BRANDON – Northwest Rankin’s boys and girls both earned wins over Lawrence County in opening-night action at the Northwest Rankin Holiday Classic, a high school basketball tournament that began Thursday and continues through Saturday. In girls’ play, Northwest handed Lawrence County one of its worst-ever losses, 77-19. The LCHS boys fared much better, but still lost, falling by a 48-45 score.

The girls’ game was a rout from the start. Northwest Rankin led 33-7 at the half, then poured it on in the second half. It was a humbling defeat for a program that has advanced deep into the 4A playoffs for five straight seasons. Still, veteran coach Vicki Rutland sees it as an opportunity for improvement.

“We came to this tough holiday tournament,” Rutland said, “to face tough competition that would help us to prepare for division play. Granted, tonight wasn’t any fun, but I’ll be interested to see how we come back from this on Friday. This can still be a positive experience for us.”

Aleah Sutton led Northwest Rankin with 20 points, and Madyson Wade added 17. DaKendra Collins led Lawrence County with just four points. The Lady Cougars were victimized by 26 turnovers. LCHS fell to 3-11 on the season.

In the boys’ game, Lawrence County and Northwest Rankin were tied until the waning moments, but Northwest scored the final three points of the night to earn the win. Thomas Lindsey led a balanced Northwest Rankin attack with 10 points.

For Pat Bridges’ LCHS Cougars, Keyshawn Feazell and Keith Davis scored 10 points each. Feazell added seven rebounds, and five blocked shots. Gabriel Lewis handed out four assists for Lawrence County, which fell to 3-9 with the loss.

Lawrence County is scheduled to play early this afternoon in the losers’ bracket games with Forest in both the boys’ and girls’ games today.