By Myra Bean

The North Panola Lady Cougars hosted the defending 1A state championship Coldwater Lady Cougars in non-district action Friday night.

Coldwater handed North Panola (3-1) its first loss of the season, 48-37.

It was a hard fought battle between the teams throughout the game. Even when North Panola found itself down by 15 points at the end of the third quarter, they fought to get back in the game.

The Lady Cougars got much-needed help on three straight three-pointers in the second quarter by Kyla Webb in a two minute, 10-second time span to pull within eight, 25-17 with 40.2 seconds left in the first half.

Coldwater’s Dandy Dozen player, Jerontay Clemons, drained a three-pointer at the buzzer to take a 28-17 halftime lead.

North Panola could only pluck out nine points in the third quarter while Coldwater was getting lots of scoring help from all players on the floor.

Trying to salvage the game, North Panola received help in the form of back-to-back three’s from Cearea Jackson in the fourth to lessen the gap.

Leading scorer in the game was Coldwater’s Clemons with 24 points.

Leading North Panola was Webb, nine points; Jackson, eight; and Angelica Davison, seven points. Other scorers include Teariny Wheatley and Onesha Hunt, five each; Anna Johnson, two and Daryleshia Ward, one.

The North Panola Cougars  are still faced with last-minute woes which dropped them to 0-3 on the season.

North Panola fell to Coldwater 48-45  after leading late in the fourth quarter. North Panola was down 37-31 at the end of the third quarter but pulled within one, 39-38, on field goals by Darius Jackson, Donte Howard and Robert Oliver with 6:54 left in the game.

With 4:04 left in the game, North Panola took a 42-41 lead on a Devonte Howard field goal. However, Coldwater answered with 3:35 left in the game and retook the lead 43-42.

Jackson’s three-pointer with 1:07 left tied the game at 45. The aggressive play of North Panola netted Coldwater some free throw chances which they took advantage of and broke the tie with 47.2 seconds left.

North Panola head coach Dannis Jackson attributes these close losses to youth and missing the presence of former player Cameron Shorty who just recently transferred to Senatobia. He played his first game as a Warrior Friday night.

The Cougars were led in scoring by Devonte Howard, 12 points; Donte Howard and Darius Jackson, 11 points each. Other scorers include Terrance Kirkwood, seven points and rounding out the scoring were Ketwan House, and Oliver, two points each.

The North Panola Jr. Varsity Cougars won their game 37-23 over Coldwater.

Eking Miller led North Panola with 12 points, followed by Xavier Brown with nine.

The Cougars will travel to play in a rematch with Coahoma AHS tonight in non-conference action beginning at 6 p.m.