Panola likes to dish it out, but the question is can it take the pressure?
Trinity Valley came to Panola's house Saturday and dunked the Ponies 82-74 with a stingy defense that allowed just 27 goals, almost half of them by one player.
Papa Oppong, a transfer sophomore, was everything he's billed to be, scoring 29 points and pulling down 10 rebounds.
Teammate James Dennis worked hard to make three goals and finished perfect at the foul line with a perfect six. He had 12 caroms.
The only other Ponies with more than one basket were Milton Burton and Christopher Jones. Each had three but neither was near double digits.
Coach Jacob Wonders previously described last Wednesday's loss to Lee College as his team's worst. Did this one match it?
"No. I thought we beat ourselves against Lee. I thought TVCC came in here and took this one from us," he said.
"Now we've got to go to Paris. They are 10th in the nation, unbeaten in 15 games with a 30-game win streak at home.
"There's nobody up there (in Paris) to feel sorry for us, we've got to go do this ourselves (if we want to finish among the top four)," Wonders said.
TVCC (8-7, 3-4) certainly showed no mercy as it grabbed a 46-35 halftime lead with Oppong spending major time on the bench with two early fouls.
"I don't know what would have happened had he been able to play more, but I sure would have liked to have seen it."
TVCC guard Aamir Rashad tallied 24, Mike Pugh nailed 20 and Jay Smith scored all of 10 points in the second half to make a major difference in the outcome.
In other Saturday XIV games, Paris beat San Jacinto, 81-69, Angelina beat Lon Morris, 84-78, Jacksonville nudged Kilgore, 46-45, Tyler walked on Blinn, 96-67, and Navarro ripped Lee, 94-84.
The standings:
Paris 15-0, 7-0
Tyler 12-1, 6-1
San Jacinto 12-3, 6-1
Panola 11-4, 4-3
Angelina 5-10, 4-3
Blinn 9-5, 3-4
Trinity Valley 8-7, 3-4
Navarro 6-9, 3-4
Kilgore 10-5, 2-5
Lee 8-7, 2-5
Jacksonville 8-7, 2-5
Lon Morris 7-8, 0-7