North Pike's girls and boys basketball teams competed in the MHSAA 5A Region 3 semifinals Tuesday night, with the Lady Jaguars advancing to the championship game while the Jaguars will take part in the third-place game in Ellisville.
The girls team (21-4) qualified for the title bout after taking down Natchez by a score of 33-31.
Junior guard De'Asia Hudson recorded a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds to go along with four steals, as she truly made a major impact on both ends of the floor.
Fellow junior guard Kadence Thompson followed Hudson up with 10 points.
The Lady Jaguars dominated the middle two quarters of the game in order to win, as slow starts and finishes from both teams meant that the second and third frames were the difference.
Natchez led 8-5 following the first quarter, but North Pike took control in the second and used some stingy defense to hold on for the win.
"We started the second quarter on a 8-0 run and played some of the best defense we've played all year to hold a 18-13 lead at halftime," head coach Ron Kessler said. "We extended the lead to nine at the end of the third, and a very sloppy fourth quarter for both teams saw our defense come up with three consecutive stops with under 30 seconds left to secure ther win."
The Lady Jaguars will take on top-seeded Florence in the championship game at 7 p.m. Friday night at Jefferson County High School. Kessler's squad has already taken on the Eagles twice this season, losing by a combined nine points in those games.
Meanwhile, the North Pike boys team (15-10) fell to top-seeded South Jones by a score of 63-27.
"We played terrible, I'm not sure if it was because we got back at 1 a.m. the night before, but we came out dead," head coach Terrell Anderson said. "It was the worst we have played against them this year."
The Jaguars will face Natchez in the third-place game Friday night.
