By Myra Bean
Aside from Marico Tolliver out for the first quarter and a half for fighting last week, North Panola head coach Clifton Davis Sr. reports the team is healthy and ready to take on Lafayette County Commodores tonight.

The Cougars (1-1) will travel for the first time this season into “angry Commodore” territory for non-district action.

Lafayette (0-2), who downed South Panola 7-0 in spring action, is looking to bounce back from the slow start this season.

Davis said in the spring and in preseason Lafayette was the 4A team expected to go to the state championship in Jackson, but 5A Madison Central and 4A Shannon made the Commodores’ future look grim.

“They will be looking to righttheir ship,” Davis said. “But we will be looking to right our own ship.”

Last year North Panola lost to Lafayette County 32-14. Davis said the Cougars played the Commodores hard.

“We have to match our enthusiasm to their enthusiasm,” Davis said. “We have to put our second half with our first half and correct some things before district play begins next week.”

According to oxfordeagle.com, Shannon shut down Lafayette quarterback Montez Phillips with the blitz and lots of pressure throughout the game. Shannon made Lafayette County make mistakes and turn the ball over and capitalized on the Commodores.

At halftime, Lafayette County plans to honor Peggie Gilliom-Granderson and Lorenzen Wright and retire their jerseys from the school.

According to information retrieved from www.oxfordeagle.com Gillom-Granderson graduated from Lafayette and then went on to play college basketball at Ole Miss where she was coached two years by Van Chancellor.

She become the second leading scorer and rebounder in Lady Rebel history.

Gillom-Granderson played professional basketball for a few seasons and then went into coaching under Chancellor, where she was coached her sister, Jennifer and helped lead the Lady Rebels to 14 NCAA Tournament appearances.

She then made a name for herself as the head coach of Texas A&M before coming back home to Lafayette County as an assistant coach under Carol Ross. Ole Miss went to three NCAA Tournaments, including advancing to the Elite Eight in 2007, in Gillom-Granderson’s first four years.

The team also made the WNIT in 2006 and has a chance to make postseason again this season.

Wright then went on to play at the University of Memphis and was drafted seventh overall by the Los Angeles Clippers in the 1996 draft.

Since starting his career with the Clippers, Wright has played with the Memphis Grizzlies, the Atlanta Hawks twice and most recently with the Sacramento Kings.

On Saturday, Wright signed a free agent deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Kickoff for tonight’s game is 7:30 in Oxford.