JACKSON — The Neshoba Central girls’ perfect season remained intact Tuesday night, but the contest came with some drama.

Behind the second-half play of Carly Keats, the Lady Rockets survived and held on to a 60-57 win over West Jones in a game where Neshoba Central was dominated on the boards in the semifinal round of the MHSAA Class 5A playoffs at the Mississippi Coliseum.

Neshoba Central (32-0) will face Columbus for the Class 5A State Championship on Friday at 5 p.m.

“Our inability to play defense tonight was unacceptable. We get talked about with all the points and stuff, but this team is built around defense,” Neshoba Central coach Jason Broome said. “I thought we played like we could just show up with Neshoba Central on our jersey and win. At this stage, you cannot do that.”

In the first half it, seemed as if it was going to be another Neshoba Central blow out win. The Lady Rockets jumped out to an 18-10 lead at the end of the first quarter and extended the lead to 35-20 at the break.

In the second half, it was back-and-forth. The Lady Rockets saw their lead trimmed down to nine points, 46-37, heading into the fourth quarter, and Neshoba Central went on a 7-0 to start the final period, pushing its advantage up to 53-37.

From that point, West Jones went on a 10-0 run to cut the lead down to 53-49 with 1:23 left in regulation. A 3-point play by Kailyn Willis with 29 seconds left gave the Lady Rockets a 58-53 lead, and Neshoba Central was able to hold on from there.

West Jones out-rebounded Neshoba Central 51-31 overall and 26-7 on offensive rebounds.

“I felt like we wasted an opportunity to get better and find our groove in the coliseum,” Broome said. “We got absolutely killed on the boards. Now I feel like we must refine ourselves and re-establish the things that we do that got us here. At the end of the day, we’re playing for a state championship on Friday, and we have adjustments we need to make and play a lot better.”

Carly Keats had 16 points to lead Neshoba Central, while Veronica Williams added 13 points for the Lady Rockets.

“We just had to have a lot of communication and play together as team,” Keats said. “This game taught us that we have to trust each other as a team and play together as a team.”

Aasia Wilson had a game-high 24 points to lead West Jones, while Jayden Carr added 10 points for the Lady Mustangs (23-5).

“I felt like we were nervous in the first half, but the girls kept fighting and ended up giving us a chance late,” West Jones coach Sharon Murray said. “In the second half we played solid but just didn’t finish.”