"It was such an exciting game," said head coach Ashleigh Hicks. "Players were crying. Parents were crying and saying we have never beaten them before."

This was one of the biggest games of the season for the Lady Tigers. Southaven has always been the team in this district by which all teams are measured.

The Lady Chargers are past state champions in this sport but they graduated their star pitcher last year.

Though that may be one reason the Lady Tigers saw a victory, Hicks contributes this win, and the previous 13, to "doing the little things right."

"The girls are coming along very well," Hicks said. "They are doing their jobs."

The Lady Tigers scored first in the top of the second inning. Hillari Plummer singled to get on base and a sacrifice bunt by Leann Parrish pushed her second base. Lindsey Thaggard hit a RBI (run batted in) double to drive Plummer home.

The Lady Tigers went up 2-0 in the top of the seventh inning. Haylei Plummer walked to get on base. There were two outs. On a passed ball, Plummer made her way to third base to set up the run. Casi Brooks hit a single RBI to score Plummer.
Southaven tried to tie up the game in the bottom of the seventh. They were able to get in one run to avoid a shutout.

Whitney Kiihnl picked up her 14th win of the season.

"Whitney is pitching tremendously," Hicks said. "She has some people looking at her."

South Panola has scored 99 runs this season and given up only four. They are 2-0 in the district.

The Lady Tigers will play an early afternoon game today against district foe Olive Branch at 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.

Friday and Saturday, they will participate in the Clarkdale tournament, near Meridian.

Friday, they will play two games at 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. against Caledonia and Southaven, respectively. Saturday, they will play two more games at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. against Moss Point and D’Iberville, respectively.

The Tigers lost to Olive Branch 6-3 Friday night in district action.

The Tigers had a 2-0 lead after a home run by Joseph Blair in the top of the second inning.

"We made four infield errors in one inning," Tiger head coach Patrick Robey said.

Those four errors turned into five unearned runs for Olive Branch. Also, Olive Branch scored on a one-run homerun.

Heath Bolton took the loss for the Tigers giving up two hits and striking out nine.

"Heath pitched a tremendous game," Robey said.

In other weekend play, South Panola swept Cleveland East Side in a double header. In the first game, the Tigers won 19-2 in four innings and shut out Cleveland 11-0 in the second game.

David Renfroe hit a homerun in one game. Bolton hit a grand slam. Coty Bryant tripled and Robbie Brown doubled.

In the first game, Whit Whitten picked up his first win of the season.

The Tigers are participating in the Madison Central Big Blue Classic.

The Tigers played two games yesterday, but the scores were not available at press time. Today the Tigers will match up against Florence High School at 10 a.m.

This will conclude play for the week as the school is on spring break. The Tigers return to action Tuesday, March 20 in Horn Lake for district games at 5 and 7 p.m.

The 2007 Conference USA Men’s Basketball Championship was held at the FedEx Forum
March 7-10.

Memphis was making its third straight appearance in the Conference-USA Tournament. Last year, they won the title by defeating UAB 57- 46 and in 2005, they lost a heart breaking game to Louisville with a score of 75-74.

The tournament started on Wednesday, but the Tigers, seeded No. 1 with a 16-0 conference record had a first round bye. They held an overall record of 27-3 going into the tournament. The Tigers own the nation’s longest winning streak with 22 straight games. The last game loss was on December 20, to Arizona.

On Thursday, the Tigers played No. 8 seeded Marshall and had no trouble putting them out with a score of 92-71. The Tigers forced 17 Marshall turnovers in the first half for 26 points, while they only had four.

Five Memphis players reached double-figures. Jeremy Hunt and Doneal Mack both scored 19 points; Joey Dorsey, 14; Chris Douglas-Roberts, 11; and Robert Dozier, 10. Dorsey also had 11 rebounds.

In the semi-finals on Friday, the Tigers put away No. 4 seeded Tulane, 71 – 49, to advance to the championship game.

In that game, the Tigers logged their longest winning streak in school history winning 21 straight games. They also extended their home winning streak to 31 games. Memphis forced 22 Tulane turnovers, scoring 29 points. Roberts was the leading scorer with 17 points, followed by Hunt with 10 points and Antonio Anderson with nine. Dozier had nine rebounds and Dorsey pulled down six.

On Saturday morning, March 10, the No. 1 Memphis Tigers took on No. 3 Houston for the C-USA title.

The Tigers had a game on their hands.They took the lead for the first time from Houston with 4:23 left in the first half when they went up 27-26.

The Tigers got on fire then and continued it. With only one minute left in the first half, the Tigers went up 35-29. At the half, the Tigers had a 40-29 lead over Houston. It was all Tiger basketball from there on.

Houston could not stop the hungry Tigers from winning their second straight C-USA title on their home court and before all their loud supporting fans. Leading the Tigers in scoring were Roberts and Anderson with 17 points each. Other scorers include Willie Kemp, 10; Dorsey, 9; Dozier, 8; Mack, 5; Allen, 3; and Hunt, 2. Joey Dorsey had 13 rebounds and Dozier had 10.

The Tiger basketball team was presented with the championship caps and t-shirts after the game, followed by the trophy. Some of the players danced on the scorer’s table at the FedEx Forum, holding up their C-USA Trophy to all of their supporting fans. Some players even climbed a ladder and cut down pieces of the net. Hunt cut down the rest of the net and draped it around his neck. That was how he exited the FedEx Forum for the last game of his Tiger career. Hunt got emotional in his interview after the game. He talked about how much it meant to him to play for the Tigers and how the team was a family and they were all very close. He also talked about how much he loved head Tiger coach John Calipari.

