As the minutes melted off the clock Monday night and their opponent kept clanging shots off the rim, the Porters Chapel Lady Eagles got to savor a feeling that’s become all too rare recently.

The thrill of victory.

PCA outscored Mt. Salus 31-5 over the last 12 minutes of the first half, and the Lady Eagles took advantage of a brutally bad shooting night from Mt. Salus to cruise to their first win of the season, 49-29. PCA (1-4, 1-2 District 5-A) won only two games last season.

“It feels really good,” said point guard Amanda Bufkin, who had 11 points and five rebounds. “We’ve been working hard and it helps to finally have it pay off.”

Shelby Wells had 16 points, seven rebounds and six steals for PCA, Cristin Windham grabbed 11 rebounds and Paige Moore had seven points and 14 rebounds. Desharra Jackson had 16 points and six steals for Mt. Salus, which was done in by a horrendous shooting night.

After hitting three of its first four shots and taking an 8-0 lead four minutes into the game, Mt. Salus went 2-for-21 from the field for the rest of the half. PCA pulled even at 11-11 by the end of the first quarter, then outscored Mt. Salus 20-2 in the second period. The visiting Lady Eagles didn’t hit a shot in the second quarter until Jackson dropped in a layup with 1:54 to play.

PCA stretched its lead to 31-13 at halftime, and kept the margin around 20 points for most of the second half. Mt. Salus finished the game 11-for-54 shooting, to go along with a 4-for-18 night at the foul line.

Take away the strong start, and it shot a crisp 16 percent for the game from the field. Mt. Salus also committed 34 turnovers and went 3-for-27 from 3-point range.

PCA outrebounded Mt. Salus 44-25 and shot 47 percent for the game. Every PCA starter scored at least six points, and four of the five had five rebounds or more.

Mt. Salus nips PCA boys, 54-53

George Thomas hit a go-ahead free throw with 47.9 seconds to play, and Mt. Salus held on as PCA missed two shots in the final five seconds that would have won it.

Thomas had a game-high 23 points, to go along with six steals and five assists for Mt. Salus (6-2, 5-1), and Kamry Owens added 15 points and eight rebounds. For PCA (0-3, 0-3), Clayton Holmes had 15 points and five steals, and Jacob Rachal had nine points and eight rebounds.

Although each team had a few runs, neither was able to string a couple together and pull away. Holmes scored 10 points in the second half to lead PCA back from a seven-point deficit early in the fourth quarter, and tied the game at 53 on a baseline jumper with 1:15 left in the game.

Thomas split a pair of free throws to put Mt. Salus back in front with 48 seconds left, and Rachal missed a shot on the other end. Holmes came up with a steal, though, to set up a frenetic final 26 seconds.

After inbounding the ball, PCA worked it around for a quality shot. It found none, and settled for a jumper by Holmes in the lane with about five seconds left. It was off the mark, but went out of bounds to PCA with 2.7 seconds left.

Another inbounds pass was deflected out of bounds again with seven-tenths of a second left, and Josh Hill missed an open 3-pointer from the corner as the horn sounded.

*

Contact Ernest Bowker at ebowker@vicksburgpost.com.