SUMMIT — Poor shooting from the floor and free throw lineallowed the North Pike girls and Brookhaven boys to escape theNorth Pike gym Friday night with victories. The Lady Jaguars usedpressure defense to pull out a 54-42 win over the Brookhaven LadyPanthers.

The Brookhaven Panthers got out of the starting gate slowly, thenused a huge, second-quarter scoring surge, pulling away with a73-58 win over the Jaguars.

Brookhaven hosts Hazlehurst in Sinclair Gymnasium for a Tuesdaynight doubleheader; tipping off at 6 p.m. with the varsitygirls.

North Pike 54, Brookhaven 42

Turnovers and poor shooting kept this game at a standstill in theearly minutes, but North Pike head coach Lance Golman saw his teamtake a 10-9 into the second stanza.

The Lady Panthers (4-6) took their only lead of the game, early inthe second quarter at 11-10 on a basket by forward Ariel Owens.Brookhaven trailed 28-20 at the halftime break.

Brookhaven could not get its shots to fall in key situations duringthe game. Each time that North Pike tried to pull away, the LadyPanthers would answer the call.

Tiakara Kelly’s second trey of the game with less than 5 minutesleft on the clock, brought Brookhaven to within 4 points, 43-39.North Pike proceeded to go on an 11-3 run to close out thegame.

“We just could not get our shots to fall when we needed them to,”Lady Panther head coach Freda Craft commented following the game.”We were able to cut down on our turnovers.”

Brookhaven committed only 17 turnovers, while forcing North Pikeinto 26 of their own. The Lady Jags held a 33-29 rebounding edge;including a 14-8 edge on the offensive end.

Kelly and Precious Patterson paced the Lady Panthers with 13 pointsapiece. Shareeka Hill pumped in 10 points off the Brookhavenbench.

The Lady Jags got a game-high 20 points from Kaylan Hughes,followed by Veronica Butler with 10 points.

Brookhaven 73, North Pike 58

“The team effort was great all night long,” said Panther head coachPreston Wilson. It was his 299th career victory.

Brookhaven (8-2) was slow coming out to start the game, as theyadjusted to North Pike’s style of play. Wilson’s crew led 16-11entering the second period and held a 36-28 lead at halftime.

Forward Daniel Washington had 8 of his game-high 16 in the firsthalf.

North Pike, coached by Keith Russ, kept the game close withnumerous offensive putbacks and taking advantage of Brookhaventurnovers. The Jags could not draw any close than 7 points; 56-49on a basket by LaMichael Quin with 6:30 left in the game.

Quin and Donovan James led North Pike with 14 points each. ErikAllen tossed in 13 points.

Following Washington in double-figurers for Brookhaven were FredFairman and Ross Hill with 11 points apiece. Alvin Franklin added10 points.