By Brad Greer

Last week proved to be a very interesting  for the South Panola boys basketball team.

After dropping a 53-49 overtime loss to Grenada last Monday, the Tigers held off a late Cleveland fourth quarter rally to take a 61-60 victory over the Wildcats Thursday night in Batesville.

With the score knotted at 60-60 with 15 seconds remaining, Chad Rudd hit the front end a one-and-one free throw opportunity to give the Tigers (3-1) the lead for good. After a Cleveland turnover, South Panola could have iced the game  but Brendan Smith missed a pair of free throws with nine seconds left. The Wildcats had one last shot to win the game but Xzabian Ramiz’s three-pointer sailed off target as time expired.

The Tiger win did not come without paying a heavy price however as starting guard James Spraggins suffered a dislocated kneecap after taking a hard fall in the second quarter. Spraggins underwent sucessful surgery Friday morning but will be lost for the season.

“By losing Spraggins more than anything we lost our only ballhandler and team leader. That only leaves me with seven players on the roster,” said Tiger head coach Charlie Howard. “ Free throws hurt us down there at the end but it also helped us win the game. But it was a total team effort by our guys to pull out the win. We had a 12-point lead going into the fourth quarter and almost lost it but our kids hung in there. Everybody had to pitch in to get this victory. I hope being in games this close will help us as the season goes along,” said Howard.

South Panola was led by Antonio Jones with 22 points while Rudd added 14. Kaswick Pierre followed with seven points and Mataras Bobo and James Watson each registered six points. Terrance Twilley and Spraggins had two.

Chasity Kearney had a game-high 31 points to lead the South Panola Lady Tigers to a 72-35 rout over Cleveland. Turkessa Burgess and Jelisa Lyons followed with nine points. Christa Brown chipped in with eight points  while Jasmon  Houston followed with six points. Brittany Moore and Dorian Winfield rounded out scoring with three points.

South Panola returns to action Dec.1 when they play host to Horn Lake starting at 6 p.m.