By wining this championship, the Tigers were hoping to get a No. 2 seed or No. 3 seed to the 2007 NCAA Tournament. Some players even felt they deserved a No. 1 seed. The announcement came on Sunday night the Tigers would be a No. 2 seed. They made plans to travel to New Orleans to play North Texas on Friday, March 16.

The Tigers had some key players who wrapped up post season honors.

Douglas-Roberts was named MVP. Roberts had a total of 45 points in the conference, eight rebounds, and five assists.

Dorsey was named the league’s Defensive Player of the Year, while Hunt was C-USA’s Sixth Man of the Year. Dorsey was also named to the conference’s inaugural All-Defensive Team and was joined by teammate Anderson.

Dorsey was named to the All-C-USA first pick and Hunt was named to the second team selection.

South Panola defeated Horn Lake in the first match of the season, 5-0, on Monday, March 5 on the road for a 2-0 overall and 2-0 district record.

South Panola has three mixed double teams, two double teams, single single boys teams, and one single girl team.

The mixed double team of Jonathan Ware and Jordan Williams won 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.

Alyssa Boren and Blake Goodwin won 6-0 and 6-0.
Losing in mixed doubles was the team of J.P. Wallace and Nikki Reinemann, 2-6, 1-6.

The girls double team of Marlee Goforth and Ashley Roberson won 6-3, 6-4 in the deciding match of the evening.

Manuel Henrich and Roy Ruiz lost their boys double game in three sets 4-6, 7-5, 3-6.

In singles, Grant Goforth dominated and won his sets 6-0, 6-0.

Regina Rehorovska lost both of her sets 4-6, 1-6.

Matthew Dooley won both of his sets 6-0 and 6-0.
After spring break, the team returns to action Tuesday, March 20 at Center Hill beginning at 4 p.m. The team will travel to Senatobia March 22 for non-district action at 4 p.m.

South Panola will return home to host Lafayette in non-conference action March 27 at 4 p.m.

There has been quite a media stir lately, with most commentators trying to boost each other onto the ever-rolling bandwagon of Global Warming. Rightly so.

The Earth has been warming gradually since the last Ice Age, about 13,000 years ago, except for a 500-year period during the Middle Ages known as the Little Ice Age. Surface temperatures have increased about one degree in the last 150 years.

The coldest year since relatively-global record-keeping started was 1862, when millions of Americans were focused on killing each other. The winter of 1908 was close to that cold.

In 1975, the same people who are now pitching hissy fits about Global Warming were pitching hissy fits about Global Cooling! Suffice it to say that if the weather doesn’t suit you now, just wait, because it will change!

While I am certainly not a scientist, I am a reader, and have books on the Global Warming subject as well as many other subjects. I think it was Will Rogers who declared that there are "Lies, dam’lies, and statistics."

May have been Mark Twain. I have seen (in different books) each of them credited with the statement. Point is, while some people are tearing their hair out about Global Warming, other just as qualified scientists believe that it is a 13,000 year-old phenomenon that will eventually cycle back t’other way. So, how does Global Warming affect us Down Heah in the South in this month?

When it begins to warm up each spring, wild turkey gobblers begin gobbling and looking for hens to breed with. Wild turkey hens begin feeling amorous and looking for gobblers to breed with.

Now, that’s Global Warming to look forward to!

I ain’t a betting man (put all my money into Delta farmland years ago) but if I were, I’d bet that those media-seeking Global Warming self-proclaimed experts do not hunt wild turkeys.

If they did, they would be campaigning for longer seasons, simply because of the argument that Global Warming will eventually prolong the wild turkey mating season into an all-year session that will drive strong men to drink and drive their wives into considering murder instead of divorce.

Why, I can remember when we only hunted wild turkeys for maybe a week in March and a week in April. I know one turkey hunter who now starts harvesting Mississippi gobblers in early March and ends up close to the Canadian border still hunting wild turkeys in June!

He is all in favor of Global Warming until the North Pole opens an August thru September turkey season, which he hopes will occur just as the Mississippi fall turkey season is expanded from October thru early December, with a few weeks off so that he can see about his wife and business before he has to start hunting wild turkeys in Panama in January.

Betsy and I just ate Sunday lunch out at her High Place, where the Lion lies down with the Lamb, and I’m here to tell you that Global Warming hath come, at least out here at Brownspur!

The birds are loud enough to disturb my afternoon nap, which has gravitated to the hammock under the oaks now that we’ve Warmed. The scent of the sweet olive bush and the plum trees might near knock you down, and the daffodils and snowdrops are in full bloom on the Mammy Grudge ditch bank.

Our neighbor Ann, The Mammy Grudge Potter, tooted as she drove by in her little red convertible with the top down. Cessna and Piper hit the Swimming Hole as soon as they got here, and Sir The Grandson was sitting outside basking in the sunshine. Yessir! Houston, we have liftoff on Global Warming at Brownspur!

On my way home from a Kairos Prison Ministry meeting in Jackson, the pear, plum, and dogwood trees were beautiful along the roadside, especially for a short stretch of the Natchez Trace. I saw a flock of wild turkeys duck back into cover as my car approached, and the big gobbler’s head was red, signifying that he was Globally Warmed all over, thinking about those hens.

Oh, I know that some biologists will tell you that what alerts the turkeys about breeding has to do with the hours of sunlight rather than the days warming up, but duh!

Global Warming? Bring it on to Brownspur. We ain’t skeered!