CORINTH – The Corinth Warriors don’t want a reputation as a second-half team, but they had to be one on Friday night to secure their berth in the Class 4A MHSAA state tournament with a 64-54 win over Noxubee County.

Corinth (26-6) broke up a 23-all tie with a big second half to make it to Jackson for the third straight year.

“I don’t know if we think we’re a second-half team, but we’re glad we have the energy to finish a game,” Corinth coach Keith Greene said. “We don’t come out hot, but we just keep digging and keep finding possessions in there somewhere.”

The Warriors were down 21-16 midway through the second before going on a 7-2 run to end the quarter and tie the game up on a layup from Raheem Sorrell.

Jazz Garner’s 3-pointer gave the Warriors their first double digit lead of the game at 37-27 midway through the third quarter.

tigers come back

Noxubee County (16-14) got within five at the beginning of the fourth on a pair of free throws from D.J. Robinson, but Corinth’s Jose Contreras responded with a basket to push the lead back to seven.

The Tigers closed the gap to three later in the quarter, but Corinth made went 5-for-6 in their final three trips to the line.

“We didn’t execute offensively in the second half and didn’t finish plays like we were supposed to,” Noxubee County coach T.J. Billups said. “Our guys played one of the best games they’ve played all year though against a great team.”

Garner paced Corinth with 14 points, while Kendaruis McNeese scored 20 points for Noxubee County.

“We struggled to score at times, but we just hung our hat on our defense,” Greene said. “But it’s big for our kids to make it back to Jackson. We’ve come up short there before and know it, and that’s something we would like to fix this year.”

melissa.meador@journalinc.com