SUMMIT-Lawrence County and North Pike split a Division 7-4A basketball double-header Friday night, at North Pike High School. In girls’ action, Lance Golmon’s Lady Jaguars defeated Vicki Rutland’s Lady Cougars 63-54. In boys’ play, Pat Bridges’ Cougars narrowly escaped an upset bid from Keith Russ’ Jaguars, winning 63-62. It was the final regular season game for both schools.

The girls’ game was competitive-and long. North Pike forged a 10-point (34-24) halftime lead, but Lawrence County trimmed the margin down to 7 points (42-35) by the end of three quarters. The 2-hour long affair featured 52 fouls and a whopping 70 free throws.

Rickera Martin led North Pike with 21 points, 14 of them coming in the fourth quarter. Latorya Humphries and Rachel Martin each added 10 points, and Aayshia Martin had 9. The Lady Jaguars finished the regular season at 13-11 overall, and 7-3 in the division.

Lawrence County employed a balanced scoring attack, with DeNeisha Dickson, Zipporah Baylis, and Camryn Davis tallying 12 points each, and Jada McDuffey reached double figures with 11. Freshman Davis also added 13 rebounds and 5 blocked shots. Dickson handed out 4 assists, and Baylis had 5 steals.

The Lady Cougars were victimized by 29 turnovers in the game. The Lady Cougars fell to 13-14 overall, and 4-6 in Division 7-4A play.

Lawrence County led the boys’ game by a fairly comfortable 8-to-10-point margin for most of the night, only to see things get a bit hairy in the late-going. In the waning seconds, the Cougars led by 4 (63-59), only to throw an ill-advised pass that ended up in the hands of the Jaguars. LaDarius Dunn nailed a 3-pointer to get the Jags to within 1 point, but there wasn’t enough time left to do more.

Gabriel Lewis led Lawrence County with 16 points, and Keith Davis added 13. Keyshawn Feazell had 8 points, 12 rebounds, 3 blocked shots, and 5 assists. The Cougars finished the regular season at 18-9 overall, and finished second in the division with a 10-2 mark.

Javion Jackson led North Pike with 21 points, and Dunn had 19. Matthew Owen reached double figures with 12. North Pike fell to 6-16 overall, and 4-6 in the division.

Both North Pike and Lawrence County will be in action this week, as LCHS hosts the Division 7-4A tournament. First-round elimination games will be on Tuesday, with the semi-finals and finals on Thursday and Friday, respectively.