Big second half propels Lake past Belmont, into Class 2A Championship

JACKSON — It’s a cliche to call a basketball game a tale of two halves, but that’s the only way to describe Tuesday morning’s 2A girls semifinal between defending champion Lake and last year’s runner-up Belmont at the Mississippi Coliseum.

After trailing 31-20 at the half, the Lake Hornets absolutely dominated the last two quarters, winning 60-48 and punching their ticket to a second-straight MHSAA 2A Championship game at 1 p.m. Friday on this same court.

“We just had to start playing our game,” Lake forward Brooklyn Harris said. “We came in (to the locker room) at halftime and coach got in our grill and challenged us. We just had to step up.”

Step up they did — and none more than Harris and senior Laneisha Palm. Harris scored 14 points and grabbed 20 rebounds, while Palm led Lake with 17 points and brought down seven rebounds.

The contrast between the first and second half could not have been more stark for the Hornets:

- The shooting got better. Lake made just six of its 34 shot attempts (17.8 percent) in the first half, and 15 out of 35 (42.9 percent) in the second.

- The ball movement got better. Belmont held an 8-0 advantage when it came to assists in the first half. Lake had eight to Belmont’s two in the final two quarters.

- They cut the turnovers in half. After committing 10 unforced errors in the first two quarters, Lake gave it up just four times in the second half.

“I felt like in the first half we were kind of playing their game, not ours,” Lake first-year coach Holly Moncrief said. “I felt like if we ever started knocking down some shots, we were going to get the momentum.”

And that’s exactly what happened.

The Hornets started eating into the Belmont lead almost immediately in the third quarter, starting the half with a modest 10-6 run. Alexis Robinson put together an old-fashioned three-point play to cut the Belmont lead to three, at 37-34.

Harris followed suit two possessions later to get it to 39-37, and the Hornets pulled even on a layup by Palm with 2:19 left in the third quarter.

It was a rout from there — Palm hit another layup on a fast-break to provide Lake a 46-43 lead going into the final quarter, and the Hornets wore Belmont out to the tune of a 14-5 fourth quarter.

Perhaps just as shocking as Lake’s abrupt turnaround was Belmont’s collapse. The Cardinals (26-5) were one of the very best teams in the state for the entire length of the season, but made just five baskets in the second half.

In fact, the Cardinals made half of their 24 shots in the first half, and made just five of 26 (19.2 percent) in the second.

“Offense wins fans, defense will win you some games, but rebounding wins championships,” Belmont coach Chris Higginbottom said. “And in the second half especially, they totally rebounded the ball, getting second, third, fourth chances.”

The Hornets will face Heidelberg, which defeated East Webster 59-33 in the other semifinal game, in the title round. The two teams have not met this season.