Choctaw Central High School coach Bill Smith is a man of few words. 

But after his team’s game Friday night, the stoic coach had to voice his approval of the Lady Warriors performance against Magee High School. Choctaw Central sliced through Magee with a 71-44 second-round playoff victory in a game in which they never trailed.

“We practice hard every day, and tonight, I think we came out and probably played the best quarter to open a game than we have all year,” Smith said.

Darien Tubby paced the Lady Warriors with 20 points, Kaedre Denson scored 14 and Kyannah Grant finished with 13. Eleven Choctaw Central players logged points in the contest. 

After losing a nine-point game to Booneville High School in last year’s Class 3A state championship, Smith said this year’s players wouldn’t be content unless they returned to Jackson’s Mississippi Coliseum to compete for a state title. After Friday’s win, the Lady Warriors are another step closer to accomplishing that goal.

“I just got through telling them in the locker room after the game that there’s one goal — and that the Gold Ball,” Smith said. “Nothing else is going to matter. We’re just going to keep doing the same thing we’ve been doing.”

After receiving the basketball on a tip from Denson following the opening jump ball, Tubby collected it and raced to the basket for a layup. The score took just seven seconds, and Tubby was just beginning. The junior scored Choctaw Central’s first 10 points to give the Lady Warriors a 10-0 lead 56 seconds into the opening quarter. Kyannah Grant added a bucket to make the score 12-0, and she and Tubby combined for seven points over the next minute, giving Choctaw Central a 19-0 lead with 5:02 left in the opening quarter.

“I was just trying to do what I could for my team,” Tubby, a junior, said. “We hope to go back to (Jackson) and try our hardest this year. It really hurt us last year when we lost, and we’re trying to bounce back from that. I have a lot of confidence in this team. If we all come together and play as one, like we did tonight, I think we can keep striving as a team.”

Tubby netted 14 points in the first period. 

The Lady Warriors led 31-10 at the end of the first quarter, and Grant added a 3-pointer early in the second quarter, signaling the Lady Warriors had no plans of easing off the intensity. She, too, said the team’s dominant performance was influenced by an external factor.

“Unfinished business,” said Grant, a junior. “Last year we got second, this year we want to take it all. It feels good — I feel excited; I feel ready. I had a good game (today). Some shots weren’t going in, but some were. I think I played really well on defense. The other girls did well, too. I’m glad the seniors have had a good year, and I hope we take it for them.”

After Denson, a sophomore, scored three points in the first quarter, she established her presence in the paint in the second. The center tallied six points in the period. Choctaw Central led 52-26 at the half and 68-37 after three quarters. 

“We’re on a mission,” she said. “We’re on a mission to win the Gold Ball, and that’s all that’s on our mind right now. In order to win, you have to always be ready to play — that’s what coach says all the time. We came out ready. Darien had hit like the first 10 shots. That was crazy. It was a good start — that’s just a good team effort.”

Choctaw Central travels to Jackson on Saturday, March 4, for the quarterfinal round.