The league’s sixth leading scorer and the Cavaliers’ star player, No. 23 LeBron James, had been having back spasms and was questionable up until the game started.

James sat out the Cavaliers’ previous game the night before while his team defeated Sacramento 124-100. His back spasms seemed to go away really quick when he started the game against the Grizzlies. He scored 29 points, made 11 of 17 field goals, made four of seven three-pointers, made three of six free throws, had six rebounds, four assists, and three steals to help capture the 118-96 victory for the Cavaliers.

During the third quarter of the game, LeBron James passed the 8,000 career point total and became the youngest player to do so at 22 years and 78 days. James added another "Youngest player to ever" title to his list of accomplishments.
On the other side of the ball, Grizzlies’ Rudy Gay scored a game-high 24 points. Pau Gasol scored 23 points, had 10 rebounds, hit 10 of 19 field goals, and was three of seven on free throws. Stromile Swift added 11 points. Mile Miller, the Grizzlies’ second leading scorer, only added seven points on three of ten field goals. Miller had five rebounds and one assist.

The 22-point loss by the Grizzlies was the second worst defeat of the season. The worst one was back on January 13, when the Chicago Bulls defeated the Grizzlies 111-66 at Chicago.

On Saturday, March 18, probably 95 percent of the 14,793 fans at the FedEx Forum expected the game between the Grizzlies and the Chicago Bulls to be another blow out, thinking that the Grizzlies didn’t have a chance at all up against the Bulls again. Well, St Patrick’s Day seemed to bring the Grizzlies some good luck. The Grizzlies came out with much more enthusiasm and showed the fans that they could still win no matter who they were playing.

The Bulls came out dressed in all green to celebrate St Patrick’s Day. Starting for the Bulls were Luol Deng (F), P.J. Brown (F), Ben Wallace (C), Ben Gordon (G), and Kirk Hinrich (G).

Luol Deng started the game with a lay-up for two points and then Rudy Gay got a 26′ jump shot for the Grizzlies to take the lead. At the end of the first quarter, the Grizzlies had a 27-17 lead over the Bulls. The Grizzlies had 12 rebounds to the Bulls’ seven. At the half, the Grizzlies had hung on to their lead 54-42. The Grizzlies had 27 rebounds to the Bulls’ 18 at the half.

In the third quarter, the Bulls came back and tied the game 73-73 with 2:07 left in the quarter. The Grizzlies lost their lead right before the end of the third quarter and the score was 77-75 in favor of the Bulls at the end.

The fourth quarter gave the fans their money’s worth. It got very loud as they chanted "Defense" for the Grizzlies. The score went back and forth between both teams as they fought hard. With 9:23 left in the game, it was tied again 81-81. The Grizzlies began to play a hard defense and they quickly added to their lead by nine points with 3:27 left in the game when Rudy Gay shot a three-pointer. The next score came by Chucky Atkins with two points with 2:36 left on the clock. The score was 97-90 in favor of the Grizzlies. The Bulls began to play defense and Ben Gordon shot two three-pointers back to back.

With only 9.2 seconds left in the game, the score was tied 103 – 103. The last play of the game came when Hakin Warrick got two free throws and he only made one of them to give the Grizzlies a one-point lead of 104-103 with 4.3 seconds left in the game. That was the final score and the fans were very excited over the win.

The leading scorer for the Grizzlies was Mike Miller with 25 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, nine of seven on field goals, five of seven on three-pointers, two of two on FTA. Pau Gasol scored 21 points, 11 of 13 on FTA, and 11 rebounds. Chucky Atkins scored 19 points with four assists. Hakim Warrick added 15 points and 10 rebounds to the Grizzlies’ list. Hakim Warrick scored 15 points and 10 rebounds.

The Grizzlies will be back in action tonight at the FedEx Forum to host New Orleans and then on Thursday night they will host the LA Lakers.

There is a $50 sign up and registration fee. Age groups are 7-8, 9-10 and 11-12.

Head coach for the 7-8 year olds is Tavares "Little Joe" Lee. For more information call him at 934-4013.

Head coach for the 9-10 year olds is Roosevelt Jones. Call him at 609-6754.

Head coach for the 11-12 year olds is Fred Hentz and he may be reached at 578-2012 or call Eric Bibbs at 578-3114. Teams will start playing in August.

South Panola (17-2 overall, 3-0 district) played two games Friday and two games Saturday. For the first time this season, the Lady Tigers faced a shutout of their own against Caledonia 2-0.

The Lady Tigers had shut out Caledonia, 6-0, March 3 in the Tupelo Tournament.

Pitcher Whitney Kiihnl also picked up her first loss of the season. She pitched the complete game, striking out 12, allowing one walk and one hit.

In the five innings, the Lady Tigers had two hits from designated hitter Bethany Moore and center fielder Leann Parrish. Five batters struck out and they had two errors.

The Lady Tigers lost to district foe Southaven 3-2 in the second game of the tournament Friday night. Since this is a tournament, this game between the two teams does not count as a district matchup.

The two teams had just met in district play March 8 and South Panola won 2-0. They will meet again for a district game April 5 at South Panola.

