JACKSON — Forest Hill’s Patriots and Lady Patriots showed whythey are one of the top-ranked high school basketball programs inthe state Tuesday night in Shellie M. Bailey Coliseum. They swept aDivision 6-4A doubleheader from Brookhaven in convincing fashion,winning 69-23 in the girls game and 83-60 in the boys contest.

Brookhaven plays its final regular season and Division 6-4Agames Friday at Lawrence County. The varsity girls game tips off at6 p.m., followed by the boys game.

The Division 6-4A tournament gets under way Monday at ForestHill.

Forest Hill 69, Brookhaven 23

The Lady Patriots (22-3, 10-1) are ranked No. 2 in the state.They shot 49 percent (28 of 58) from the floor and 73 percent (8 of11) from the charity stripe in the game. As a team, they dished out16 assists and had 13 turnovers in the game. Forest Hill had 50-24(16-8 offensive) rebounding edge for the game.

Lady Patriot head coach Tommy Groves subbed throughout the gamein an effort to get his team ready for the district tournament.

The Lady Panthers (10-12, 5-6) could not get anything goingoffensively in the game. They shot a dismal 22 percent (10 of 46)from the field and 20 percent (2 of 10) from the free throw line.Ole Brook, coached by Freda Craft, gave up 13 points to Forest Hilloff their 21 turnovers.

For Craft’s crew, junior guard Kearra Collins led the way with 7points. Amber Dickey had 2 steals and 2 assists.

The Lady Patriots got a game-high 12 points, 10 rebounds and 2steals from sophomore reserve forward Tanesha Hobson. KristenNewsome and Porsha Wilson had 10 points apiece. Dandy Dozen seniorCourtney Marbra had 9 points and 9 rebounds.

Forest Hill 83, Brookhaven 60

The Patriots (21-5, 10-1) came into the game ranked No. 8 in thestate. Their 5-foot-10 Dandy Dozen junior point guard AndreStringer topped all scorers with 38 points (26 in the second half);along with 4 assists and 4 steals. He missed only 2 shots in 14attempts and was 9 of 9 off the charity stripe.

Forest Hill, coached by Robert Stewart, led 18-11 after oneperiod and 36-25 at halftime. They shot 50 percent (28 of 55) fromthe floor for the game.

The Panthers (10-13, 2-8) led once at 3-0 on the opening tip, asjunior guard Rajavion Stewart sacked a trey off of a Frank Taylorassist. Stewart paced head coach Ronald Hines’ team with 17 pointsand 2 steals. Taylor tossed in 12 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and2 steals.

Also for Ole Brook, Chad Hall had 5 rebounds and 4 blockedshots. Frederick Fairman had 13 points. The Panthers shot arespectable 49 percent (22 of 45) from the field, and out-reboundedthe Patriots 32-28.

Hines saw his squad commit 15 of their 22 turnovers in thesecond half; that led Forest Hill to have a 16-8 advantage inpoints off turnovers for the game.