Madison Booker, Alana Rouser lead Germantown back to the Big House

Booker finished the game with 18 points. Rouser had a game-high 21 points and 14 rebounds to lead Germantown.

MADISON — For the second time in the last three years Germantown is headed back to the Big House.

Behind the play of Madison Booker and Alana Rouser, the Lady Mavericks got past Tupelo 69-55 in the quarterfinals of the MHSAA Girls Class 6A Playoffs on Friday night.

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Germantown (13-3) will face Harrison Central in the semifinals on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at the Mississippi Coliseum.

“Both teams played with high intensity and we came out with a lot of energy,” said Germantown coach Jamie Glasgow. “Basketball is a game of momentum and we were able to keep that momentum to the end.”

The Lady Mavericks never trailed the entire game.

Germantown held a slim 16-13 lead at the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, the Lady Mavericks held Tupelo to just eight points and Booker hit a three-pointer at the first-half buzzer to give Germantown a 37-21 lead at halftime.

“That gave us the momentum and hype we needed to go into the second half,” Booker said. “It was a physical game, but we had to slow them down and we did what we had to do to win the game.”

In the third quarter the Lady Wave cut the lead down to seven points at 52-45 and trailed 54-45 heading to the fourth quarter.

To start the final quarter Germantown scored five quick points to push their lead to 59-47 and from that point the score never got below 10 points.

Booker finished the game with 18 points. Rouser had a game-high 21 points and 14 rebounds to lead Germantown.

“They are a great one-two punch. Madison does pretty much everything you can do and Alana is just a beast on the boards,” Glasgow said. “We’re excited to get past this point and move on to the next one.”

Shakinah Jackson and Halle Traylor each had 14 points to lead Tupelo. Lamarah Cleaves added 11 points for the Lady Wave (19-7).

“The girls played extremely hard, but we dug ourselves too big of a hole early in the second quarter,” said Tupelo coach Matt Justice. “We did get back in the game to cut it to single digits going into the fourth quarter, but they got baskets early and we kept playing catch up.”

-- Brandon Shields