FLOWOOD - With their season on the line, the Pillow Academy Lady Mustangs turned up the defensive pressure and survived to fight another day.
Swarming with its press and trap, Pillow took Starkville totally out of its offensive rhythm in the fourth period, prevailing 45-39 in a hard-fought game here Tuesday night in the first round of the State AAA Tournament at Jackson Prep.
The Lady Mustangs, 32-5 and ranked No. 2 in the statewide academy AAA poll, advances to Friday's 2:15 p.m. semifinal contest against top-ranked Presbyterian Christian. PCS, the state AAA Division I champion for the third straight year, whipped Parklane 59-31 Tuesday.
Pillow opened the fourth period with a 7-0 run and held off No. 5 Starkville down the stretch. Five of those first seven points came off turnovers, and the Lady Mustangs scored nine of their 16 points in the fourth off turnovers.
"We changed up our trap a little there in the fourth. Our girls had played defense like that all year, so they knew what they had to do," PA coach Durwin Carpenter said.
Starkville cut the Lady Mustangs' lead to one, 38-37, with two minutes to play. But senior Lauren Coleman drained five straight free throws to help Pillow seal the deal.
"You had to feel good with Lauren at the line, because she has great confidence that she's going to make them with the game on the line," Carpenter said. "And she did."
Starkville, which finishes the season at 24-13, led 21-20 at the half and led by as many as five in the third. Ellen Hull's three-point play in the closing seconds of the third made it a two-point game and gave Pillow a momentum boost heading into the fourth.
PA senior Betsy Nelson scored the first four points of the fourth to put her team ahead for good.
Nelson and Coleman finished with 15 points each. Coleman had a team-high nine rebounds and four steals.
Starkville outshot PA (45 percent to 35 percent) from the floor and outrebounded it (33-26) but hit only 5-of-12 attempts from the foul line.
