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Jy’Kierra Oliver never experienced an area championship before Wednesday night.

The lone senior on the Selma girls basketball team took it all in, from cutting down the nets to wearing the net as a necklace.

“It was an amazing feeling because I never experience anything like this,” Oliver said. “And it’s an honor to share this with my teammates and experience this together.”

Selma’s Lady Saints (18-3) took the Class 5A, Area 5 girls championship in convincing fashion, defeating the Jemison Lady Panthers 65-31 Wednesday night. Selma will host the sub-regional round on Friday night.

Oliver was named the most valuable player of the tournament. Two days after she finished with a quadruple double, she followed it up with another 27-point performance to lead the Lady Saints. Selma also celebrated Oliver achieving 1,275 points in her career.

She said the achievement was due to her teammates.

“Everyone is playing their roles and helping me,” Oliver said. “They gave me open shots; they were looking for me to take it to the rack, and everything they did helped me. And it helped having coach on my side to motivate me, telling me to take them.”

Also named to the all-tournament team were Rod’Neshia Parker who finished with 18 points and Safiya White who finished with 14 points. Shamiya Blake added five points while McKenzie Carter had four points.

Jemison was led by Trinity Bean with 14 points followed by Corona Lucas with five, Chloe Calloway with four Braelyn Bradford with four, Holly Wyatt with three, Maricela Quintanilla with two and Zariyah Johnson, the Lady Panthers’ leading scorer against Demopolis, with one point.

Selma took control from the opening tip leading 19-7 after the first quarter. A19-11 advantage in the second quarter increased the Lady Saints’ lead to 38-18. The onslaught continued in the third quarter as Selma won the period 17-7 to get a 30-point lead and a running clock for the final quarter.