JACKSON — Simply put, Amanda Elzy never stood a chance against Choctaw Central. That much was evident less than two minutes into Saturday’s title game.

Playing in their second championship contest in as many years, the Lady Warriors fired off eight points in the first 1:34 to overwhelm the Lady Panthers and set a frenetic pace they wouldn’t temper for the rest of the afternoon.

Choctaw Central (31-3) defeated Amanda Elzy 75-42 Saturday at the Mississippi Coliseum to win the 2017 Class 3A title. Choctaw Central handed Amanda Elzy (29-2) its second loss of the season.

 “They made it to the finals, so we expected it to be a little challenging, so we just came to play our game and do what we could,” Choctaw Central’s Darien Tubby said.

Tubby, the C SPIRE Player of the Game, scored a game-high 18 points and tallied eight assists. Kyannah Grant scored 15 points, and Kyarrah Grant finished with 11. Kaedre Denson and Reese Tubby added eight rebounds apiece.

Amanda Elzy entered Saturday’s game averaging 62 points per game. The Lady Warriors held them to their second-lowest scoring output of the season. Choctaw Central also contained Lady Panthers’ leading scorer Keyera McCline, who averaged 16.8 points per game, to just five points.

“We were ready to go,” Kyarrah Grant said. “We said, ‘OK, they’re going to come out strong, we have to come out strong too. We have to get our mind in the game.’ And we did; we did so much. We were ready for the game.”

Kyannah Grant, the C SPIRE Scholar-Athlete of the Game, said she and her teammates talked about last year’s state title loss on the team bus this morning, and vowed to not suffer the same fate.

“We were talking about how it felt and how the game just slipped out of our hands,” she said. “We talked about how we felt, and it was just horrible. We said we didn’t want that to happen again — we were going to take this game, and we were going to win it.”

Kyannah Grant scored the game’s first points five seconds into the opening quarter, and Darien Tubby added three consecutive baskets to give the Lady Warriors an 8-0 lead. Amanda Elzy scored its first field goal with 5:46 left in the first and trailed 23-12 at the end of the frame.

Choctaw Central exploded for 32 second-quarter points, and the Lady Warriors defense held the Lady Panthers to 11.

Choctaw Central shot 53.3 percent from the field in the first half to carry a 55-23 lead into halftime. Amanda Elzy shot 10 of 35 (28.6 percent) in the first half.

“I just told them not to let up, not to relax,” Lady Warriors coach Bill Smith said. “It’s hard being up 32 — I think we were — would have been a good chance for them to lay down. But I told them, ‘Look, we’ve got a half to play. Look like you know what you’re doing.’”

After letting a double-digit lead dissipate in last year’s state championship loss, Kyarrah Grant said Smith’s instructions were clear.

“Don’t stop, don’t stop playing,” she said of Smith’s halftime message. “Keep the momentum going, because this is what happened last year against Booneville. So we didn’t’ want that to happen again. He just said don’t stop.”

The Lady Warriors didn’t. Their defensive play in the third quarter yielded just eight points to the Lady Panthers. Amanda Elzy went 7-for-25 from the field in the second period and ended the game shooting 28.3 percent (17 of 60). Choctaw Central finished the game 34 of 72 (47.2 percent).

“We knew we had to focus on (Zakhyshonee McCline) and (Keyera McCline), and I think we did a pretty good job on them,” Smith said. “(Zakhyshonee McCline) didn’t get but just six points, and (Keyera McCline) didn’t score but five. So when you take away their two leading scorers, put the Grant twins on those two people, they did a good job on shutting them down.”

The Lady Warriors outrebounded Amanda Elzy 49-37.

Jamecia Grice led the Lady Panthers in scoring 14 points, and Khiyee Robinson added 11.