1A Semifinals: Biggersville uses size advantage to smother Lumberton 49-34

The Lady Lions won the rebounding battle 43-27 and held the Lady Panthers to 24 percent shooting

JACKSON — The Biggersville Lady Lions look like a team capable of winning a MHSAA Class 1A Championship Thursday afternoon.

And after Monday morning’s resounding 49-34 win over Lumberton in the Semifinal Round, they’ll get an opportunity to do just that.

The girls from Biggersville were simply bigger — they out-rebounded Lumberton 49 to 27 and played strong enough defense to hold the Lady Panthers to 23.6 percent shooting.

“We probably could have rebounded better, to be honest,” Biggersville coach Cliff Little said. “And I think some of our girls were beating themselves up a little bit (in the locker room), because they knew they didn’t play as well as they are capable of playing. I just had to remind them — ‘Hey, we’re playing for a state title. This is a good thing.’”

The Lady Lions (29-2) will face either West Union or McAdams in the 1A Championship at 1 p.m. Thursday.

If they can put together the kind of defensive effort they put in Monday morning, they could be in for a post-game celebration.

Biggersville finished the first quarter on an 8-0 run to take a 14-9 lead into the second.

Marlee McCalister opened the second quarter with a three-pointer to stretch it to 17-9, and for a moment, it looked like the game might get out of hand early. Lumberton clawed its way back in with back-to-back buckets from star guard Kirsten Joseph, but by the three-minute mark, Biggersville had stretched its lead to 24-13.

The Lady Lions led it 26-15 at the half, and they had already out-rebounded Lumberton 23-10.

“We have a tall team, so we use that to our advantage,” Biggersville’s Hannah Seago explained. “We have Asia (Stafford), Goldee (Butler)… we just have a lot of length and we work on using it in practice. We’re also not afraid of contact. We look for it.”

The Lady Lions poured it on in the second half, stretching their lead to 14 points in the fourth quarter.

Asia Stafford led Biggersville with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Golee Butler missed the double-double by one point, finishing with nine and 17 rebounds. Seago scored 12 points to go with six assists and Aaliyah Moody chipped in 10 points.

The Lumberton girls were making its first semifinal appearance since 1993. Kirsten Joseph and Janiya Green each scored 11 points for the Lady Panthers (21-4). Kelsey Joseph added 10.