UTICA — The first round of the Class 2A state tournament will have a championship feel.

Hinds AHS and West Bolivar will tangle in a rematch of last year’s championship game in a Class 2A semifinal Saturday morning at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson. Tip-off is at 10:30.

If you go

Class 2A semifinal

Saturday 10:30 a.m.

Hinds AHS vs. West Bolivar

at Mississippi Coliseum

The winner advances to the state title game on Thursday against either Loyd Star (23-4) or Baldwyn (29-4), who play in the other semifinal tonight.

The Hinds-West Bolivar semifinal is a clash of styles. In their last meeting, West Bolivar (23-8) was successful in slowing down the high-powered War Dawg offense. The title game never got out of the 40s as Hinds sweated out a 48-45 win. A late 3-point try by the Eagles missed in the last seconds.

“Playing them again may force me to do some different things, like bring people more quickly off the bench,” Hinds coach Keith Williams said. “I know they will have revenge on their mind. They should’ve beaten us last year. We just have to get our fast break going much earlier than we did in the championship game.”

Hinds (27-3) is keyed by three seniors — Jackson State signee Keeslee Stewart, Trevis Thomas and Cornelius Harris. Stewart averages a team-high 23.5 points per game and has made 54 3-pointers this season. Thomas averages 21.8 points and is the team’s top rebounder at 8.6 per game. Harris adds 9.7 points and 5.6 assists per game.

“Everybody knows about Keeslee and Trevis. We expect them to get their 20 points each. What we need is Cornelius to get that 12 to 15 points and those 12 points a game he gets off assists. He’s been scoring more of late because he has been shooting his jumper well,” Williams said.

West Bolivar is led by Mack Foster at 11 points per game while Davion King chips in 10.5.

Millaum Brown is the top rebounder at 8.6 per game.

“We know they want to get revenge because we upset them last year,” Stewart said. “But me, Cornelius and Trevis have been playing together all of our lives. We used it to our advantage.”

Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com