Northeast Lauderdale’s Quniesha Moss gets tangled up on the floor with East Central’s Madison Pearson for a jump ball Monday night.

Nesha Moss’ three first-quarter 3s set the tone.

Behind Moss’ 19 points and eight Northeast Lauderdale baskets made from behind the arc, the Lady Trojans exploded past East Central 65-41 Monday in the opening round of the MHSAA Class 4A playoffs. The win came against a team with a Dandy Dozen player, as the Lady Hornets’ Sania Wells entered the game with plenty of hype. She finished with 16 points, but only one other East Central player scored more than four points.

“We shot like that last Tuesday and Wednesday in practice before the district tournament, and then we went to West Lauderdale and didn’t make them,” Northeast Lauderdale head coach Lewis Ligthsey said. “I knew we could make them in here. I knew they played some matchup zone — a little bit of junk defense — and with Mercedes (Blanks) getting hurt last week, we went to the four-guard lineup, and that really paid off for us and getting those four guards on the floor and spreading it out.”

Moss said her nine first-quarter points were in part fueled by the four-guard look that she and her teammates used to their advantage.

“I like that we had four guards,” Moss said. “It worked versus their defense, which was a 2-3. We don’t have tall bigs like them, and with four guards, we still had one open that we could get that pass to and get a shot off.”

Northeast Lauderdale took a 13-8 advantage into the second quarter and went back-and-forth with East Central in the first four minutes of the frame. However, the Lady Trojans went on an 18-7 run in the final 4:03 of the half to pull ahead 37-22 going into the break.

The Lady Hornets would get no closer in the third quarter as Northeast Lauderdale maintained a high-energy offense and strong defensive effort that held East Central to just 10 points in the third quarter. The Lady Trojans were ahead 54-33 at the end of the third and slowed it down a little in the fourth quarter, finishing the final period with 11 points to East Central’s eight.

Daisha Robinson finished the game with 12 points off four 3s for Northeast Lauderdale, and Molly Moore and Ty Lee both had nine points for the Lady Trojans.

“Daisha Robinson hit some big 3s for us,” Lightsey said. “Nesha Moss has turned it on late in the season, and she played hard, and then the job Molly did on No. 2 (Wells) — as well as Ty Lee — they guarded their tail off all night long. I know we shot it well, but we were really proud of the defense as well.”

Going into the game, Moss said she was aware of the hype surrounding Wells, but she and the rest of her teammates tried to remain grounded.

“We know she’s good,” Moss said. “When she passed the ball, we had to deny her the ball and not let her get it back.”

And although Wells did finish with 16 points, Lightsey said he isn’t complaining.

“We’ll take 16 after I watched her on film get 42 up against some 6A teams,” Lightsey said. “Really, my message was to still play our game. We’re still going to press, which you saw tonight, and we just had to be more aware of her and keep her out of the paint and make her take tough shots. Besides three or four runouts she got, I thought we did a really good job on that.”

One thing working in Northeast Lauderdale’s favor was its home crowd, which got loud time and time again and helped fuel the Lady Trojan players.

“It makes a big difference,” Moss said. “It gets us hyped, but we still focus on the game.”

Northeast Lauderdale (18-11) will play at McComb Friday.