Porters Chapel’s Chip Lofton (2) drives in for a layup past Briarfield’s Jeff Bagbey during the Eagles’ 62-47 win in the Conference 5-A tournament semifinals on Friday night.(Jon Giffin The Vicksburg Post)

[2/7/04]There’s magic in the blue uniforms.

Playing as the road team in their home gym for the second straight game, Porters Chapel Academy turned in another upset by beating Briarfield, 62-47, in the second round of the Conference 5-A tournament on Friday.

The Eagles, who lost to Briarfield by 23 points in their last meeting on Jan. 20, advance to face top-seeded Franklin in the tournament championship game tonight at 6:30.

Chip Lofton led PCA (14-11) with 20 points, Dan Ivey had 13, Michael Warren added 10 and Allen Cassell had eight points and nine rebounds.

Montellus Craft paced Briarfield (10-6) with 17 points and nine rebounds, but was 7-for-17 from the field and 2-for-6 from 3-point range. Most of his points came early in the second half, when he scored seven straight to rally Briarfield from a 26-24 halftime deficit.

“It feels incredible. It’s the first time in a while that Porters Chapel has even won a game in district and now we’re going to the finals,” said Lofton, who also had five rebounds, three assists and four steals. “A lot of people had doubts that we could beat Briarfield, but we shut down Montellus and shut down the rest of their guys.”

The game was close until early in the fourth quarter when, with PCA leading 39-36, Briarfield’s Joseph Hopkins was called for his fifth foul and a technical. As Hopkins came to the bench, Rebels coach Bobby Holt gave him a shove and an irate Briarfield fan came out of the stands on the far side of the court to confront the coach.

The fan pushed Holt to the ground, and the two engaged in a shoving match before being separated by administrators, players and coaches from both schools.

“I didn’t really do anything. All I did was turn around and had a guy on my back. But I’d rather let that be gone and be history,” Holt said, adding that he didn’t think the bizarre sequence affected his team’s play down the stretch. “That had nothing to do with the outcome of the game. Porters Chapel totally outhustled us. They were well, well prepared.”

When play resumed, PCA’s Josh Gain hit a free throw to complete a three-point play and Lofton hit one of two free throws from the technical to give the Eagles a 43-36 lead.

Craft hit a layup on the Rebels’ next possession, but PCA answered with a layup from Dan Ivey on the other end to make it 45-38 and pulled away from there. Without Hopkins’ height, Briarfield struggled to keep the Eagles out of the lane. PCA took advantage of it by going inside for several backdoor passes and easy layups.

The Eagles went on an 8-2 run after Craft’s layup to make it 51-40, and Briarfield never got the deficit back to single digits.

“We only had seven players, and my two substitutes are pretty short,” Holt said. “I knew once we lost the big guy inside … that pretty much sealed it. Up until then I still thought we could probably come back.”

(G) SIA 41, PCA 35

Kristen Cox had 14 points and Niki Wilson added 13 as Sharkey-Issaquena advanced to the girls’ championship game by beating Porters Chapel.

SIA will face top-seeded Deer Creek today at 5 p.m., while PCA will play Humphreys in the third-place game at 2 p.m.

SIA (20-13) took the lead for good with a 12-2 run in the first quarter, then held off the Lady Eagles for the rest of the game. SIA never led by more than seven points, but PCA never got within four, either.

Annie Beaugh led PCA (17-12) with a game-high 19 points, and Amy Beaugh added 11.