LADY INDIANS SPIN BY CAPE CENTRAL 47-36

JACKSON -- They come at you like tornadoes, those Jackson Lady Indians.

Relatively calm in the first half, the team ranked No. 1 in Class 4A left a path of destruction in the third quarter and held on to beat Cape Central in a 47-36 grudge match Thursday night.

Trailing 14-13 after an unoffensive first half, Jackson (17-1) erupted for a 15-3 run in the third and led 30-21 heading into the fourth quarter.

Jackson forward Cherish Tillman spurred the fast-paced spurt, scoring nine of her team-high 14 points in the third.

"We were down and we just weren't playing up to our potential," Tillman said. "Our chemistry just really got together more (in the third). I knew it was going to be a hard-fought game."

"I thought we played well," Jackson coach Ron Cook said. "They missed some shots and we made some (in the third-quarter run). I felt like we needed to play a faster-paced game against Cape. They've got a couple of really strong girls inside."

Central coach Darrick Smith was not satisfied with the way the Lady Tigers came out in the second half.

"I'm disappointed in our execution," he said. "We were really tentative in the third quarter. Why, I don't know. The same thing happened the first time we played them and Monday night against New Madrid, too. It bothers me that we played that way."

Jackson beat Central 54-49 last Saturday night in the Charleston Tournament championship game.

The win may have proved costly for Jackson's future. Andrea Koepper, who averages about 10 points a game was injured seven seconds into the game. She couldn't put any pressure on her right leg and had to carried off the court.

"I thought we played extremely well without Andrea in there," Cook said. "You get used to having the same five girls in there and I'm real proud of our bench."

Central (15-6) led by as many as five in the first half, using wise shot selection and an aggressive defense to produce five turnovers and post a 10-5 lead after the first quarter.

After trailing 30-19 toward the end of the third quarter, Central clipped Jackson's lead to 32-28 with 5:55 left in the game, but poor free-throw shooting led to be the demise of the Lady Tigers.

Central made just four of 10 from the line in the fourth quarter and missed twice in the fourth on the front end of a one-and-one. For the game, Central made seven-of-18 from the line.

"The free throws have been a nemesis all year," Smith said. "We've done about everything we can do drill-wise. It's just something you have to work through."

Kim Aslinger scored a game-high 15 points for Central, nine of which came in the fourth quarter. Heather Jenkins added 10 for the Lady Tigers.

After Central cut the lead to 32-28, Jackson went on a 9-2 run, which induced Jackson's fans to pull out their keys and chant "start the bus."