By Stan Caldwell/Sports Writer

POPLARVILLE — The Hancock girls picked a bad time to play arguably their worst game of the season.

Forest Hill used hot shooting and a smothering defense to roll past the Hawks 41-21 in the Class 6A quarterfinals Wednesday night at M.R. White Coliseum on the campus of Pearl River Community College.

The Patriots (21-13) advanced to face Neshoba Central in the 6A Final Four at 10:30 a.m. Monday at the Mississippi Coliseum. Hancock (21-10) finished its season the same place it did a year ago, a game short of the Big House.

“I thought our team played hard, and I’m proud of their effort,” said Hancock coach Jamie Sisco. “When the season started, I wasn’t quite sure where we would be at the end.

“I thought we had a chance in this one, but to get into a game like this, you can’t turn it over that much and you can’t shoot like we did tonight against a good team.”

This one got away from the Hawks in a hurry. Freshman Madalyn Hoda banked in a 3-point with Hancock’s first possession of the game to take an early 3-0 lead, but it didn’t last long.

Junior Aniya Sykes swished 3-balls on consecutive possessions, sandwiched around the first of nine Hancock turnovers in the first quarter, putting the Patriots ahead for good.

Sophomore Destiny King took a steal all the way for an uncontested layup, forcing Sisco to call time out with 3:37 to play in the opening period.

“We knew about (King), and we knew (Johnson) was going to be a mismatch inside,” Sisco said. “We had to choose somebody to help on; we chose (King), and (Sykes) just killed us. I just told our kids, ‘kudos to her.’ She probably shot 80 percent from the floor.”

For the game, Hancock committed 24 turnovers, too many against a quality opponent this deep in the playoffs. That was nearly as many shot attempts as the Hawks took, as they were just 8 of 28 from the field.

By contrast, Forest Hill was 16 of 36 from the field (44.4 percent) for the game, including 5 of 13 from beyond the arc.

Hancock trailed 9-3 after the first quarter, and stayed in the game through most of the first half. Freshman Lexi Ladner hit a 3-pointer, then sophomore Paityn Langley drew a foul and made on of two free throws.

Langley, Hancock’s leading scorer with 14.0 points a game coming into the quarters, had trouble getting going against the sagging Patriot defense. She finally got going somewhat, and finished with a team-high 8 points.

“Individually, I don’t think any of our players played like they’d want to play, or how they’re capable of playing,” Sisco said. “And at the end of the day, it comes down to coaching.

“It’s the coach’s job to put them in the right position to succeed, and I’m kind of self-reflecting here, because this is two straight years we’ve been put out at this point, and we just didn’t play our best.”

But the Hawks had no answer for Forest Hill’s duo of Sykes and King. Sykes hit mid-range jump shots on back-to-back possessions to give the Patriots a six-point margin, but Langley got free in the lane for a 10-footer to close the gap to 13-11.

However, the Patriots scored five unanswered points in the final seconds of the half, on a 3-ball from Sykes, then a 15-footer by King after another steal. Forest Hill went to the locker room with an 18-11 halftime lead, and never looked back in the second half.

The Patriots were 9 of 16 from the floor in the second half, including 6 of 9 in the fourth quarter, as they steadily pulled away from a 26-15 lead after three quarters. For the game, Sykes had 16 points and King scored 14 for Forest Hill.

Hancock came into the season with a young team after last year’s 28-2 season, and the Hawks will return their entire starting five.

“We’ve got a lot of multi-sport athletes, so the girls will go to their other sports for a few weeks, just get their minds off basketball,” Sisco said. “We’ll come back after about a month or so and get back at it.

“I’m proud of the effort, I love them to death, and we’re just going to keep on keeping on.
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