The Huntington Hounds outshot, outran and outmatched the Trinity Episcopal Saints Saturday night, taking a 65-40 win over their district rivals to claim the South State championship.

“The better team won,” Trinity head coach David King said. “I’m proud of this group, they’ve improved a lot as a team, but (Huntington) has two of the best players in the MPSA. They’re going to be hard to beat in Class A.”

The two players King was referring to — Antonio Jordan and Ricky Dunbar — combined for 37 points to lead the Hounds (29-3) to the victory.

After battling neck-and-neck in a slowed down first quarter, the Hounds brought out the press to great success in the second quarter, going on an 11-0 run to start and outscoring Trinity (13-11) 26-6 to take a 34-14 halftime lead.

“As long as they aren’t laying it up, if we can get a couple steals every eight or 10 trips up the floor, we feel like our press is working,” Huntington coach David Boydstun said.

“Trinity has a good ball club. They just didn’t play well tonight. They had a heck of a game (Friday) night (against Glenbrook). They just didn’t shoot well tonight.”

It was the third victory for Huntington over Trinity this season.

Jordan scored 21 points for Huntington, and Dunbar added 16. Trey Corbett also scored in double figures for the Hounds with 11.

Matthew Freeman and Stevan Ridley led the Saints, each scoring 12 points.

With the win, the Hounds claimed a top seed at next week’s Class A State Playoffs, to be held at University Christian School in Flowood. Trinity will take the No. 2 seed from the South to Flowood.

Full seedings and brackets are expected to be released today.