MONTGOMERY-The Lakeside Academy Chiefs had come to Montgomery with an impressive outside game that was sure to take them to the final round of the AISA Class 1A basketball playoffs, but in their semifinal match-up with the Marion Military Institute Tigers they found themselves powerless against MMI’s Jarvoris Smith and his fast-paced Tiger teammates.

As Smith dominated the Chiefs scoring 27 points on the night to help lead the Tigers to a 64-40 win Wednesday at Huntingdon College.

Smith was an unstoppable force as he has been for the Tigers most of the season. MMI head coach Michelle Ivey has trusted in Smith from the beginning and so far he has yet to disappoint.

“He is my go to guy,” Ivey said. “He sets the tempo for this team. The rest of the team seems to responds to him. If he is hot like he was today, then it’s hard to beat us.”

The Tigers took an early 13-10 lead in the first period and never looked back lengthening the gap to as much as 25 points before the end of the first period.

But their biggest push came late in the fourth period as the Tigers outscored the Chiefs 19-11. The Chiefs proved that their outside game was had gotten them to Montgomery, but unfortunately it wasn’t enough to take them any further. The Tigers dominated every aspect of the game and by the fourth period had completely spoiled any hopes the Chiefs had of making it to the finals.

Following Smith was forward Andrew Murphy with 17 points. With so much attention being given to stop Smith, Murphy was left open throughout the second period.

With the win the Tigers advance to the final round of the AISA Class 1A playoffs where they will face off with the

Thursday night at Huntingdon College, where coach Ivey will have the opportunity to win not one, but two state championships as both her boy’s and girl’s teams advance.

“I can’t even begin to describe how it would feel to win state championship, much less two,” Ivey said.