Perkins leads second half surge for Starkville

STARKVILLE - It started off looking like it might go down to the wire but it wound up a rout.

Aberdeen and Starkville were separated by only two points at the half but the Yellow Jackets poured it on in the final two quarters to come away with a convincing 95-58 win.

"The game was still close at halftime," said Starkville head coach Greg Carter. "Everybody knows how Aberdeen plays, they are going to come at you the whole time. The game was right there for the taking and whichever team stepped up first was going to get it. We needed to be that team."

Starkville led 40-38 at the half but extended the lead to 12 points by the end of the third quarter. The Yellow Jackets ran away with things in the final quarter outscoring Aberdeen 33-8 to improve to 17-2 on the year.

Leading the charge for Starkville was junior Rashad Perkins with 25 points including seven dunks in the contest. Perkins even tossed a ball off the backboard from the free throw line and tomahawked it down during the final minutes of the game for his final points of the evening.

"Before the second half they were keeping up with us," Perkins said. "We don't like close games so we just had to play harder. When it's a close game you can't really do what you want. But once you get ahead basically you can have fun."

Perkins already has scholarship offers from Mississippi State, Alabama and UAB.

Edward Townsel racked up 20 points for the Yellow Jackets followed by James Sharp with 15 points and Jeff Jernigan with 14.

The Bulldogs kept things close early behind the inside play of Fred Ward and the sharp shooting of Chris Devauld. Ward had 11 points at the half while Devauld drained four first half 3-pointers and led all scorers at the break with 16 points.

But neither Devauld or Ward scored a single point in the second half.

"(Devauld) made the three's on us in the first half and we were in a different defense," Carter said. "Then we went back man and if he was in the game we were going to play him man-to-man. That kept him from getting the three's off. As far as (Ward) goes, we started helping out from the weakside wing."

Ernest Williams also chipped in eight points in the loss for Aberdeen.

Aberdeen 87, Starkville 79 (G)

A second quarter swing was enough to lift Aberdeen over Starkville on Tuesday night.

The Lady Jackets held a two point lead after the first quarter but Aberdeen went on a 24-11 run before the half and held on for an 87-79 victory.

"We took mental breaks," said Starkville head coach Kristie Williams. "We only showed up tonight and played in spurts. To beat any team, regardless of who they are especially a good press team like Aberdeen, you can't take a possession off because that means you are relaxing and not putting forth the effort. They made a lot of transition plays and showed us why when you don't get back that you are going to get beat."

Jameika Hoskins led the Lady Bulldogs putting up 33 points followed by 21 points by Sally Davis and Dayana McGee with 13.

Starkville fell to 12-6 with the loss. Kala Williams paced the Lady Jackets with 24 points along with 15 points by Kierra Jones, 14 points by Shay Bonner and Laretha Williams with 11.