During McComb’s scouting of Moss Point this past weekend, coach Angelia Johnson tried to sweep one major tidbit under the rug.
She informed her team of which players were key on offense and how Moss Point liked to defend. She did, however, purposefully leave out Moss Point’s glaring 6-17 record.
Although it was the first round of the 5A girls South State playoffs, Johnson wanted her team to treat Moss Point like any other opponent.
The Lady Tigers did that for the most part Monday night, and minus a few setbacks, cruised to a 66-45 home victory.
McComb will now host the 5A South State semifinals and finals this weekend with a berth in the state championship on the line. McComb and South Jones square off at 7:30 p.m. Friday while Wayne County will meet the winner of Pascagoula-Brookhaven, who play tonight, in the opening semifinal at 6 p.m.
“We didn’t talk to them about the standings of the team coming in because you don’t want to get comfortable and relax and think you got it in the bag. Anybody in the playoffs is there for a reason,” Johnson said. “You don’t want to ever underestimate the opponent … to me, the record doesn’t mean anything. You’re here for a reason.”
Johnson pointed to the banner in McComb’s gym, which showed the 2010-11 squad that made it to Jackson despite a 12-19 record.
The Lady Tigers now have a chance to get back to Johnson, although with a much better record at 21-8.
Twin sisters Angeline and Angelique Earl both netted 13 points to lead McComb past Moss Point. The Earl sisters were two of six key contributors as the Lady Tigers received balanced scoring across the board.
Alexus Johnson and LaDiamond Crumedy both scored 11 points and Raneka Felder and Raven Tucker each had eight points. Felder and Tucker added eight and seven rebounds to their totals, respectively.
“You never want to be in a situation … where you’re solely dependent on one person to produce that night,” Angelia Johnson said of the spread-out scoring. “As a staff, we’ve done a great job of developing all of our players to where each one of them on any given night, if they focus, can be highly effective.”
McComb’s starters have been solid all year, but the X-factor down the stretch may be Crumedy, the Lady Tigers’ first player off the bench. The junior scored seven points in last Friday’s win over Brookhaven and came up big Monday by connecting on 3 of 5 3-point attempts.
“We’ve talked to Diamond all year about what she’s capable of doing,” Angelia Johnson said. “She did a great job across the board; great attitude and as a result, great game.”
All was not positive for McComb, however, after witnessing Moss Point climb back from a 26-point deficit.
The Lady Tigers led 44-18 at one point but stalled in the second half and managed just 20 points.
Moss Point opened the fourth quarter on an 8-0 run and got as close as 58-43 before McComb finally turned things around.
“It got ugly. It got real ugly,” Johnson said. “I told them they have a tendency to play down to the level of competition and you can’t do that, especially going into where we’re headed Friday.”
Despite the finish, Johnson was happy with the start. McComb opened the game on a 11-0 run and led 19-5 with a 1:12 to play in the first quarter.
Angelique Earl and Alexus Johnson did most of the damage for the Lady Tigers in the first half as they each scored 11 points.
“They came out focused and I guess as the course of the game went on … you get complacent and that you can’t do,” Angelia Johnsonsaid. “... five or six buckets will swing a game quickly.”
