Northeast defeats Forest to advance to second round of playoffs

Published 8:00 am Tuesday, February 17, 2026

FOREST — For the first time in six years Northeast Lauderdale is moving on in the basketball playoffs.

Behind a stiff defense along with the play of Patience Sumpter and Jalei Bolton the Lady Trojans got past Forest 41-35 in the First Round of the MHSAA Girls Class 4A basketball playoffs on Monday night.

Northeat Lauderdale (19-8) will travel to Moss Point in the second round of the playoffs Friday.

“I told the kids that anytime when you come out in the playoffs the first five minutes is just like a boxing match just trying to figure each other out,” said Northeast Lauderdale coach Marcus Luckett. “We were able to feel them out and keep it close and made the proper adjustments to make our run.”

It was a low scoring game throughout.

Forest held a slim 11-6 lead at the end of the first quarter.

After that the Lady Trojan defense stepped up as Northeast Lauderdale outscored the Lady Bearcats 19-8 in the second quarter to take a 25-19 lead at halftime.

The Lady Trojans kept the defensive momentum coming out of halftime in the third quarter only allowing Forest to score four points and stretching their lead out to 35-23 heading into the fourth quarter.

Forest went on a 7-2 run to begin the fourth quarter to cut the Northeast Lauderdale lead to 37-30, but the Lady Trojans got a lay-up from Sumpter and JaKayla Grace and Ambrey Johnson each made a free throw to stretch the lead to 41-35 with 10 seconds left to seal the game.

Northeast Lauderdale defensively held Forest’s best player Shaniyah Wells to just six points.

“They challenged each other today in practice about who they had to go up against, so they answered the challenge by outrebounding and outplaying them,” Luckett said. “Primary focus was taking away their best scorer and when you’re pressing them they just want to throw her the ball and our bigs can move a little bit and when we get in the half court we just had to limit her touches.”

Bolton had a game-high 17 points to lead Northeast Lauderdale, while Sumpter added 10 points for the Lady Trojans.

“I don’t care how ugly the game was as long as we had more points than the other team that’s all that matters,” Luckett said. “Going to Moss Point on Friday and we’re going to have to be real disciplined defensively because they like to move the ball and control the pace of the game, so we have to try to make them uncomfortable as possible.”