JACKSON — The game plan for Cathedral to pull off the upset against No. 2 West Lincoln was simple: play good defense and slow the pace of the game down to frustrate the Bears.

For the most part, that plan worked. The problem was that the turnover bug bit the Green Wave in the third quarter and enabled West Lincoln to stretch its one-point halftime lead as the Bears took a 56-41 win in the boys’ semifinals of the MHSAA Region 7-1A Tournament at Mississippi School for the Deaf.

Cathedral head coach Peter Arnold said the Green Wave played as great of a first half as possible against the only undefeated public school team left in the state.

“We played a diamond-and-1 defense on Jay Case. He’s one of the best shooters in the whole state. Daniel Huffines chase him the entire game. We were forcing the other players on their team to take the shots,” Arnold said. “We were deliberate and patient on offense.”

West Lincoln, the No. 1 seed, led Cathedral 13-8 after one quarter of play, but the fourth-seeded Green Wave responded by outscoring the Bears 13-9 in the second quarter to trail by just one point, 22-21, at halftime.

“We had to keep it in the 40s or 50s for us to have a chance. We couldn’t get into a scoring contest with them. We did that perfectly actually the whole game. But we got going a little bit too fast in the third quarter and turned it over too many times. They got out to an eight- or 10-point lead at the end of the quarter. It was hard to catch up to them.”

And against a team the caliber of West Lincoln, the No. 2 team in Class 1A, Cathedral could not afford to make those kinds of mistakes. The Bears went on to outscore the Green Wave 15-8 in the game-changing third quarter for a 37-29 lead.

De Price led West Lincoln (25-0) with 18 points and Jared Case added 16 points. Jay Case was held in check and finished with just four points.

Cathedral (10-14) was led by Carl Hammitte with 17 points while Huffines added eight points. The Green Wave will take on the loser of the Bogue Chitto-Sebastopol game in the boys’ third/fourth place game today at 5:30 p.m.

Vidalia 67, Bolton 54

VIDALIA — D.J. Polk scored 26 points and Alvin Bell had 18 points as the Vidalia Vikings used a big second half to pull away from Bolton en route to a 13-point win over the Bears Thursday night in District 3-3A action.

Vidalia was originally scheduled to take on Bolton tonight, but the games were pushed back to Thursday.

“The girls have to be through by Saturday in an event of a tie if that situation had existed,” Vidalia head coach Robert Sanders explained.

After an up-and-down first half, Vidalia was up by just two points, 26-24, at halftime. The Vikings then outscored the Bears 19-12 in the third quarter and 22-18 in the fourth quarter.

Terrence Thompson added 10 points for Vidalia (14-11, 9-2), which hosts Bunkie next Thursday. Bolton was led by Tevin Culbert with 18 points and D.T. Molette with 16 points.

Franklin County 71, Wilkinson County 53

HAZLEHURST — Milton Griffin led all scorers with 22 points as the Franklin County Bulldogs stunned the Wilkinson County Wildcats Thursday night the MHSAA Region 7-3A Tournament at Hazlehurst High School.

Dee Bowie and Derek Bethley finished with 15 points apiece for No. 3 seed Franklin County. The Bulldogs trailed Wilkinson County 9-7 after one quarter of play, but took the lead near the end of the half and went up 34-30 on the Wildcats at halftime.

Wilkinson County definitely did not play like the No. 2 seed in the second half. The Wildcats were held to just eight points in the third quarter and trailed by 10 at the end of three. Instead of mounting a furious rally in the fourth quarter, they were outscored by the Bulldogs 23-15.

Devin Fosselman led Wilkinson County with 16 points and Devin Voorhies added 15 points.

The Bulldogs will take on No. 1 seed Hazlehurst today at 8:30 p.m. in the boys’ championship game while the Wildcats go up against No. 4 seed Jefferson County in the boys’ consolation game today at 5:30 p.m. Hazlehurst defeated Jefferson County in the second semifinal game of the night.