In each of the last two years, it was the Newton Tigers that put Richton out of the Class 2A South State Tournament.

    Friday was the Rebels’ turn to repay the debt.

    Richton outscored Newton 43-35 in the second half en route to a 79-72 semifinal win.

    Newton had won elimination games with Richton in 2009 (93-76) and 2010 (81-68).

    Needless to say, there weren’t a lot of happy faces in Tigerland following the loss.

    “Our goal at the beginning of every season is to go to Jackson,” said Newton coach Crandal Porter. “We expect to go to Jackson and it’s a sad day around here when we don’t.

    “We didn’t reach our goal and we’re not happy about it.”

    Newton led 15-14 after one quarter, getting seven points and four rebounds from Dennis Miles and four points and three boards from Chris Turner.

    The Tigers went to their outside game in the second period as Cordarion Nichols drained three 3-point shots and Turner and Moses Oliphant had one trey each as Newton took a 37-36 lead into halftime.

    The Tigers led by as many as nine points (23-14) in the first half.

    After Newton went up 40-38 on a free throw by Nichols, the Rebels went on a 10-0 run to go up 48-40 and never trailed again. In the run, J.J. Bolton had a basket and made four free throws in as many attempts.

    Newton closed to within 64-61 on a three-point play by Aldric Beal with 5:02 remaining, but Richton built its lead up to 74-65 over the next four minutes in advancing to tonight’s 7 p.m. title game with Piney Woods.

    Newton, which finished 28-3, got 17 points each from Turner and Miles, 13 from Nichols, 12 from Walter Johnson, and nine from Darkenius Bender.

    Despite Turner and Miles both getting 10 rebounds, it was Richton that owned the boards most of the night.

    “I don’t know if it was them doing a good job or us just not boxing out,” Porter said. “All year we’ve been wanting to use our height to go get a rebound instead of boxing out and getting a rebound. They definitely whipped us on the boards, but I think we deserve a lot of the blame.”

    Richton, 23-8, got 22 points from Maurice Robins, 20 from Bolton, 16 from MacAulay Beasley, and 10 from Markevius Hinton.

    In the other semifinal, Piney Woods crushed East Marion 72-40 behind 20 points from Kentwan Smith and 14 each from Xavian Rimmer and Phillip Jones. Darris McLendon had 14 for East Marion.