By Brad Greer

While most basketball fans expect an offense to put points up on the board, the defensive part of the game is sometime overlooked.

In the second installment of the South Panola- North Delta matchup of the season, it was the Lady Tiger defense putting the clamps to the North Delta Lady Green Wave 59-44 Monday on South Panola’s home floor.

South Panola held the Lady Green Wave to 30 percent shooting from the floor, but the key was  the play of junior Aziyah McGhee who held North Delta sharpshooter Ally Alford to 16 points, seven below  her season average, on 5-of-22 shooting.

Marshala Doyle and Crystal Mayes had 15 points each for South Panola (5-5) while Takyra Webster and Bailey Ware provided 12 and 11 points respectively. McGhee added four while Kaniya Ford finished with two points.

North Delta (10-6) led 18-10 early in the second quarter before the Lady Tigers went on a 15-7 run to tie the game at 25-25. South Panola then took the lead late in the period 27-24 on a Mayes layup.

The Tigers began to pull away in the second half as Ware’s trey gave the home team a 36-27 advantage.

South Panola outscored the Green Wave 14-7 in the pivotal fourth quarter when Mayes scored eight of her points.

Hannah Bollinger followed Alford with 11 points while freshman guard Shelby Grace Boone chipped in nine. Faith Bollinger ended the contest with eight points.

(Varsity Boys)

SP 80, ND 33

The South Panola boys blew open a relatively close 35-26 game at halftime by outscoring North Delta 45-7 in the second half to even their record at 4-4 on the season.

Stanwon Porter led the way with a season-high 22 points and three steals for the Tigers. J’Tavion Hicks followed with 10 points and five rebounds as 11 Tigers got into the scoring column.

Walt Miller paced the Green Wave with 11 points. Ryan Gibson provided seven while Chris Burchfield and Colin Hartman each recored six. Nolan Long registered two points and Ripkin Mitchell added one point.

Winston Winfield pulled down a game-high  seven rebounds to go along with nine points. Issac Sturdivant, JaMorris House, JaMichael Ford, Thad Kirkwood and Terry Bishop all contributed with six points.

Tre Ellis garnered five points while Christian Bobo supplied four for the Tigers.

(Junior High)

Batesville Junior High completed the four game sweep as the boys came away with a 35-21 victory and the girls won 33-23.

The Tigers were led by nine points from Jayen Smith. Brayden Martin added six on a pair of three pointers.

Nolan Long paced the Junior High Wave with nine points while Layton Wells added five and Grayson Alford chipped in with four.

Brianna McCarty’s nine points led the Batesville Lady Tigers. Libby Miller led all scorers with 15 points for the Lady Green Wave.

Numbers:

15 – Marshala Doyle and Crystal Mayes had 15 points each for the Lady Tigers.

11 – South Panola cleared the bench and 11 players scored for the Tigers in the boys varsity game.

9 – Jayen Smith had nine points for the Batesville Junior High boys. They won 35-21.