By Myra Bean

The North Panola teams participated in the Holiday Classic Tournament held at Senatobia High School Monday and Tuesday. The tournament was originally scheduled to be played at Northwest Community College.

Despite the last minute change in venue, the teams showed up ready to play. The format was set for eight games a day.

The North Panola Cougars played the second game each day, but the tournament was not a friend to the Cougars. North Panola fell to 86-78 on Monday 77-68 and to Horn Lake 88-64 on Tuesday.

The Cougars just could not seem to get the games going their way for this holiday tournament stint.

The Cougars tied Horn Lake at three on a Darius Loveberry lay up but were not a threat at all the rest of the ball game.

Horn Lake led 25-12 at the end of the first quarter and put up at least 20 points each quarter except for 19 in the fourth quarter. At the half, Horn Lake led 47-31. To start the third quarter, Horn Lake went on a 9-0 scoring spree before the Cougars could put up their first points of the half.

North Panola garnered 23 points in the fourth quarter, but that only put a small dent in the Horn Lake lead.

The Cougars were led in scoring by Aldrick Russell with 28 points and Kiwanis Bobo with 11 points.

Leading scorer of the game was Horn Lake’s Josh Jones with 32 points, followed by teammate Kendrick Moore with 16 and Akeem Cadell with 10.

Lady Cougars

Following a blistering 71-39 loss to the H.W. Byers Lady Lions Monday evening, the Lady Cougars roared back with a resounding 50-32 win over Sheffield of Memphis Tuesday evening.

The scored was tied at four with 5:35 left in the first quarter, but Lady Cougar Jenisha “Shaq” Jackson broke the tie on a field goal and the Lady Cougars never looked back. When Sheffield looked up, the Lady Cougars had a 19-6 first quarter lead and cruised the rest of the game.

The first quarter was dominated by Jackson with her dangerous sky hook shot, but she got into foul trouble early in the first half and saw limited time in the second half.

Sheffield made some inroads into the Lady Cougar score in the second quarter and cut the lead 25-15 at halftime.

The Lady Cougars came out with a roar in the third quarter going on a 12-2 scoring spree behind the skills of Catonya Newsom and Jalisa Lyons. At the end of the third quarter, the Lady Cougars led 39-26.

Lady Cougar head coach Chris Yancy took advantage of the big lead to start substituting his bench at the end of the fourth quarter.

Two Lady Cougars scored in double figures. Brittney Patton led in scoring with 14, followed by Jackson with 13. Other scorers include Newsom, eight points; Lyons, six points; Ariel Mottely, five points; and Shaveeta Gordon, three points.

Monday afternoon the Lady Cougars the Lady Cougars could not seem to get their game going in the first half and were down 33-19 at the break. Though they came back out pumped up, the Lady Cougars still could not find any offensive answers in the second half and were outscored 38-16.

Brittney Patton led the Lady Cougars in scoring with 12 points, followed by Catonya Newsom with 10.

Byers’ Amanda Jones was the game high scorer with 29 points, followed by her teammate Rachel Jones with 15.

The Cougar teams will return to regular action Tuesday at M.S. Palmer in Marks for non-district action. Thursday, they will resume district play at Rosa Fort in Tunica. Game times are 6 p.m.