{2/15/03}Porters Chapel Academy’s Deer Creek jinx continues.

The Lady Eagles got into foul trouble and blew an early 17-point lead, and went on to lose to conference rival Deer Creek for the fourth time this season, 48-45 at the Academy-A South State tournament in Minden, La.

PCA (33-7) will now play Humphreys in the third-place game today at 1 p.m. Humphreys beat PCA last week in the Conference 5-A tournament semifinals.

“That’s definitely a monkey on our back with Deer Creek. That’s four times they’ve beaten us, and three times it’s been by six points or less,” PCA coach Kevin Griffin said.

PCA jumped out to a 22-5 lead in the second quarter before three of its top scorers and ball-handlers Brady Willis, Annie Beaugh and Brittany White all got into foul trouble. Willis had three fouls in the first half, and Beaugh and White each picked up two.

It sent them to the bench, and their replacements were unable to hold the lead. By the time they re-entered in the third quarter, Deer Creek was on a roll. The Lady Warriors outscored PCA 16-6 in the third period, then held off the Lady Eagles in the fourth quarter.

“We played through it in the second half, but it made us real tentative,” Griffin said of the foul trouble. “We couldn’t box out hard or guard hard because we were afraid we were going to foul out of the game.”

Willis had 17 points and Beaugh had 16 for PCA, which had already advanced to next week’s Class A state tournament at Greenville Christian. The top four teams at South, Central and North State advance.

Tracy Jones led Deer Creek (30-5) with 15 points.