Hawks go to 5-0 in district

Holly Springs split with North Panola in District 2-3A games Friday – the boys winning by eight points and the girls losing by seven.

The Lady Hawks opened the action with a 54-47 setback versus the Lady Cougars.

In the first quarter, the game was knotted several times. Camee Faulkner’s two tied the game for its third time at 6. Jasmine May’s free throw for the Lady Cougars broke the tie. Faulkner came back and drilled a three to put the Lady Hawks up 9-7 with 2:09 remaining. But a North Panola two deadlocked the game again.

Faulkner answered with back-to-back buckets to make the home team’s lead 13-9. And at the buzzer, Shretta Jeffries fired in a shot to put the Lady Hawks on top 15-9 at the end of the first quarter.

The Lady Hawks had outscored the Lady Cougars 9-8 in the second period to widen the lead a little further, 24-17, at the half.

The Lady Cougars’ scoring kicked into high gear in the third. They began to narrow the gap. Qui’Tonya Webster’s two-pointer had the Lady Cougars trailing by one, 26-25, at the 5:26 mark. Both teams were clicking more offensively in this frame. At the end of the third, the Holly High girls were on top, leading 40-33.

Down the stretch, the Lady Cougars didn’t let up. They poured in 21 more points compared to the Lady Hawks’ seven and celebrated the district win.

Faulkner was the top performer for the Lady Hawks (7-11 overall and 2-3 in the district) with 22 points. Jeffries added 10.

Hawks down Cougars

The Hawks held the first quarter lead. At the break, they were trailing the Cougars by two. The Hawks then rallied in the third to take a 63-55 win over North Panola.

Vennis Mills and Darrell Young each cashed in a three to put North Panola up 6-0 at the top of the first quarter. Minutes later, Kendrick Fountain answered with two baskets of his own. The score was 8-4. The Hawks began to chip away to close the gap. DaQuan Smith’s three had the Hawks trailing by one, 8-7. Juwoyn Lyles’ two-pointer and a free-throw put the Hawks up 17-9 as the first expired.

In the second frame, the Cougars added 23 more points versus the Hawks’ 13. At the break, the Hawks were down by two, 32-30.

Holly Springs went back to work in the third. Smith hit a two at the start of the quarter. But Mills responded with a trey for the visitors to further extend the lead by five, 37-32. Smith later cashed in a three also. The Hawks had trimmed the deficit to 37-35. The intensity in this frame turned into a heated battle for ball control. The Hawks fired in 18 more shots to the Cougars’ 15. At the end of the third, the Hawks snatched back the advantage by one, 48-47.

Smith dropped in 11 points for the Hawks in the fourth. The Holly High boys outscored North Panola 15-8 to pick up another district win. They upped their marks to 11-9 overall and 5-0 in district play.

Smith scored 33 points and pulled down five rebounds for Holly High. Fountain had eight points and five rebounds. Cornelious Bridgeforth contributed eight points and six rebounds.