The Alabama All-Star girls’ basketball team rallied in the fourth quarter Saturday to claw out a 65-59 come-from-behind victory over Mississippi at A.E. Wood Coliseum on the campus of Mississippi College in Clinton to extend Alabama’s winning streak in the series to seven straight.

The win gives Alabama, coached by Tonya Hunter of Hewitt-Trussville and Natasha Smallwood of Susan Moore, a 20-14 lead in the series, which was being played for the 35th year in a row.

Alabama and Mississippi battled almost evenly throughout the first half, with Hazel Green’s Leah Brooks calming down the hosts with 9 rebounds – limiting Mississippi to just one shot most of the time while she was on the court. The visitors led 32-29 at intermission.

Brooks also scored 6 points and had 2 assists in her strong first-half effort. Hewitt-Trussville point guard Jordan Hunter and Syriah Daniels of Auburn led Alabama’s attacking offense with 8 and 7 points, respectively, in the first two quarters.

Mississippi came out strong in the third quarter – thanks in large part to De’Mya Porter of Bogue Chitto, who dominated the offensive boards with two put-back buckets and an assist that led to another as the hosts took 52-45 lead into the fourth period. Mississippi extended its lead to 57-45 by scoring the first 5 points of the final period before Alabama called time out with 8:37 to play.

The fourth quarter then belonged to the visitors. With Brooks continuing to dominate inside and Hunter running the team at point guard, Alabama clawed back to within 59-56 when Good Hope guard Ivey Maddox entered and tied the game at 59-59 with 3:04 to play with a 3-pointer just seconds after entering the game. She followed with a deflected pass with just over 1:30 to play in the lane that Brooks recovered, and Hunter sank a short jumper at 1:02 to take back the lead for Alabama.

Maddox came up with another defensive gem with 43.7 seconds remaining by forcing a Mississippi shot to go awry and Hunter got the rebound and was fouled. She sank both free throws to extend Alabama’s lead to 63-59.

Hunter, an Auburn University signee, sank two more free throws and the Alabama All-Stars pulled out the victory outscoring Mississippi 20-7 in the final period. Hunter finished the game with a team-high 25 points, sinking 9-of-16 shots from the field and 6-of-8 at the foul line, to earn Alabama MVP honors.

Brooks added 12 points, a game-high 14 rebounds and 3 assists, and Maddox scored 15 points in 23 minutes of play – 12 coming on four 3-point buckets. Auburn’s Syriah Daniels also had 8 points and 3 steals.