By De’Issac House
The North Panola Cougar basketball team’s season came to a screeching one-point halt Monday night.
The Cougars (12-15) traveled to Mooreville to face off against the Troopers in the second round of the North State playoffs and lost 53-52.
The Cougars started out the game strong, being led by underclassmen Demetrick Porter and Jordan Dandridge.
Porter had four big three-pointers in the first half and Dandridge was perfect from the field.
The Troopers had no answer for the Cougars offense or defense as the Cougars forced three turnovers. The Cougars were up at the half by 10 points. The story of the game was the second half as it seemed all the hard work the Cougars put in fell apart.
The Cougars faced a determined Troopers team with a college atmosphere fan base. The Troopers came out in the second and pressured on defense knocking down every big shot.
The Troopers went three minutes without missing a shot while forcing couple of Cougar turnovers bringing the game back to a tie.
The Cougars could not put it back together as they did in the first half. The Cougars also experienced some ‘contested’ officiating.
As the game came down to the wire the Cougars could not sink the clutch free throws that would have tied the game.
Leading the team in scoring was Porter with 17 points, four rebounds and a steal. He was followed by Dandridge with 13 points and four rebounds while finishing perfect from the field.
Robert Oliver had eight points and four rebounds. Bremarkwon Bobo finished with seven points, three rebounds, one assist and a steal. Jermarcus Jones had four points, 10 rebounds and one assist. Kier Washington finished with three points.