By Brad Greer

In a battle for Panola County bragging rights Wednesday night at the Lewisburg Invitational basketball tournament, what started out as a stroll in the park for the North Panola Lady Cougars turned into a battle to the end as North Panola held off a late fourth quarter barrage by South Panola to take a 55-44 victory.

North Panola (3-1) jumped to a 13-0 lead after one quarter and 18-0 before the Lady Tigers finally scored their first points on a Damonica Davis layup at the 6:27 mark of the second quarter.

The Lady Cougars led by as many as 23 points in the first half before settling on a 28-8 halftime lead. Sophomore forward Onesha Hunt scored eight of her game-high 18 points on the night. Teariny Wheatley led the North Panola individual scoring with 10 first-half points before finishing with 15 for the game.

South Panola meanwhile struggled with North Panola’s pressing defense in the first half as the Lady Tigers connected on 4-of-16 shots while turning the ball over 18 times.

North Panola took a 40-19 lead after three quarters before things got a little hairy in the final stanza.

Back-to-back three pointers by Chresha Brown cut the Cougar lead to 46-32 early in the fourth. Jasmine Wright drained a trey to make the score 50-38 with 1:32 remaining. A steal and layup by Brown combined with a pair of free throws by Davis with 52 seconds trimmed the score to 51-42.

South Panola then pulled as close as they have the whole night on a Shanterica Hunt layup that slashed North Panola’s advantage to 51-44 with 43 seconds left.

Following a quick time out by the Cougars, Kiana Willingham calmly sank a pair of free throws to ice the game at the 24 second mark.

Daryleshia Ward followed Hunt and Wheatley with nine points while Audrea Taylor collected five points. Willingham chipped in with four points while Whitney Pettis and Candance Motley finished with two points each.

North Panola shot 42 percent from the floor but was 23-of-30 from the free throw line on the night.
Brown led the offensive charge for South Panola with 17 points followed by Wright with 10 markers. Davis added nine while NaPorshue Strong registered six.

North Panola’s next game in the tournament is set for 1 p.m. tomorrow while South Panola hits the court at 10 a.m. tomorrow.

SP Boys

In the final contest of the night, Lake Cormorant avenged last week’s 10 point loss to South Panola by defeating the Tigers 63-54 to earn their first victory of the season.

Demarcus McKnight connected on 15-of-19 shots from the free throw line for a game-high 22 points as the Gators erased a 13-11 first quarter deficit to take a 31-22 lead at halftime.

South Panola, (1-2) came out smoking in the first quarter to take a 12-4 lead on a Kendell Turner three-point play coupled with Tevin Lamar’s trey off the backboard.

Lake Cormorant began to heat things up as the second quarter got underway as McKnight gave the Gators its first lead at 14-13 with a pair of free throws.

Dennis Sander’s steal and layup expanded the Gator lead to 20-14 with 5:07 remaining before intermission.

Free throw shooting was the factor in the outcome as Lake Cormorant was 26-of-36 from the charity stripe and South Panola connected on 16-of-24 form the line.

Myron Powell led the way for South Panola with 13 points while Turner followed with 11. Laundricus Salter registered eight points. Eric Booker added seven, Ocxavious Poole chipped in with six, Lamar accounted for three while Tydrecus Bradford, Jaylen Webster and R. J. Scott scored two points each.

South Panola will take on the Strayhorn/Byhalia loser Saturday morning at 11:30.