By Myra Bean

The South Panola Tiger basketball team suffered its first loss of the season Monday in a shoot out with Ray Brooks, 54-53.

The Tigers (4-1) defeated St. Joe Tuesday, 61-42.

Against Ray Brooks, South Panola led 34-18 at halftime.

After going scoreless in the first quarter, Tiger Jordin Smith scored all of his 11 points in the second quarter. Dric Carlton scored a total of 10 points in the first two quarters.

South Panola led 12-9 going into the second quarter on the shooting of Andre Gleaton with five points also.

Kenon Johnson contributed four points in the second quarter.

The second half was a different game for the Tigers. Ray Brooks cut the lead 44-33 going into the fourth quarter and proceeded to outscore the Tigers 21-9 to take the lead and the game.

The team was five of 11 from the free throw line.

Gleaton and Smith scored 11 points each to lead the Tiger team. Gleaton also had five rebounds and four steals. Smith had six rebounds and four steals.

Carlton scored 10 points and had two rebounds and two steals.

Other scorers include Quen Poole and Johnson with eight points each; Ken McMurry, three points; and Bobby Thomas, two points.

Byron Robinson had five rebounds.

SP 61, St. Joe 42

The Tigers shot 8-of-11 from the free throw line to take down St. Joe.

Gleaton led the team with 21 points, including three three-pointers, four rebounds and four steals.

South Panola led 21-5 after the first quarter and 36-16 at halftime. St. Joe made up some ground in the third quarter scoring 19 points to cut the lead to 12 points, 47-35.

The Tigers held St. Joe to seven points in the fourth quarter to foil any type of comeback attempt.

Also scoring for the Tigers were Thomas, 11 points, two rebounds, two steals; Carlton 10 points and seven rebounds.

Other scorers include Poole and Johnson, six points each. Poole also had seven rebounds and one steal while Johnson pulled down four rebounds and one steal.

Smith scored four points and had three rebounds while Robinson scored three points and had three rebounds.

The Tigers remain on the road the rest of December. They played host team Cleveland in the tournament Thursday night but the score was not available at press time.

The Tigers will travel to Clarksdale Tuesday for games starting at 6 pm. Friday, the teams travel to Lafayette for four games starting at 4 p.m.