TUPELO - As Tupelo Lady Wave coach Stephanie Murphy entered the 2009-10 basketball season, there was Amber Jackson, then there were a lot of questions.

The Lady Wave began answering those questions Saturday in their season opener, outlasting the Wingfield Falcons 52-29 in the Carlock Basketball Classic at Tupelo High School.

"We're young in a lot of areas," Jackson said. "We have only one starter back - Amber Jackson - so we've got to find a unit we're comfortable with, and a rotation we're comfortable with."

In a defensive struggle, Jackson paced the Lady Wave offense with 12 points. It was an offense that grabbed control of the scoreboard early, but perhaps missed an opportunity to put it in cruise control.

With baskets by Jackson, Dasia Mosley, Antoninnette Riddle, and Kari Copeland, an 8-0 run gave the Lady Wave an 10-3 first quarter lead. But it was not until another 8-0 run in the third quarter that saw Morgan Witherspoon hit three baskets to give Tupelo a comfortable 42-25 margin.

Tupelo's boys were not so lucky in their first game of the season, dropping a 68-57 decision to the Falcons.

"They jumped out on us early, but our guys fought back," Tupelo coach Grant Pate said. "They had good guards, and they're a mature team."

Led by Trency Jackson, the Falcons had grabbed a 22-12 lead by the end of the first period. Wingfield pushed that margin to as much as 49-27 early in the third quarter, but Tupelo whittled that down the rest of the way.

A 3-pointer by Byrne Marshall pulled the Wave to within 10 at 56-46 midway through the fourth quarter, but Tupelo could never push past that 10-point margin the rest of the way.

Marshall paced the Tupelo attack with 24 points, while Jackson led Wingfield with 20.