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For the second time last week, Southside and Dallas County played Southside.

The Hornets got the best of the Panthers in an area game 80-71 at home.

Saturday’s game was completely different as the Panthers cruised to a 71-35 win over Dallas County to win the Dallas County Tournament at Southside.

Head coach Cedric Brown said his team was ready to play.

“Man the guys were just super focused,” Brown said. “We played them on Thursday, and the result was unfavorable. So the guys were just focused, and they really wanted to play these guys again for some reason.”

The Panthers improve to 8-2 on the season. They will not play again until Jan. 6, 2025 against Georgiana.

In the meantime, Brown said they will usae the time off to actually have some practices. He said many of his guys played football, and with them advancing to the state semifinals, it was hard to have practice time.

“These guys really like to play together. Ten of the 13 players play football. So they have killer work ethic,” Brown said. “We’ll get a chance to work on some basketball things and some more sets and things of that nature because we really haven’t had a chance to do any of that. We basically just stepped right off the football field and onto the hardwoods. So it’ll be good to actually get a little pf actual practice time in.”

Ar’Mari Towns led the way for the Panthers with 14 points while Z. Shanks finished with 12 points. Derrick Surles and Erick Smith both scored eight points followed by JJ Smith, Duke Smith and Kendrell Wilson with six pints each, T. Jones with five points and Le’Marcus Milhouse and Javien Gipson with three points each.

Southside got off to a quick start taking an 18-6 advantage. The second quarter was more of the same as Shanks hit a three-quarters court shot at the buzzer to give the Panthers a 39-11 lead at the half.

Southside won the third quarter by a score of 25-19 to get a running clock headed into the final stanza. Dallas County won the fourth quarter 16-7.

Joshua Davis III led the Hornets with 18 points while Coby Carter had 10 points. Myles Nix added three points followed by KJ Furlow and Mike Hosea with two points each.