MONTICELLO – Brookhaven and Mendenhall opened the LawrenceCounty Round-Robin Tournament Thursday afternoon with a twinbill atthe Lawrence County High gym. The black-and-gold clad felines tooka pair from Ole Brook.

The Lady Tigers escaped the Lady Panthers 47-40 in overtime. TheTigers slipped past the Panthers 64-62 on the final shot of thegame.

Mendenhall tackles Franklin County at 3 p.m. and 4:30. todaywhile Division 6-4A rivals Brookhaven and Lawrence County clash ina non-division match-up at 6 and 7:30.

Mendenhall 47, Brookhaven 40

The Lady Panthers (3-11) had several opportunities to pull offthe win but Ole Brook committed 18 of their 24 turnovers in thesecond half. Head Coach Billy Holmes saw his ballclub trail 10-9after one period and 19-17 at the intermission. Freshman SwayzeBlack scored 6 of her team-high 11 points in the opening minutes,and finished with 8 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 assists.

Neither team held a lead larger than 5 points throughout thegame, as poor shooting plagued both squads at the most opportunetimes. Both teams were deadlocked at 26-26, at the start of thefourth quarter.

Ole Brook, behind a pair of treys from Ashley Leggett, tried topull away.

Mendenhall (10-6) would get 7 points from Angelica Burgess inthe fourth and send the game into an extra session. Burgessfinished with a game-high 18 points for head coach ArchieSkiffer.

In overtime, the Lady Panthers managed only a basket byKimyetta Arnold and a free throw by Jermecia Jones. Mendenhallnailed 6 free throws, along with baskets from Burgess and TiffanyLawson.

Lending support for Ole Brook were Arnold with 8rebounds and Blanche Wilson with 6 boards. Leggett and Wilson eachhad 2 steals. Wilson dished out 4 assists.

Mendenhall 64, Brookhaven 62

In the closest matchup of the day, the Tigers (13-4) saved theirbest for the second half. Mendenhall was down 16-12 entering thesecond frame and 28-24 at the halftime break. The Tigers trailedfor most of the first half.

Ole Brook (6-8) dominated the first half with a balanced scoringeffort and tenacious defense. Senior forward Wade Stewart scored 8of his 12 points in the first. Michael Thrasher, who garnered 6 ofhis team-high 14 points in the second, also had 11 rebounds and 2assists. Stewart had 8 boards. The Panthers continuously stepped inthe passing lanes, picking off several Tiger passes and convertingthose into offensive baskets in the half.

Mendenhall, behind the torrid 3-point shooting of guard GarrickWalker, exploded for a 49-44 lead at the end of the third. Walkersacked 4 treys in the quarter and finished with a game-high 20points as the Tigers outscored the Panthers 25-16.

With Ole Brook behind by 5 points, their defense went to work tocreate offense support. Freshman Charles Rancifer sacked a trey andMichael Byrd stole an inbounds pass to nail a short jumper to tiethe game at 62-62 with less than 10 seconds left on the clock.Rancifer had 4 steals.

After a timeout, Mendenhall inbounded the basketball to CharlesAlexander. Alexander drove the center of the free throw lane wherehe banked in the game-winning, running 13-foot winner as timeexpired.