&8217;t stop there. Courtney Timm put in a uncontested layup after the Lady Saints scrambled for a loose ball at midcourt. Brandy Hall then hit a 3-pointer at the 7:13 mark for a 40-24 lead.

Timm finished with 10 points.

&8220;I&8217;ve got a group of seniors who have been with me since the seventh grade,&8221; Melanie Hall said. &8220;They just refused to go down. They&8217;re not going to go down without fighting. They&8217;re not going to quit.&8221;