WOODVILLE — The Jefferson County Tigers relied on their defense while their offense at times struggled in a 62-46 win over the Amite County Trojans Thursday night in the boys’ semifinals of the Region 7-3A Tournament.

Jefferson County (21-10) will take on Franklin County today at 8:30 p.m. in the boys’ championship game.

Percy Turner led Jefferson County with a game-high 33 points while Kadon Day was held to just eight points and fouled out with about five minutes left in the game. Jefferson County head coach Marcus Walton said the win was because of a total team effort.

“We were able to dictate the rhythm with our defense. We didn’t have any offensive rhythm,” Walton said. “All the credit goes to the kids. That’s what we’ve worked on all season. Our defense was the difference in the ball game.”

Amite County, the No. 4 seed, tried to play at a pace that Jefferson County, the No. 1 seed, has not been used to seeing this season. It worked for a while as the Tigers led by just two points at halftime and five points at the end of the third quarter. But the Tigers put the game away with a 20-9 advantage in the fourth quarter.

“Henry Nichols did a good job defensively on their point guard, Justin Patterson,” Walton said.

Cathedral 54, Dexter 47

BOGUE CHITTO — The second quarter proved to be big for the Green Wave as they outscored the Bulldogs 14-9 and held on for a seven-point win in the boys’ semifinals of the Region 8-1A Tournament.

It didn’t look like either team was going to score as many points as they ended up scoring after the first quarter ended in a 6-6 tie. After the second quarter, both teams picked it up on the offensive end.

Juan Gray led Cathedral (24-5), the No. 2 seed with a game-high 26 points. The Green Wave will take on No. 1 seed West Lincoln in the boys’ championship game today at 8:30 p.m. The Bears defeated fifth-seeded Salem in an earlier semifinal-round game.

Trinity Episcopal 77,

Copiah Academy 56

COLUMBIA — Andrew Johnson and Brandon Daggs scored 23 points each as the Saints used a big first quarter to defeat the Colonels in the boys’ quarterfinals of the MPSA Class AA South State Tournament at Columbia Academy.

Trinity Episcopal (22-7), the District 3-AA champion, got off to a good start and led 21-9 at the end of the first quarter. The Saints then outscored Copiah Academy, the No. 4 seed out of District 4-AA, 22-15 in the second quarter for a 43-24 halftime lead.

Clay Price led the Colonels with 17 points while Scotty Reese and Hunter Greer scored 13 points each.

Trinity Episcopal will take Columbia Academy in the boys’ semifinals today at 7:15 p.m.

Columbia Academy 68, Centreville 46

COLUMBIA — The Tigers got off to a rough start and never could recover as their season came to an end Thursday night at the hands of the host Cougars in the boys quarterfinals of the MPSA Class AA South State Tournament.

Centreville (16-11), the No. 2 seed from District 5-AA, was unable to get into a flow offensively and Columbia Academy, the No. 2 seed out of District 4-AA, took advantage en route to an 18-4 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Tanner Pace led Columbia Academy with 16 points and Drew Broom had 11 points. Kyle Brown was the only Centerville player to score in double figures as he finished with 15 points.

Franklin County 58, Wilkinson County 54

WOODVILLE — Jamie Collins scored a game-high 21 points and Jason Hunt had 15 points as the third-seeded Bulldogs rallied in the fourth quarter to defeat the second-seeded and host Wildcats Thursday night in the boys’ semifinals of the Region 7-3A Tournament.

Franklin County was outscored by Wilkinson County 16-13 in the third quarter and trailed by one point. But the Bulldogs answered by outscoring the Wildcats 20-15 in the fourth quarter to pull off the four-point win.

Corey Anthony led Wilkinson County (21-10) with 20 points and Kenny Harden added 16 points. The Wildcats will take on Amite County in the third-place game today at 5:30 p.m.