Learned Lessons

PINE PRAIRIE -- The Pine Prairie Panthers and the Lady Panthers each found a lesson to learn from after taking on the Northwest Raiders and Lady Raiders here Friday night in key District 5-3A contests.
The Lady Panthers found out that no matter how much a team struggles on offense, playing great defense is crucial to winning, as they held back the Lady Raiders in a hard fought 33-30 win.
For the Panthers, finding out that emotions may run high, but taking those emotions to another level is not what sports is about.
During the second quarter in an 80-50 Northwest win, a bench clearing fight occurred, as a player from each team was ejected from the contest.
After the game, the teams came together at mid-court and formed a circle to mend fences and to pray together.
Lesson learned.
Here is a rundown of both games.

Northwest (G)
vs. Pine Prairie
Pine Prairie head coach Renotta Edwards had her team ready to go defensively from the start, as the Lady Panthers held the Lady Raiders to zero points until the 3:28 mark of the first quarter. That defensive effort continued the entire quarter, with Pine Prairie holding a 13-5 edge as the period came to a close.
The second quarter saw the Lady Raiders begin to chip away at the Lady Panther lead. Northwest pulled to within three half way through the period on a three-point basket.
As the second stanza progressed, neither offenses could get going. As the half came to a close, Pine Praire held a three-point advantage, 19-16.
The Lady Raiders dropped in the first bucket of the third quarter to cut the lead to 19-18, and then proceeded to take a one point lead as they scored three of the next four points.
The Lady Panthers ended the quarter with a five point run to retake the lead 25-24.
Offense was hard to come by in the final quarter, as the scoreboard showed a 31-27 Pine Prairie lead with 4:00 left in the game.
As the game got closer to its conclusion, the game got tighter. With six seconds left to go, the Lady Panthers held a one-point lead, 31-30. Pine Prairie’s Brandy Manuel stepped to the charity stripe for two free throws. She missed both, but on the second shot, Manuel crashed the board, retrieved the rebound and scored the final points of the game.
With the win, the Lady Panthers are now 10-6 on the season and 2-1 in district play.
“This was the biggest win since I’ve been here,” said Edwards. “The last few years we just hoped to win, this year we expect to win. Offensively, you are not going to be able to score 50-60 points a night on a consistent basis, but if we play great defense we can control the game.”

Northwest (B)
vs. Pine Prairie
The first quarter began as a track meet for both teams. Both Pine Prairie and Northwest looked primed to light up the scoreboard with the two teams combining for 35 points in the opening period, with the Raiders holding a 21-14 lead as the quarter came to an end.
Former Panther head coach Chris Guillory decided to turn up the heat on defense in the second quarter and it paid dividends for the Raiders.
As the period progressed, Northwest began to pull away from Pine Prairie. During a 1:30 stretch late in the quarter, the Raiders went on a 7-0 run to bring their lead to 38-23. The Panthers tried to cut into the Raider lead, but Northwest held ground and led 40-27 at the end of the first half.
The two teams came out of the locker room with a little less emotion after the incident in the second quarter. However, Northwest continued to add to their total, extending the lead to 63-36 as the third quarter came to a close.
In the final period, both clubs began to freely substitute, as the teams agreed to running time. By the time the final horn had blown the Raiders had secured the 30-point win.
With the loss, the Panthers drop to 11-8 and are 0-1 in district.