Panthers extend streak
The Region 6-AAAA tournament is less than a week away and the title of “the team no one wants to face” just might belong to the Ridgeland Panthers.
The Black-and-White won two more games last week and they will take a four-game winning streak into the final two games of the regular season, both against Heritage. by Christian Battle and Jalyn Shelton with 10 each. Fred Norman would add eight points and Markeith Montgomery had six.
Ridgeland boys 61, Trion 59
The Panthers (8-14) led the visiting Bulldogs by seven points with 36 seconds left to play on Saturday night, but had to hold on down the stretch to sweat out a two-point non-region victory.
A Fred Norman free throw gave the Panthers a seemingly safe 59-52 cushion in the final minute, but Trion would rally late. Jones would hit 1-of-2 at the line to push the Panthers’ lead back to 60-56. But Trion still had hope after Ty Reynolds rattled home an improbable 3-pointer, despite Moore’s best defensive
efforts on the shot.
Norman, who came up with two huge defensive rebounds in the final 1:13, was fouled with 2.1 seconds left and made the first attempt to put the Panthers’ lead back at two. He would miss the second shot, but Trion was unable to get off a final desperation heave before the buzzer.
Jones and Norman had 16 each for Ridgeland, who took a 47-41 lead into the fourth quarter after playing the first half to a 33-all tie. Montgomery had 13 points and Battle finished with seven.
Pickens girls 49, Ridgeland 42
The Lady Panthers fell to 5-5 in 6-AAAA play with the road loss. Sarah Meadows and Brylee Dunn had 10 points each, while Haley Sandridge had six.
Meadows also suffered an injury during the game, the severity of which was unknown as of press time.
Ridgeland girls 63, Trion 52
Meadows, the fourthleading scorer in the state at 25.8 points per game, sat out the game for precautionary reasons, but Dunn picked up the slack with 20 points in the victory.
Amaya Harrington had 16 points for Ridgeland (12-11 overall), while Christina DeSalvo dropped in nine.
The Region 6-AAAA will get going on Feb. 6 at Southeast Whitfield. The top four teams will earn bids to the Class AAAA state tournament, which starts Feb. 17.