By Myra Bean

Wayne Miller is the hero of the night for the North Panola Cougars when he hit the second of two free throws to break a tie and give North Panola a 56-55 district win over Lafayette County Friday night.

Miller was playing with four fouls and no points. He was trying for the field goal as time expired and the game was tied at 55. He was fouled as the whistle blew and the clock ran down.

He missed the first one, but the second was nothing but net as the Cougars claim the win over a much improved Lafayette County Commodore team (2-21 overall, 0-8 district).

The Cougars (13-9 overall, 5-3 district) started slow and were down 11-0 in the first quarter before Deunta Howard hit a free throw with 4:41 left on the clock. At the end of the first quarter, the Cougars were down 20-7.

North Panola went on a 6-0 run to cut the lead 22-13 with 5:12 to go in the first half.

Though Miller was the end-of-game hero, it was the play and 31 points of Ricky Hunt and the double-double posted by Marque Phillips that put the Cougars in contention to win. Phillips had 13 points and 11 rebounds.

Phillips stayed under the basket to pull down rebounds when Lafayette missed key baskets. The ball got shifted to Hunt who repeatedly took the ball hard to the basket and drew numerous fouls. In the fourth quarter, Hunt went to the free throw line five times and hitting five of nine.

Hunt scored 18 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Cougar charge.

North Panola came within three points of Lafayette 55-52 with 42.1 seconds left in the game on two free throws by Hunt. Lafayette missed two free throws with 31.3 seconds left. Miller got the defensive rebound and got the ball to Hunt, who scored a trey with 21.9 seconds left to tie the game at 55. Lafayette turned the ball over on a traveling call with 12 seconds left in the game which set up the Miller foul and winning shot.

The Cougars had 14 turnovers in the game and hit 10 of 30 free throws.

Other scorers for the Cougars include Brandon Bagwell, 4 points; Darius Loveberry and Cameron Shorty, 2 points each; and Howard, 1 point.

The Cougars will host Lewisburg tonight in district action beginning at 6 p.m. with the girls game.