Capacity Cougar den crowd cheers NP  Cougars to tournament championship

Every basketball team sets goals of winning a district and post season tournament championship on their way to a possible state title.

The North Panola boys basketball team is halfway there after defeating Charleston 53-44 Friday night to capture the Region 3-3A tournament in a standing room-only Cougar Den.

North Panola (22-7) opens first-round play of the North State playoffs tonight at 7:30 as they host Region 2­—fourth seed Nettleton. A victory moves the Cougars into Thursday night’s second round against the Ruleville/Alcorn Central winner  in Mooreville at 8:30.

Should Mooreville lose their first-round game tonight, North Panola will host the North State tournament.

Despite falling to Charleston 60-22 in the title game Friday night, the North Panola Lady Cougars will also host Nettleton tonight at 6 p.m. Should the Lady Cougars win, they will square off against the Ruleville/Kossuth winner at 5:30 Thursday at Ripley.

In the boys championship game, North Panola found themselves trailing 17-13 at halftime only to outscore the Tigers 20-9 in the third quarter.

Robert Oliver’s three-point play  cut the Charleston lead to 23-21 with 4:05 left in the quarter. Less than a minute later, Darrius Jackson nailed a three-pointer to give the Cougars a 27-25 lead.

Devonte Howard then brought the house down when the senior connected on his second trey of the period to extend the North Panola lead to 31-25 with 1:51 remaining.

Charleston twice cut the deficit to four points, but North Panola’s Gerotney Kelson would have no part of that as the sophomore scored 13 of his game-high 20 points in the fourth period to ice the game.

“This win was big, not for just us but for this school and this community,” said Kelson, who along with Oliver, Jackson and Ketawan House, was named to the All-Tournament team.

“We struggled some in the first half to find our rhythm, but Pooh-man (Jackson) and Devonte gave us the spark we needed with those three’s they hit in the third quarter. I was just fortunate there in the fourth quarter to hit a few shots to keep the lead,” said Kelson who also registered 10 rebounds and two steals.

House followed Kelson with 12 points to go along with nine boards and one steal. Oliver also registered 12 points and eight rebounds. Howard chipped in with six points while Jackson chipped in with five points and four rebounds.

“I just want to thank God for this opportunity to be around a special group of boys that stick together and believe in each other. It has been a blessing, “said  Cougar head coach Christopher Yancy.

“One big key tonight was our freethrow shooting. We were seven-of-24 last night  (in a 63-46 win over Independence), but we worked on that this morning and corrected that. We  wanted to come tonight and relax and play ball,” said Yancy.

“We knew a lot was at stake tonight but we wanted the guys to take a deep breath and play basketball. We came out flat in the first half, but I did not get onto them at halftime because they knew what had to be done in the second half,“ said Yancy.

After an emotional 57-43 semi-final win over Byhalia Thursday night, the Lady Cougars ran out of gas in Friday night’s title game versus the regular season champion Charleston Tigers.

North Panola (17-12) fell behind 21-7 after one quarter of play and 32-18 at halftime.
Anna Johnson’s layup with 1:39 left in the second quarter was the last points scored for nearly 13 minutes before an Audrea Taylor basket broke the drought with 1:51 left in the contest.

Candance Mottley led North Panola with six points while Taylor and Daryleshia Ward each totaled four points. Tearney Wheatley added three points while Onesha Hunt and Johnson contributed with two points each. Takymdris Clay rounded out the scoring with one point.
Hunt and Mottley paced the Cougars with 24 and 22 points each in the win over Byhaila. Ward added eight points while Clay scored two points. Kiana Willingham registered one point.
Hunt and Mottley represented North Panola on the All-Tournament squad.