Hawks fourth in district, advance

The Holly Springs Hawks settled for fourth in the Region 2-3A Tournament, but it was good enough to send them to the state playoffs this week.

They opened region tournament play on Tuesday of last week with a 65-54 loss to the host school, Independence. Christopher Hale turned in a stellar offensive performance in defeat. He scored 28 points, including four threes and going eight of nine from the free-throw line.

Holly Springs was down by one at halftime and by four after three quarters. Then the Wildcats pulled away in the fourth.

The Hawks out-rebounded Independence 38 to 23 in the loss. Jeremiah Dowdy had 12 boards.

Holly Springs then dropped a 71-66 decision to North Panola in the district tourney consolation contest on Friday night.

The Hawks battled back from a double digit deficit in the first quarter but just couldn’t get over the hump.

Dowdy had a huge night in the loss. He scored 20 points and grabbed 13 rebounds. Josiah Johnson tallied 17 points. Scoring nine each were Jaylen Cassidy and Dawan Malone.

The Hawks, 13-13, visited Alcorn Central on Tuesday of this week to start the Class 3A playoffs. With a win, they will face the Winona-Edwards (formerly Ruleville) survivor on Saturday. The Class 3A state playoffs move to a neutral site, Itawamba Community College in Fulton, next week for the quarter-finals.

The Holly Springs boys closed the regular season Monday night, Feb. 9, at home with a 62-45 loss to Coahoma County, the number one team in the district. Double-digit scorers for the Hawks were Cassidy with 13, Johnson with 12 and Hale with 10. Dowdy and Cassidy grabbed eight rebounds each.