By Angie Ledbetter

It has been awhile since the excitement has been around the South Panola varsity boys’ basketball team but that has changed with the team’s support by the fans.

Head coach Charlie Howard said he thought the fan support was more because they have more support from parents.

“We’ve got a group of players whose parents have followed them through junior high and they have now come to the high school. I also think this was our best student body showing. Most of the fans were our students.”

The Tigers (7-2) played their first home game Thursday hosting the Cleveland Wildcats and had no problem, handing them a 77-34 loss. The week before it was a battle for first place in the Cleveland tournament with the Tigers coming out on top by nine points to bring the trophy home.

“Tonight it was 43 points and I think it was just a total team effort,” said Howard. “The five starters got us off to a really good start and then I started to substitute. The guys that came in off of the bench contributed. The last group I had on the floor I wasn’t really trying to run the score up but they couldn’t miss. Tydrecus Bradford hit two big threes and everybody contributed overall.”

Eleven players scored for the Tigers. R. J. Scott led with 15 points, followed by Kendall Turner with 12. Other scorers include Eric Booker, 9; Josh Madison and Tydrecus Bradford, 8 each; Ocxtavuios Poole 6; Myron Powell 5; Andrea Harris 4; Laundricus Salter and Tevin Lamar, 3 each; and Jordan Matthews 2.

The Tigers scored 14 points in the first quarter and 27 in the second for a 41-22 halftime lead.  Both teams added nine in the third but the Tigers outscored the Wildcats 27-3 in the fourth.

Poole entered the game with 55 rebounds and added eight in the game. Turner had seven and Booker five. Turner also had four steals and Powell had three.

“What’s fascinating about Poole is we play a one, three, one defense and he’s on the point of the defense. That means he’s the furthest guy away from the basket. He’s just aggressive to the ball.”

On Tuesday night the Tigers got a 53-51 victory over Horn Lake.

Howard did not want to say much about the win because at the time Horn Lake was scheduled to play at South Panola tonight but the games were cancelled by Horn Lake due to state testing.

“I honestly think when they ran out on the floor Tuesday night they felt like they were going to win the game and felt they were the better team. Credit to my guys they played so hard. We make a lot of turnovers and we had 16 in the first half that night and 26 for the game. We were 7 for 20 from the free throw line so we didn’t shoot the ball well and we turned it over constantly and we won the game.”

Powell entered the game as the leading scorer with 44 points, 24 rebounds and 15 steals.

“He played on one wheel tonight because he turned his ankle at the Horn Lake game. He didn’t practice for the last two days and came out tonight and did pretty well for us. We have to have him because he’s the cog in our defense,” Howard said.

“Powell has always been our toughest and greediest player but I’m going to have to pass that toward Turner. If there’s a player who’s improved since his eighth grade year it’s him,” Howard added. “He was sitting on the bench in eighth grade and has worked his rear end off and made it to the starting lineup as a junior. He’s sort of like one of the Michael Jordan type stories. No one really thought he’d turn out to be much and now he’s greedy on the floor.”

The Tigers will host Lake Cormorant Friday starting at 5 p.m. with the junior varsity game.