MONTICELLO – Lawrence County overwhelmed East Marion in both boys’ and girls’ play, closing out the opening day of action in the annual Lawrence County Thanksgiving Classic. Vicki Rutland’s girls rolled to a 48-27 win over the Lady Eagles. After that, Pat Bridges’ LCHS boys really put it to East Marion, winning by a 71-15 score.

The Lawrence County-East Marion games completed a full day of action that started at 10 a.m. In perhaps the best game of the day, the Prentiss boys defeated Wayne County 77-65. Wilkinson County also enjoyed a boy/girl double-header sweep of Mendenhall.

In the Lawrence County-East Marion girls’ game, LCHS led 8-4 after one quarter and then blew the game open after that. Zipporah Baylis led all scorers with 12 points, and Camryn Davis added 11 points and eight rebounds. DeNeisha Dickson scored eight points. Jazmine Moore contributed seven points and nine rebounds. Jada McDuffey also pulled down nine rebounds. Jerrica Echols led the Lady Eagles with six points.

With the win, the Lady Cougars snapped a four-game losing streak and improved to 2-4 on the season.

“We sort of got our mojo back tonight,” said Rutland. “We didn’t play well in either game last week (losses to West Jones and Tylertown). Tonight, I thought we played hard, and our energy on the defensive end was much better.”

While the Lady Cougars enjoyed a comfortable win, it looked like a nail-biter compared to the boys’ game. Lawrence County rolled to a 37-12 halftime lead and then, despite substituting very liberally, outscored East Marion 34-3 in the second half. East Marion was somewhat disadvantaged by having gone deep into the football playoffs.

“We had a good night,” Coach Bridges said. “A lot of guys got a lot of playing time. I thought all of them played hard, even after we got control of the scoreboard.”

Keyshawn Feazell led the Cougars with 15 points and five rebounds. Shacorey Pittman netted double figures with 12 points. Keith Davis added nine points. Phillip Moore had four assists and four steals.

Basketball action was slated to begin at 10 a.m. on Tuesday. Lawrence County and Mendenhall will close out the event Tuesday night. The girls’ game will begin at about 7 p.m., with the boys’ contest immediately thereafter.