Carthage, Texas ? The Panola College men?s basketball team defeated Paris Junior College on sophomore day, 85-77. With the victory, Panola wins the North Division of Region 14 owning the tie breaker over Tyler Junior College and Trinity Valley Community College. Panola finishes the regular season 23-7 and 15-4 in Region 14 play and increased their win streak to 10 games. ?Again, we have different people step up every single night.? Mentioned Head Coach Grant McMillan. ?We talked about getting a first round bye at the conference tournament all year long.? He added.

Panola found themselves down 18-15 with 13:17 remaining in the half. A steady offensive output the rest of the half gave the Ponies a 46-37 halftime lead. Panola stretched their lead to as much as 14 points in the second half but Paris didn?t go away. They cut the lead the three with just under a minute to play before Keith Hayes made a layup to secure the victory.

Leading the way for the Panola was Eric McGill and Devyn Wilson who netted 16 points apiece. Hayes netted four second half three pointers on his way to 14 points. KJ Byers recorded a double-double scoring 12 points and chasing down 10 rebounds. TJ Killings came off the bench and added 12 points. Panola recorded 22 assists and chased down 39 rebounds.

Panola is the two seed in this week?s Region 14 tournament. They play at 6:00 PM this upcoming Thursday, March 9th against the 1st round match between Bossier Parish and Paris. All games are being played at Jacksonville Independent School District gymnasium, former home of Lon Morris.