Panola bows 69-62 to Navarro in semis
The Panola Watchman
3/11/08

KILGORE - Worn down mentally and physically by a two-and-one-half hour marathon victory in the opening round of the Region XIV Tournament Friday against top-seeded Tyler, Panola pushed the pedal to the medal one more time here Sunday, and ran out of gas in the closing minute of a furious semifinal match with Navarro, 69-62.
The Ponies had been behind by double digits most of the final period, but when Papa Oppong suddenly lit a fire with some great threes and moved the game to a higher octane level, his teammates followed and closed to within one possession with 43.1 seconds remaining.
Shooting nine-of-12 from the foul line in the  losing minute, Navarro was able to withstand the pressure and drove off to Corsicana knowing they would return to play Paris for the crown and a national Juco playoff berth.
(Paris would win a surprisingly close title match Monday.)
Navarro was on top of Panola 52-35 with 8:35 remaining when the Ponies made a pair of treys and two free throws to cut the gap to 60-56 with 1:01.
Foul quickly, hope Navarro would have trouble at the line and shoot quickly on offense became Panola's only available strategy, but Lewis Orr's Bulldogs wouldn't cooperate.
Pony Coach Jacob Wonders was left to ponder what might have been had his troops been able to overcome the woes of a long day's night with Tyler.
"Near the end of that game (Tyler) we were cramping and having trouble. It was like playing two and a half games in one, fighting daylight savings time during the interim and then playing much less than 24 hours later.
"Give Navarro credit, they did what they had to do and played very well in all tournament appearances.
"I'm just saying I am proud of my group, we had a very good season and now I've got to go find some more like Aamir McCleary, Justin Dennis, Papa Oppong, the Jones twins, Elijah Cotton, and Chris Williams. That won't be easy. I wish them all the best."
Oppong had 15 points, McCleary 13, Christian Jones 12, Fran Urli 8, Brandon Webb and Justin Dennis 5 each and Christopher Jones 3.