JACKSON — The Meridian High School girls’ basketball program has suffered some excruciating losses here at the Mississippi Coliseum through the years. And when the Lady Wildcats let a 21-point lead get away from them in Wednesday night’s Class 5A State Tournament semifinal contest, the stomachs of MHS fans must have been turning.

But this time, Meridian’s Brittany Davidson and the Lady Wildcats simply refused to lose.

Davidson scored her team’s last eight points — six of them from the free-throw line, and Meridian outlasted Murrah 69-66 in front of a vocal crowd at the Big House.

The strong finish matched a torrid start for Davidson, the University of Alabama-Birmingham signee who poured in a tournament-high 32 points to send Meridian into Saturday’s 6:30 p.m. state championship game against either Clinton or Moss Point.

“Brittany was clutch tonight,” second-year MHS head coach Stephanie Murphy said. “She’s been saying all day how she was ready. She took control and she stepped up and hit some big free throws at the end for us.”

Meridian, 31-5, will make its second straight appearance in the girls’ Class 5A final under Murphy. But despite a 21-point lead in the second quarter and a 19-point advantage at halftime — Wednesday’s win was far from easy.

Davidson pumped in 15 points in the first quarter, when Meridian closed out the period on an 11-0 spurt that put the Lady Wildcats up 24-10.

It was 33-12 midway through the second and 38-19 at halftime, but Murrah quickly made a game of it in the second half.

The Lady Mustangs — relying mostly on a pair of freshmen and a sophomore — had a 12-3 run midway through the third quarter to pull within 45-37, then scored eight straight points early in the fourth to make it 52-49.

Two Davidson free throws had Meridian up 61-54 with 3 minutes, 41 seconds left, but Murrah wasn’t done yet. The Lady Mustangs reeled off eight straight points — taking a 62-61 lead when LaSondra Barrett had a steal and assist that led to a Tanecka Carey layup with 1:25 left.

From that point on, Davidson single-handedly outscored the Lady Mustangs 8-4, with Murrah managing just a pair of putbacks in the final 13 seconds.

“We knew that Murrah was a good team, but they’re also a young team,” Murphy said. “Even when they did go up by one point, I think we gathered ourselves … I don’t think we relaxed (with the early lead) … but I think we started playing not to lose that lead instead of playing to win.”

It was the first action in 11 days for Meridian, which got a bye and the accompanying layoff after winning the South State title back on Feb. 25.

“I felt like if our shots would fall early we could get out on top of them,” Murphy said. “It was just very exciting … but too intense at the end.”

Davidson also had three assists and three steals to go with her game-high 32 points, while Whitney Hood tallied 11 points, six rebounds, three assists and five steals for MHS.

Tiara Parker and Shaurice Miller scored eight points each; Mindy Mendiola had five points, three assists and three steals; Miller had six rebounds; and Parker had four steals.

MHS was outrebounded 32-20, but forced Murrah into 24 turnovers.

Legendary Murrah coach Anna Jackson said earlier this season her team was a year or two away from making another title run, but the Lady Mustangs finished 27-5.

Barrett, a 6-foot sophomore, had 29 points, 10 rebounds and five steals. Carey, the freshman point guard, had 12 points, five assists and four steals and Brandi Simmons — another freshman — had 11 points and 13 rebounds.