Turshunna Alford’s basket with 1:42 to play in Friday night’s MHSAA Class 3A second round battle put the Southeast Lauderdale girls basketball team up by one point over Tylertown.

But after the Lady Chiefs pulled ahead on their next possession, a nerve-racked Lady Tigers squad failed to score again and committed two costly turnovers in the final 25 seconds as they were eliminated from the playoffs in a 47-42 loss.

“My heart hurts for them. It’s just sad,” Southeast head coach Dana Buchanan said. “I felt our nerves all night, and I couldn’t get them to get rid of them, and it affected how we played. It’s hard for me to see them that upset now and not get where they wanted to get.”

Alford finished with a game-high 13 points for Southeast (22-7) and blocked two shots. Savannah Davis and Kenyata Walker each tallied seven points, while Walker also hauled in 12 rebounds. The Lady Tigers ended 4-for-13 on free throws. 

Santania Lumpkin and Jordan Badon both led Tylertown (18-3) with 11 points.

“Today I would’ve told you we were ready to play,” Buchanan said. “I didn’t think we had any nerves, and we went in about 20 minutes until (the game) and all of a sudden we got nervous. It affected us so badly, and I had confidence in them. I had zero nerves (going in).”

An 8-0 run by the Lady Chiefs in the first quarter gave them an early six-point lead, but a 3-pointer by J’Nyah Moore to begin the second helped bring the Lady Tigers back to within one at 18-17 with 2:54 left in the half, and Southeast never let Tylertown gain a advantage larger than three before halftime.

A bucket by Walker to start the third quarter gave the Lady Tigers their first lead since the opening minutes, and a 3 from Shakira Wilson with four and a half minutes to play in the period put her team up its largest margin of the evening at 28-24. But the Lady Chiefs erased their deficit quickly with two shots from the perimeter and a 3-point play to outscore their opponent 11-5 in the remainder of the frame and lead 35-33 heading into the fourth.

“After the first quarter, we shot the ball much better, but they were beating us to the rim more than most teams do,” Buchanan said. “At halftime we made an adjustment, and we didn’t get beat as well, but we just never could get everything to work at one time. We fought the whole game, and I knew the fight was there, we just never got comfortable.”

The lead switched six times in the final quarter as Southeast and Tylertown traded go-ahead buckets. Wilson grabbed an offensive rebound off her own missed shots and laid in a basket to make it 38-37 with 4:50 left, and Davis went coast-to-coast on the Lady Tigers’ next possession to give her squad a 40-39 advantage with 2:26 to play in regulation.

After Alford scored to take the lead, the Lady Chiefs responded with a layup through a foul and went up 43-42. Southeast then missed a go-ahead layup with 1:02 left, and after hauling in an offensive board, failed to take the lead again when a deep jumpshot was blocked by Tylertown.

The Lady Chiefs made one of two ensuing shots at the free-throw line to lead by two before the Lady Tigers were called for traveling on the other end with 24 seconds to play, handing the ball back to Tylertown, which was fouled and put on the line again. After making just one free throw for a three-point advantage, Tylertown stole a Southeast pass with 15 seconds left, which led to a foul on the Lady Chiefs, who sealed the victory with two made free throws. 

The season-ending loss snapped a nine-game winning streak for the Lady Tigers.

“I’m not happy with the season because it ended too early, but I’m happy with how much better we are from this time last year,” Buchanan said. “Our team motto is, ‘One team, on dream,’ and I felt like we bought into that for the most part, and it carried us. A year ago, I wouldn’t have said that.”