MONTICELLO – Lawrence County swept Mendenhall in girls’ and boys’ action Tuesday night, wrapping up two full days of basketball at the Lawrence County Thanksgiving Classic. Vicki Rutland’s Lady Cougars handled Mendenhall 57-32. Pat Bridges’ LCHS boys followed that with a resounding 60-29 thumping of the Tigers.

The action started at 10 a.m. and featured a total of eight games. In the best game of the day, the Terry boys edged Wayne County 63-61. Wayne County beat Terry in girls’ action, 41-32, and the Pearl girls earned a hard-fought 58-44 win over the Tylertown Lady Chiefs.

In the Lawrence County-Mendenhall boys’ game, Lawrence County jumped to a 32-14 halftime lead, then stretched its margin throughout the second half, even while substituting very liberally. The game was never in doubt.

Phillip Moore paced the Cougars with 12 points and five assists. Keyshawn Feazell added 11 points. Shacorey Pittman reached double figures with 10 points and pulled down a game-high nine rebounds. Keith Davis added 9 points. Gabriel Lewis had three assists and three steals.

“We played pretty well,” said Bridges, whose troops improved to 6-1 with the win. “We got to play a lot of people. I liked the fact that our effort and intensity remained high, even after we substituted, and the game was well in hand.”

Though the final scores look very similar, the girls’ game was different, in that Lawrence County fell behind and had to come back. Mendenhall jumped to a 15-5 first quarter lead, as Lady Tiger Kelsha Lofton poured in 10 first quarter points. After that, however, it was all Lawrence County. The Lady Cougars outscored Mendenhall 52-17 after the first quarter.

Jada McDuffey had a huge night for the Lady Cougars, with 16 points and eight steals. DeNeisha Dickson added 13 points. Freshman Camryn Davis contributed in a lot of ways, with 11 points, eight rebounds, three blocked shots and three steals. Zipporah Baylis added nine points, five assists and eight steals.

“Aside from that slow start, I thought we had a decent game,” said Vicki Rutland, whose girls improved to 3-4 with the win. “Defensively, I thought we played well over the last three quarters. We had 24 steals in the game.”

Kelsa Lofton equaled McDuffey for scoring honors with 16, tallying half of Mendenhall’s total for the game.

The Lawrence County teams will be off for more than a week. They will resume play on Saturday, Dec. 6, hosting Bay High.