By Brad Greer
Having suffered through a two-win season last year, the South Panola boys basketball team had a chance for a return trip to the North 6A State playoff for the first time since 2012. But as fate would have it, the Tigers saw their season end with a 63-60 loss to homestanding Hernando in the Region 2 consolation game Friday night.
Columbus ( girls) 46, SP 34
In the region championship game, the Lady Falcons used a stingy defense to hold South Panola to 27 percent shooting and the district title. South Panola hosted Region 1- third place finisher Desoto Central last night with the winner traveling to Murrah Friday night.
The Lady Tigers could not get anything going offensively as leading scorer Jasmine Wright was held to 10 points. Alexis Smith garnered 12 points to lead South Panola in scoring.
Neither team could get in sync offensively. South Panola led 9-8 after one quarter of play. Zaria Jenkins tallied six of her 13 points in the second quarter to give Columbus a slim 19-17 advantage at halftime.
The Lady Falcons (18-7) slowly began to pull away from South Panola as the second half got underway. Sydney Morgan’s three-pointer along with a basket from Smith accounted for the only two field goals South Panola could muster up in the third quarter.
Rokila Wallace hit a pair of key buckets late in the quarter to give Columbus its largest lead of the game at 39-28 with under a minute remaining. Kayla Rogers led the Falcons with 19 points.
Chloe Morgan contributed with five points while her sister Sydney Morgan followed with three. Marshala Doyle and Breanna Bland finished with two points each.    
Hernando boys 63, SP 60
South Panola ends its year with an 8-10 record while Hernando (13-15) advances to the North State playoffs as they take on Desoto Central.
Jordin Smith led the Tigers with 25 points, but it was not enough as Eli Powell and Garrett Garner paced Hernando with 19 and 17 points each.
South Panola took its first lead of the second half at 47-46 on a Smith three-pointer with 4:48 remaining in the game. Hernando took control with a 10-2 run over the final three minutes. Adrian Mays hit the back end of a one and one free throw opportunity to give Hernando a 59-52 advantage with 58 seconds to play before the Tigers made one last push.
Montray Blackburn and Smith nailed three-pointers followed by a Kendricus Carlton basket that closed the margin to 63-60. South Panola’s last gasp came as Hernando turned the ball over with 2.5 seconds but Smith’s half court desperation shot at the buzzer came off the rim.
South Panola took an early 5-0 lead in the first quarter before Hernando went on a 7-0 spurt. Smith gave the Tigers a 15-9 advantage on a one-handed jam off a Hernando turnover. The home standing Hernando Tigers led 27-25 at halftime with Powell leading the way with 11 points.
South Panola shot 20-of-52 from the floor and 14- for-18 from the free throw line while turning the ball over nine times.
Carlton followed Smith with eight points while Kenon Johnson and Andre Gleaton added seven each. Blackburn supplied six with Key chipping in five. Bobby Thomas rounded out the scoring with two points.