Jacksonville, Texas ? The Panola College men?s basketball team defeated Angelina College here Friday night in the Region 14 conference tournament, 82-65. Panola advances to the tournament championship game against San Jacinto College Saturday night. Both teams receive a bid to the national tournament. San Jacinto won the Region 14 regular season and Panola earns the regional rotating bid. The victory improves Panola?s record to 24-7 and pushes their winning streak to 12 games.

?This is a proud moment for the Panola basketball program. Our guys have bought in and trusted the process all season long. With all of the adversity we went through this year, our kids deserve this moment.? Head Coach Grant McMillan mentioned.

Panola came out on fire taking a 20-10 lead 8:00 minutes into the game. Angelina slowly crawled back to and took a 28-26 lead with 4:12 remaining in the 1st half. After two ties and four lead changes Panola pulled away and took a 36-33 half time lead. The second half belonged to Panola as they came out on a 22-2 run eventually taking a 67-44 second half lead. Panola held on the rest of the way to take a 17 victory.

Leading the way offensively was Devyn Wilson who netted 20 points, sinking four three pointers. Tope Arikawe scored 13 points and Marlon Taylor added 11. Bryson Lockley chased down seven rebounds. As a team, Panola outrebound Angelina 42-28 and shot 43 percent from the field for the game.

Panola will take on San Jac tomorrow night at 8:00 PM in the conference championship game. The game will be played in Jacksonville, Texas on the campus of the former Lon Morris College.