By Angie Ledbetter

The South Panola Lady Tigers saw their dream season slip through their hands Monday night as they fell to defending state champions, the Murrah Lady Mustangs, 53-50 in the first round of the north half championship.

Murrah, the No. 2 seed from division 3, came to town with a 17-7 overall record.

“It was a tough loss for our seniors,” said Lady Tiger head coach Ralph Stallings. “They battled hard. I told them I was extremely proud of them. They accomplished more this year that I thought they would or anybody did. Everybody was so new. Chasity Kearney was the only familiar face that ever played very much. I know that didn’t help their feelings much tonight but they really did accomplish a lot this year.”

The Lady Tigers outscored Murrah 17-11 in the first quarter. Jasmon Houston, Turkessa Burgess and Dorian Winfield each hit a three-pointer. Brianna McFarland made one for the Lady Mustangs.

The second quarter saw a turn around as Murrah outscored the Lady Tigers 22-11 behind McFarland’s four 3-pointers.

The game was tied at 27 with 1:51 left in the first half but the Lady Mustangs went on a 6-0 run to take a 33-27 lead into halftime.

“Murrah changed defenses but that shouldn’t have had mattered to us but it seemed like it did,” said Head Coach Ralph Stallings. “We didn’t respond real well when they went to the man (defense). We couldn’t seem to figure out that Briana McFarland was making it every time she was shooting it. We talked about it every timeout and every time we had an opportunity to have a hand in her face and don’t worry about anybody else. That didn’t seem to faze us. She hit six on us tonight.”

Houston’s three-pointer help the Lady Tigers add 11 points in the third but the Lady Mustangs went on a 9-0 run to lead 42-29 with 4:27 left in the game. The Lady Tigers battled with their own 9-2 run but the Lady Mustangs still led 44-38 going into the fourth quarter.

Twelve points in the fourth were not enough to win the game for the Lady Tigers but that never stopped them from putting up a fight. After going on a 7-5 run, the Lady Tigers had cut the lead to four, 49-45, with 3:03 left. After Houston fouled out with 17.8 seconds left, Brittany Moore came in the game for the Lady Tigers.

With 5.3 seconds left in the game, Moore sank a huge three-pointer to pull within one, 51-50.

With 4.4 seconds, Dorian Winfield fouled sending Gwen Davis to the free throw line making both baskets to give the Lady Mustangs the victory.

“The second half we did a little bit better job but that killed the lead that we had earlier when McFarland kept hitting and hitting them. Those 22 points in the second quarter, we never could overcome it.”

Kearney was the leading scorer for the Lady Tigers with 16 followed by Houston with 10. Other Lady Tiger scorers include Winfield, 9; Burgess, 6; Jelisa Lyons, 5; Moore, 3; and Christa Brown 1.

Kearney had nine rebounds and Brown had four steals.

The Lady Tigers were 77 percent from the free throw line with 14 turnovers where the Lady Mustangs were 60 percent from the free throw line with six turnovers.

McFarland was the leading scorer for the Lady Mustangs with 18, followed by Candace Foster, 13 and Jamie White, 10.