By Brad Greer

Both South Panola boys and girls basketball squads remained undefeated on the young season with a pair of blowout victories  against visiting Cleveland Thursday night.

In the first game, what started out to be a battle of the unbeaten quickly turned into no contest as the No.5 ranked Lady Tigers hammered the Kittens 83-44 while their male counterparts were equally impressive with a 84-28 trouncing of the Wildcats.

Junior Chasity Kearney poured in a game-high 31 points on 12-of-15 shooting from the floor as the Lady Tigers built an 41-18 halftime lead then cruised the rest of the way to improve to 5-0 on the year. Vetorra Cole followed with 21 points as 11 players got into the scoring column. Valerie Lucas scored 11 of her 13 points in the second half to lead the Kittens (5-1) in scoring.

South Panola jumped out to a 19-6 lead at the end of the first period on  Kearney’s jumper from the free throw line that ended a 13-0 scoring run. After that, things got a little heated.

With 5:36 remaining before halftime, Cleveland’s Ashley Jackson and South Panola’s Essie Thomas got their feet tangled up on a inbounds play while hitting  the floor. Jackson  gave Thomas a swift kick, Thomas then retaliated with three punches before referees could separate the two. Both players were ejected from the game as well as two spectators from the visiting team who were escorted from the building by law enforcement.

After cooler heads prevailed, South Panola extended its lead to 31-8 on Racquel Burdette’s jumper in the lane with 3:58 mark. Stlaisha Draper’s two free throws gave the Lady Tigers its largest lead of the first half at 37-16.

The second half was all South Panola as they outscored Cleveland 43-26 over the last 16 minutes. Burdette chipped in with six points followed by Madison Greenlee, Draper, Jasmine Sims and Skyler Barnes who all had four points while Christie Brown added three. Jasmine Houston, Turkessa Burgess and Thomas rounded out the scoring with two points each.

In the nightcap, Rico Keys scored 20 points to lead five players in double-figure scoring for the Tigers as they coasted to their fifth win of the year. James Spraggins followed with 15 points and five steals in the first half as South Panola led 37-9 at halftime and 60-15 at the end of three quarters on the strength of a 29-4 run that started on a Terrence Lamar inside bucket with 2:25 left before halftime.

Kerrion Moore added 11 points while Quen Robinson and Jason Sims recorded 10 points each. Antonio Jones followed with nine while Patrick Howard chipped in with five and Lamar three points. The Tigers shot a sizzling 66 percent from the floor while the Wildcats connected on 30 percent.

Both South Panola squads hit the hardwood next Tuesday at Horn Lake before returning home Dec. 9 to open  Region 2 play against Columbus.