Mashanti Saddler knew what was at stake.
When visiting Provine banked in a contested 3-pointer to take a surprising 13-12 lead in the second quarter of Tuesday night’s MHSAA Class 5A first-round playoff game, Saddler and her Columbus High School teammates knew it was time to wake up.
“It was either go big or go home, and we didn’t want to go home,” the sophomore said.
The Falcons quickly made sure they didn’t have to.
Columbus (23-4) scored the game’s next 21 points, holding Provine scoreless for more than a quarter and cruising to a 66-32 win in order to advance to a second-round matchup with Holmes County Central at 6 p.m. Friday in Lexington.
“That was the motivational thing behind all of it,” said Columbus coach Yvonne Hairston, who knew her team was frustrated with Friday’s one-point loss to New Hope in the final of the district tournament.
“We let one go down in Grenada,” she said. “We came back, and we felt like we were a better team. We just got loose.”
It took a while for the Falcons to get into gear, though. After Columbus held leads of 5-0 and 9-4, Provine exploited holes in the Falcons’ zone defense to fight back.
So Hairston switched to a man-to-man scheme, and things started to click for Columbus.
“When we get in the flow of our game, we get kind of hard to handle,” Hairston said. “And we were in the flow tonight, because we knew if we didn’t play that we were going to the house. We just weren’t. We practiced too hard for this, and we did it.”
Mashanti Saddler chipped in five points during the Falcons’ unanswered run of 21 points, and her older sister Aniya added eight more. Thanks to a 10-point quarter for Mashanti as the Falcons pushed the lead, the Saddlers led Columbus in scoring: Aniya, the Falcons’ usual scoring leader, had 21, and Mashanti had 17. Aniya finished with a double-double with 11 rebounds and added four steals and five assists, but she still took pride in the game her sister had.
“It was great to watch her score, because she really has stepped up her game a lot,” Aniya said of her younger sister. “She really has.”
Mashanti and post player Charity Yeates — who scored six points Tuesday, all in the first half — are the leaders of a Columbus sophomore class in which Hairston sees plenty of potential once her senior class moves on. Junior point guard DJ Jackson also played a big role in Tuesday’s win, scoring 16 points to slot in behind the Saddlers.
“We’ve already known that that 10th-grade group that’s behind them, they can really play,” Hairston said. “So now we’re getting the jitters out.”
All in all, it was clear to the coach that Columbus played a far more complete game Tuesday than it did in Friday’s loss to New Hope that handed the Trojans the district title.
“Some things worked in our favor tonight that didn’t work in our favor on Friday night,” Hairston said. “We’re just grateful to get the win.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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