By Angie Ledbetter
and Brad Greer

 The South Panola Lady Tigers basketball team finished their regular season Friday night and will go into the division tournament this week seated second.

The Lady Tigers hosted the Starkville Lady Yellow Jackets in a district game, winning 63-49. But the night before was a different story for South Panola. They struggled and battled with Lafayette County but came out with a 59-56 victory in overtime.

“It was a big win tonight,” said Head Coach Ralph Stallings. “We had struggled last night at Lafayette but we had been off for two weeks. You could tell that we were really rusty. We made 25 turnovers. We went into overtime but were fortunate to come away with the win. Actually, I thought we should’ve lost it because we really played terrible except at the end of regularation and into overtime. I was proud of them for never giving up. We got down, the calls were going against us, we were in foul trouble but we hit some big free throws and battled back.”

“They were a little bit more concerned about coming out tonight and taking better care of the basketball. We still had some turnovers tonight but I thought that the overall effort was a lot better.”

“The girls needed to make a statement tonight because they’ll play Starkville in the first round of the division tournament next week. We’ll go in seated second and Starkville will be in third place. We lost the tie breaker to Tupelo but had identical records. They beat us more points than we beat them so they’ll go in seated in first place. Hopefully we’ll play Tupelo again in the finals if we get by Starkville and they get by Columbus.”

Leading the Lady Tigers was Chasity Kearney with 18 points. She was 6 of 12 from the two point range and 6 of 7 from the free throw line. Vetorra Cole scored 15, was 6 of 13 from two point rage and 3 of 5 from the free throw line. Skylar Barnes added 12, was 2 of 4 from the two point range, 2 of 2 from the three point range and free throw line. Monteith Brewer scored 9, was 4 of 5 from the two point range and 1 of 2 from the free throw line. Stalisha Draper added 5 and Essie Thomas added 4 to round up the Lady Tiger’s scoring.

 Kearney and Draper hit a three pointer in the first quarter and the Lady Tigers had a 16-10 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Barnes hit a three pointer at the 5:21 mark giving the Lady Tigers a 21-12 lead in the second. She canned another three pointer with 2:20 on the clock making the score 28-14. The Lady Tigers had a 32-15 lead at the half. The Lady Tigers were out scored 11-10 in the third and 23-21 in the fourth.

Scoring for the Lady Yellow Jackets was Antavious Oneal with 11, Kala Williams 10, Shay Bonner 6, Shaquinta Robinson 6, Brianna Henderson 4, Larethan Williams 4 and Rebecca Myles 1.

The Lady Tigers will take on the Lady Yellow Jackets tonight in the first round of the division tournament.