HAZLEHURST — While Vintrice Briggs wasn’t able to have her usual offensive production due to foul trouble, someone for Franklin County had to step up their game.

That someone was Kierra Collins, who led the Lady Dawgs with 17 points as they defeated the Hazlehurst Lady Indians 67-50 in the girls’ semifinals of the MHSAA Region 7-3A Tournament at Hazlehurst High School.

Franklin County, the No. 1 team in Class 3A, the No. 7 team in the Clarion-Ledger’s Girls’ Super 10 poll and the region tournament’s No. 1 seed, opened up a close game after one quarter of play by outscoring Hazlehurst 24-17 in the second quarter for a 37-27 halftime lead.

“I thought we did a great job on defense. I thought Jessica Jackson did a great job on the offensive boards. When Vintrice got in foul trouble, Kierra did a great job stepping up. Like always, the girls came off the bench and did a great job of keeping the pressure on them,” Lady Dawgs head coach Charles Moore said.

The Lady Dawgs pushed their lead to 15 points at the end of the third quarter thanks to a 17-12 advantage over the Lady Indians in that quarter.

In addition to keeping possessions alive for Franklin County with those offensive rebounds, Jackson finished with 15 points while Briggs scored 10 points and Leondra Shaw had nine points.

Octavia Anderson scored a game-high 18 points and Jasmine Bozeman added 16 points for No. 4 seed Hazlehurst.

Franklin County (22-1) will take on Wilkinson County at 7 p.m. today in the girls’ championship game.

Wilkinson County 35,

Amite County 30

HAZLEHURST — With Laspencia Brown and Breshianna Day struggling on the offensive end, Lineasia Palmer came to the rescue for Wilkinson County as her game-high 18 points helped the Lady Wildcats defeat Amite County Thursday night at the Region 7-3A Tournament.

“She played good, solid defense. She even stepped up and played point guard at one time,” Wilkinson County head coach Trimeka Gaines said. “She played all around the floor tonight. I played her at three different positions tonight.”

Tyesha Harris contributed with 12 points for No. 3 seed Wilkinson County, which rallied from a two-point deficit at the end of the third quarter by outscoring No. 2 seed Amite County 14-7 in the fourth quarter.

Gaines said defense was the overall key factor in the Lady Wildcats’ come-from-behind victory and in particularly closing out on some of Amite County’s top scorers.

While Tydesheaia Pool scored 15 points to lead the Lady Trojans, Della Causey was held to seven points.

Bogue Chitto 71, Cathedral 33

JACKSON — With seven seniors on the roster, it’s easy to see why Bogue Chitto is one of the favorites to contend for the MHSAA Class 1A state championship this season.

On Thursday afternoon, the Lady Bobcats took on the Cathedral Lady Green Wave in the semifinal round of the Region 7-1A Tournament. And once the second quarter got under way, Bogue Chitto’s inside game was too much for Cathedral to keep up with as the top-seeded and fourth-ranked Lady Bobcats defeated the Lady Green Wave 71-33.

Cathedral head coach Bernita Dunbar said the difference in the game was that Bogue Chitto was able to capitalize on missed baskets while the Lady Green Wave was not.

“We missed a lot baskets. The putbacks, we did not make them. We did not capitalize on our opportunities. They capitalized on their opportunities. It was nothing defensive-wise,” Dunbar said.

The fourth-seeded Lady Green Wave stayed with the Lady Bobcats during the first quarter and was only down 11-7 at the end of the quarter. But it was the second quarter that was the turning point of the ball game. Led by Teareon Rogers and Josie Porter, the Lady Bobcats put up 29 points while the Lady Green Wave had only seven points to trail 40-14 at halftime.

“The shooting was not there. Their post players just know how to move down low. We really did a good job of containing the outside. It was the inside that got us,” Dunbar said.

Teareon Rogers led Bogue Chitto (26-1) with a game-high 22 points and Porter had 10 points. Two other seniors for the Lady Bobcats had solid performance as Tesheon Rogers added nine points and Aneshia Dillon chipped in with seven points.

Cathedral (9-16) was led by Ginny Daggett with 16 points and Ana Perry scored six points. The Lady Green Wave will take on the loser of the Sebastopol-West Lincoln game today at 4 p.m. in the girls’ third/fourth place game.

Vidalia 42, Bolton 38

VIDALIA — Vidalia tallied just its second win of the season against the Bolton Lady Bears Thursday night their first win in over two months.

And the win kept Vidalia from going winless in District 3-3A. Keisha Swanson led the Lady Vikings with a game-high 18 points while Nyisha Randall added 14 points.

The first three quarters did not provide much in the way of high-powered offense. Vidalia led Bolton 8-6 at the end of the first quarter, 16-13 at halftime, and 24-19 at the end of three quarters. But the fourth quarter probably had fans from both teams wondering what was going on.

Bolton put up 19 points in the fourth quarter, but the Lady Bears could not get over the hump as Vidalia scored 18 points to hold on for the win.

Vidalia finished district play with a 1-11 record. Bolton dropped to 3-17 overall and 1-9 in district play.