SENATOBIA – Tiesha Tunstall turned in her second 20-point game of the season on Sophomore Night to lead all scorers and Northwest knocked off Holmes 76-60 to claim the MACJC North Division Championship and No. 1 seed at next week's state tournament. | Watch Replay

Northwest closed the regular season on a four-game winning streak to match its most wins since the 2008-09 season. They improved to 18-5 overall and 9-3 in the north while Holmes' season ended at 10-13 overall and 5-7 in the north.

The teams exchanged five ties and two lead changes in a tightly contested first half, but Northwest used a 23-7 run and began to pull away thanks to 18 points off turnovers.

The Lady Rangers led by as many as 13 in the half with 1:28 left and Nikki McChristian carried the load with 16 first half points on 6 of 11 shooting.

Neither team shot extremely well with Holmes at 36 percent against 33 percent for Northwest.

The second half, however, belonged to Northwest as Tunstall caught fire.

The sophomore scored all of her season high 21 points in the second half on 9 of 15 shooting after taking just three shots in the opening 20 minutes.

Holmes missed 10 of its first 12 shots to open the second and the Lady Rangers' lead ballooned to 24.

Despite losing the edge on the boards, 46-42, Northwest hit 17 of its 23 free throws on the night, forced 27 turnovers and physically wore down Holmes who was outmanned with only seven players.

Behind Tunstall's 21, McChristian scored 16 points, Shequana Sledge added nine and Monique Biggins had eight points and eight rebounds. Tamia Grady had a team high 19 followed by a double-double from Karla Levy (12 points, 10 rebs.)

Northwest will return to action on Monday, Feb. 25 at 3 p.m. against Jones County in the opening round of the MACJC State Tournament at Pearl River.

Live stats will be available for all Northwest games at www.sidearmstats.com/northwestms/wbball.