MENDENHALL — The opening round of the Division 6-4A basketballtournament got under way Monday night. Before a sparse crowd ofunder 200 fans, the homestanding Mendenhall Lady Tigers’ seasoncame to a close. They were upset by the Lady Wave of Port Gibson65-62.

In the boys nightcap, the Brookhaven Panthers overcame numerousrally attempts by the Florence Eagles; before posting a 57-46win.

In other first round action today, the Brookhaven Lady Pantherstake on the Lawrence County Lady Cougars at 4 p.m., followed by theMcComb-Mendenhall boys at 5:30 p.m.. The McComb-Florence girls tipoff at 7, with the Lawrence County-Port Gibson boys getting underway around 8:30 p.m.

The Brookhaven boys and Port Gibson advance to the semifinalsThursday. The Panthers meet No. 1 seed Forest Hill at 5:30. TheLady Wave take on the No. 1 seed Forest Hill girls at 4.

Brookhaven 57, Florence 46

The Panthers (15-16) and Eagles (11-16) game resembled a grudgematch. Both teams were whistled for a combined 58 fouls, including4 technicals and 5 double fouls; and 66 free throws; as physicalplay was the order of the night.

The early moments of the game went at a slow pace. Ole Brookhead coach Ronald Hines sent his Panthers into a delay game; tryingto combat the Eagles’ quickness. Their high-percentage shots in theopening 8 minutes gave them a narrow 6-4 lead entering the secondperiod.

Florence, coached by Darrin Chancellor, led once in the game at14-13 on a pair of free throws by his cousin, Keith Chancellor withnearly 3 minutes left in the first half. His Eagles would beoutscored 10-4 to trail 23-18 at the intermission break.

Hines’ crew would use their delay game to their advantage in thesecond half. A high-percentage shot selection garnered a whopping73-percent clip (11 of 15) in the second half. Florence managedonly 35 percent (7 of 20).

“We wanted to control the tempo,” Coach Hines commentedfollowing the game. “We did not want to get into a running gamewith them (Florence).”

Ole Brook got a game-high 17 points from forward Chad Hall,including several crowd-pleasing jams. Charles (Bobo) Rancifernearly pulled off a triple-double; registering 11 points, 9rebounds and 9 assists and 3 steals. Donaldmetric Blue also had 11points and 3 steals.

The Eagles were led by Ken Jones with 13 points and Iva Mimmswith 10 points.

Port Gibson 65, Mendenhall 62

The start of this game was delayed nearly 25 minutes by a clockmalfunction, along with the late arrival of the Port Gibson teambus. Port Gibson (10-18) would promptly surf it way to the upsetvictory behind the scoring efforts of the Grigsby sisters.

Eugena, a freshman, tossed in a game-high 23 points; followed byeighth-grader Regena with 21 points for head coach HaroldLiggins.

The fourth-seeded Lady Tigers (19-7) placed four players indouble figures.

Mendenhall head coach Marilyn Coleman got a team-high 15 pointsfrom Raven Hubbard. Marlekia Keys tossed in 13 points.