The Lady Tigers scored first in the top of the first inning with runs by Kiihnl and second baseman Kasey Kelsay.

Southaven tied up the game in the bottom of the second inning. Southaven got in the winning run in the bottom of the fourth inning.

Kiihnl had one hit and Moore had two, including a double. Five Lady Tigers struck out.

Kiihnl registered her two losses of the season and the night, striking out eight batters. She allowed two walks, hit one batter, allowed one hit and three runs.

Both teams logged one error each.

Saturday, the Lady Tigers were back to their winning ways with back-to-back shutouts.

The Lady Tigers defeated Moss Point in the morning game in five innings, 6-0. It took seven innings to defeat D’Iberville in the afternoon game, 1-0.

Hitting for the Lady Tigers were Kelsay, one triple; Moore, one double; Haley Hood, two singles; Kiihnl, Haylei Plummer and Hillari Plummer, one hit each.

Kiihnl struck out 11 batters and walked one. The Lady Tigers committed six errors in this game.

Moore scored the lone run against D’Iberville, despite the six hits by the Lady Tigers.

Hitting for the Lady Tigers were Kiihnl and Hillari Plummer, two singles each; Haylei Plummer, one single; and Lindsey Thaggard, one double, one RBI.

The Lady Tigers registered nine strikeouts and one error.

Kiihnl struck out 12, walked two, and allowed two hits as she pitched the complete game.

The Lady Tigers continue their three-week road schedule. Monday afternoon, they traveled to Cleveland for non-district action, but the score was not available at press time.

Thursday, the Lady Tigers will be at Horn Lake (11-1) for an important district matchup at 4 and 6 PM The varsity will play first.

The Lady Tigers will play in the Grenada Tournament Saturday.

A younger friend of mine, who is also a dedicated turkey hunter, asked me the other day for some advice. Matter of fact, he started out the conversation with, "Uncle Bob, I need your advice on something."

Glory! It’s been so long since anyone younger (of course, most of the world’s population is younger’n I am now!) asked me for any advice, that I’m having trouble remembering when the last time was. Younger people these days and times tend to regard their elders as proper things to have around in their particular place, like at church or a civic club meeting.

They might ask an old codger to "Tell us what it was like before cell phones were invented," or "before computerization." But ask for advice? Opinions, maybe. Not advice.

I remember a quote from Mark Twain: "When I was 14, my Old Man was so stupid, I could hardly stand to be around him, but when I got to be 21, I was amazed at how much the old fellow had learned in seven short years!" The same theory holds true today, but the age ranges are now from 14 to probably 60. "When I got to be 60, I finally appreciated what my Daddy told me about taking care of my knees!"

So, I straightened a few kinks out of my back, sucked my belly in, and stood tall as I could as I asked, "Sure, what do you need to know?"

How’s that for starting right out with the impression that I could help the young man?

"The turkeys on my club don’t seem to gobble like they used to. How do you hunt wild turkeys when you can’t hear them gobble?"

Glory be twice! There weren’t many questions this young man could have asked that I’d have been qualified to answer (though I probably would have produced an answer anyway!), but he had hit the nail on the head. Here was something I knew something about!

See, I’ve been hard of hearing for all my life (don’t tell my choir), so to be able to turkey hunt, I had to have a different strategy than most hunters. Matter of fact, I combined the advice of two elders myownself: Mr. Jimmy Rodgers and The Brown Max.

Their wisdom was: "find a place where it looks like a turkey might walk by, get hid and be still like if the turkey saw you first he was going to shoot you, and call about every 20 minutes."

Now, I haven’t killed but maybe 250 turkeys in my life, but I have fired over 1000 shotgun shells at turkeys in nearly a half century. Wild turkeys do something to me.

They have a gris-gris on me. Deer don’t. I have killed over 400 deer, and I bet I haven’t missed more than two dozen in my life. Buck fever isn’t a problem, but gobbler fever definitely is!

Matter of fact, this same young man remarked later in the conversation that, "I read THE FLAMING TURKEY and couldn’t figure out how you could miss a gobbler, because I never had. Then after I finished the book, I missed the next five turkeys I called up!"

And now he was asking for advice? Anyway, I gave him the same that I had learned a generation before from Mr. Jimmy and Brown Max. Told him that I reckoned that for every turkey one calls up that you see, there are at least a couple more that come in but you never know they were there.

They sneak in, make you, and leave you. So, if I’ve fired 1,000 rounds at probably 750 turkeys, I must have had 2,000 turkeys within gun range who came to my call. I never heard a peep out of over 90 percent of them.

They might have gobbled, but I didn’t hear it. Therefore, I obviously don’t agree with the hunters who never hunt because they don’t hear a gobble. Hey, the turkeys are still there somewhere! Stay in the woods.

I even remember a biologist’s theory that we were killing off the birds who had the gene that makes them gobble, so the surviving turkeys are the silent type.

You may have noticed that I have referred to wild turkeys as persons; here’s another bit of advice: "If they gave turkeys guns, men would quit hunting turkeys!"