In one of the best point guard matchups of the area, Columbus High School’s Kiandria Patterson finally got help from her friends to preserve a win over South Panola.
Columbus was able to maintain its perfect record in region play with a 66-52 victory over an unpset-minded Lady Tigers squad due to more energetic defensive effort in the second half and the emergence of junior wing player Maggie Proffitt.
“We had to make some of those adjustments at halftime to get her the basketball more and allow her to make some things happen,” Columbus coach Yvonne Hairston said.
Proffitt had eight of her 12 points in the second half and simply took control by shooting South Panola (5-5, 1-2) out of their 2-3 zone defense and actually leading the outlet breaks that would turn up the tempo for the Lady Falcons.
“Whether it was being tired or something else, I thought we simply gave Proffitt too many looks,” South Panola coach Ralph Stallings said. “If you give her that many open chances, she’s going to knock them down.”
Friday night featured a lead guard battle between Patterson and Lady Tigers’ Christa Brown as the two perimeter threats went back and forth against each other for an exciting and tight first half of play that saw Columbus take a 35-32 advantage into the locker room.
Brown nailed five three-point field goals in the first 16 minutes of action to lead all scorers at the halftime break with 17 points and couldn’t be stopped on the dribble penetration in the second half to finish with a game-high 31 points.
“She had 35 the other night in a loss as well so if we could just get her some help, we could be really good,” Stallings said. “It’s just a matter of her having to be the one-man show for us right now so far in our season.”
The Lady Falcons (15-2, 4-0) defense would tighten up on the 5-foot-4 senior guard and allow here just two made field goals over the final nine minutes of action leading to a 16-6 run that ended the contest. With just over four minutes left in the third quarter and the score tied at 44, a three-point shot in the corner by Proffitt and then an perfectly executed bounce pass on a fast break layup to junior forward Kamerons Corrothers gave momentum permanently back to Columbus. Corrothers would finish with 13 points on the evening.
“They shot the basketball really well tonight and we still were able to find a way to come out with a win,” Hairston said. “We understand that teams come with there best game against Columbus and this was a game I thought we needed to have badly in our district.”
Patterson would not be outdone Friday night in her home gymnasium as the junior added 13 of her team-high 17 points in the first half but able to simply watch Proffitt and Corrothers find offensive openings against a less athletic South Panola squad.
Patterson would go down late in the fourth quarter with what Hairston would say after the contest was cramps in her left leg after being knocked to the floor but the Lady Falcons leading scorer on the season would return to action before the final horn.
Columbus boys 50,
South Panola 32
The size and strength of the Columbus allowed the Falcons boys basketball team to walk away with a convincing 50-32 victory over South Panola.
A high commitment to the defensive end of the floor and a huge second-quarter run allowed Columbus to cruise to a much-needed region home victory.
“We just couldn’t get a rhythm for the game early but our guys played through that adversity and really played just played a little harder throughout the game,” Columbus coach Sammy Smith said. ”
The Falcons (9-8, 3-1) outscored South Panola 21-8 in the second quarter thanks to a halfcourt pressure defense that forced multiple turnovers by the Tigers’ guards and an offense that consistently got in the paint despite facing a severely sunk in zone defense. The Falcons offensive attack was led by forward Devin Berry and C.J. Scott’s seven points each.
“You never know who is going to have to step up on this team and we constantly tell out guys that we have a team about we and not about me — it has to be that way for us,” Smith said.
The balance of Columbus’ offense was hard to spotlight as the Smith’s squad went into the locker room with a 35-16 lead but didn’t have a single player with a double-figure scoring effort. Smith was able to play all 11 players and empty his bench for a significant amount of the second half in as his team looks to a district matchup when Tupelo comes to their building Tuesday night.
South Panola , which was led by James Watson’s game-high 13 points Friday night, was unable to have any success from the perimeter and subsequently couldn’t get the deficit under 15 points throughout the entire second half.
“We kept telling C.J. early on, let’s pick up the defensive tempo and let’s see how good their guard play is,” Smith said. “He’s the only pure point guard we have so he’s the one that creates things for us on both ends.”
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