Meridian's Debreasha Powe lands after hitting a layup during the Lady Wildcats' home game against Hancock Friday, Feb. 18, 2022, in the second round of MHSAA Class 6A postseason.

The Meridian High School girls basketball team fought through a frustrating night shooting to take a 29-20 win against Hancock Friday in the second round of the MHSAA Class 6A playoffs at Meridian.

The Lady Wildcats (24-3) had a first-round bye after winning the Region 5-6A tournament with a 53-33 win against Oak Grove Feb. 10, making Friday’s contest their first in more than a week. The rust showed, as Meridian struggled to score despite numerous good looks, but Hancock’s inability to get anything going offensively either allowed the Lady Wildcats to come out on top in a defensive battle.

“It’s basketball, and I’m glad we get to experience these challenges early on (in the playoffs), and we’re just growing every day,” Meridian head coach Deneshia Faulkner said. “We couldn’t make a basket and kind of had a few crazy errors at the end there (with unforced turnovers), but hey, we live to fight another day, so we’ll grow from it.”

The Lady Wildcats led 8-4 after one quarter and 16-11 at the half. The third quarter was Meridian’s most productive offensive period, as it scored 13 in the frame to take a 29-20 advantage going into the fourth. Neither team scored in the final eight minutes.

“We try to focus on our defense, because you’re going to have these kind of games,” Faulkner said. “You can’t always control the basketball going in, but you can control what goes on, on the defensive end. Twenty-nine points is low for us, but we’ll take it if we can hold the other team to 20.”

Senior Tytiana Buckley, who finished with eight points, said she and her teammates weren’t taken too off guard by the nature of Friday’s game.

“Before the game Coach told us it would be a defensive game,” Buckley said. “We didn’t think our offense would struggle like that, but it was really hard for us to score, and Coach always tells us we need to pick it up on the defensive end.”

In fact, the game was a good lesson to the players as to why they can’t let an off night offensively affect other aspects of the game, Buckley added.

“She always preaches not to get frustrated if shots aren’t going in because it’s not only selfish to you but it affects to everyone else because it takes you out of your game,” Buckley said. “We can still affect other stuff like rebounding and defense, not just scoring the ball.”

Mississippi State signee Debreasha Powe led Meridian with 12 points, and Charity Hinton scored six points, while Jamesha Jones chipped in with three points.

Meridian will host it’s third-round game Friday, Feb. 25, making it two rounds in a row the Lady Wildcats will have to wait at least a week to play, but Faulkner said she isn’t bothered by the long layoffs.

“I think it’s needed at this point late in the season,” Faulkner said. “We need a chance to recover, take ice baths and watch film, so it can definitely work to our advantage.”