The Lafayette High girls basketball team are Jackson bound after discarding Leake Central with ease in a 68-30 rout in their MHSAA Class 4A second round game at the LHS Gym Friday night.

Shaniyah Buford scored a game-high 20 points to lead the Commodores (22-6) over the Gators in a game that was not close from the start.

Lafayette used successful transition offense to jump out to a comfortable 36-16 halftime lead. Buford scored 16 of her points in the first 16 minutes of action.

After having a lead against Shannon in their first round game on Monday and watching it disappear, Lafayette made sure that did not happen twice in the same week as the Commodores kept the pressure on in the third quarter and pushed their lead to 25 points after three periods of play.

“We were in this position against Shannon on Monday night,” Lafayette head coach Shayne Linzy said. “Obvioulsy, not near the size of lead but a lead nonetheless. My message was don’t change anything up.”

Xhiir Burgess and Orianna Shaw both scored nine points with Azariah Buford adding eight points.

With the win Lafayette advances to the quarterfinals and will face Florence, who defeated East Central on Friday night, at Jackson State University on Thursday at 5:30 p.m.

Look for more coverage on the Commodores’ win in Sunday’s print edition of the EAGLE.