Petal swept Pearl River Central Monday night at home.
Petal Lady Panthers 55, Pearl River Central 42
Led by Myla Cox and her game-high 26 points, Petal cruised to victory over Pearl River Central. The Lady Panthers improved to 6-3 with the win.
“Our kids, we teach them to fight hard, because you never know what can happen,” Petal head coach Kotreece Bender said. “I’m really proud of them.”
As for Cox, 10 of her 26 points came in Monday’s first quarter as the Lady Panthers raced out to an 11-2 lead.
“She’s big, she’s growing and she’s definitely matured for us,” Bender said of Cox. “I think tonight’s the first night where she actually came out and played an all-around game. Know when to put it on the floor and know when to get it to a teammate.”
“Loving the player she’s turning into.”
Pearl River Central pulled closer in the second quarter, trailing 27-19 at halftime. But Petal built onto their lead from there on out in picking up the win, their third in the last four games.
“Our kids did a great job of overcoming adversity, and that’s what we’ve been harping on all season,” Bender said.
Taityana Pittman added 13 points for the Lady Panthers, who will be back in action this Friday at South Jones.
Petal Panthers 74, Pearl River Central 56
Petal took control with a dominant first quarter, leading 23-7 at the end of the period. For the most part, the Panthers did not look back from there as they picked up their 7th win of the season.
Caleb McGill led Petal with 27 points, while Treylan Smith added 20.
“That’s two guys that can pass the basketball or handle it,” Petal head coach Todd Kimble said. “They were pretty solid.”
Still, lots to build on, says Kimble.
“I thought we played hard, but we gave up probably more points tonight than anybody we’ve played,” Kimble said. “Not real crazy about that. I’ve seen us play defense way better than we did tonight. That would be the negative.”
Pearl River Central pulled to within 12 points heading into halftime, but that would be about as close as they could get. Petal outscored them in both the third and fourth quarter in winning their seventh straight game.
“The positive is the runs that we did have,” Kimble added. “I thought we executed well and got the basketball where we wanted it and ran the offense. When we did that, we were pretty good. When we didn’t, we weren’t.”
