Winnsboro's Halle Deaton scored two of her 19 points on a fastbreak bucket in the first period in Thursday's 82-43 win over Jefferson in the area round. 

For about a quarter-and-a-half, the Winnsboro Lady Raiders and the Jefferson Lady Dawgs were going toe to toe.

The Lady Raiders led by three points before taking control en route to an 82-43 victory in the Class 3A Region II girls basketball area playoff game on Thursday at the Herrington Patriot Center on the campus of UT Tyler.

Winnsboro (31-6) advances to meet either Hooks or Waskom on Monday or Tuesday in a regional quarterfinals game.

Jefferson, which saw its six-game winning streak snapped, ends its season at 25-9.

“We have played better this season, but we ran into a buzz saw tonight,” Jefferson Coach Mark Allen said.

The Lady Raiders led 29-26 before ending the first half on an 11-3 run to take a 40-29 lead at intermission.

“Jefferson played extremely well,” Winnsboro Coach Robert Cochran said. “They are well-coached. Coach Allen has been doing it a long time. They are in a district with Tatum and Waskom. We knew it was going to be a battle.

“It’s not like we didn’t play well in the first half. They played well too. We were able to separate at the end of the (second) quarter. Then we did a good job in the third quarter and started shooting it well. We rebounded better and kept them out of the paint. That was probably the biggest difference for us defensively.”

In the first quarter, Winnsboro’s Hadlee Brown hit 13 of her game-high 21 points. Jefferson’s Taurria Hood scored all 13 of her points in the first (8 points) and second (5 points) to keep the Lady Dawgs close.

Other scorers for the Lady Raiders were Halle Deaton (19), Kaitlyn McAdoo (16), Payton Green (13), Kennedi McAdoo (9), Lexi Mitchell (2) and Karsyn Daniels (2).

Other Lady Raiders include: Cassie Coleman, Emma Claire Noll, Kinlee Swanner and Jayden Cox.

In the third quarter, juniors Deaton (10 points) and Kaitlyn McAdoo (9 points) helped fuel the margin of separation.

Also scoring for the Lady Dawgs were Keyasia Black (14), Keinysa Wallace (5), Kristen Thomas (5), Jordyn Davidson (4) and Amirie Prior (2).

Other Jefferson players include: Ava Phillips, Akilah Brasher, Casey Shepard and Alaysia Durden.

The Lady Dawgs were 6 of 10 at the free throw line and 5 of 15 from 3-point (Hood, 3; Black, 1; Wallace, 1).

The Lady Raiders were 9 of 12 at the charity striple and 10 of 23 from long distance (Kennedi McAdoo, 3; Deaton, 2; Brown, 2; Kaitlyn McAdoo, 2; Green, 1).