BRANDON — Petal begins region play with a key road win.
Behind the play of Jayden Lee along with Eli Causey the Panthers were able to outlast Brandon 57-54 in overtime in the Region 3-7A opener on Tuesday night.
“We had some guy’s step late in the fourth quarter and in overtime to hit some shots to come away with a big time,” said Petal coach Brandon Jennings. “Jayden hit some big-time three’s, Ben McElvany hit one as well, and Eli Causey did a great job getting us in our offense. We had to try to keep them off the glass and we didn’t do good job of that, but I was proud of how we executed late in the game.”
Brandon began the game on a 14-3 run and had a 14-6 lead at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter the Bulldogs extended their lead to 20-8, but then Petal began to get going on offense. The Panthers outscored Brandon 13-8 to end the first half to cut the Bulldog lead to 28-21 at halftime.
Petal opened the second half on a 6-0 run to cut the Bulldog lead to 28-27. Brandon extended their lead to 38-32 late in the third quarter, but the Panthers scored the final five points highlighted by a Lee three-pointer at the buzzer to cut the Brandon lead to 38-37 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Panthers took their first lead of the game 44-43 on a Mehki Keyes three-pointer with 3:55 left in the fourth quarter.
The Bulldogs regained the lead at 47-44 on an Elijah Morey dunk and a Lando Cavett lay-up with just under two minutes remaining.
Lee buried a three-pointer with 1:27 left to tie the game at 47 and Ben McElvany hit a jumper with 23 seconds left to give Petal a 49-47 lead.
Brandon then tied the game at 49-49 with six seconds left on a Morey lay-up to send the game to overtime.
In overtime both teams traded three-pointers to tie the game at 52-52. Cavett hit a lay-up to give Brandon a 54-52, but McElvany hit a three-pointer with 1:04 left in overtime to give Petal a 55-54 lead.
After Cavett missed a pair of free throws DeShun Jones hit a pair of free throws with 10 seconds left to give Petal the 57-54 lead and was able to close the game out.
Lee finished with a game-high 18 points to lead Petal, while Causey added 15 points and McElvany chipped in 12 points for the Panthers (7-5, 1-0 Region 3-7A).
“This is the toughest region in the state top to bottom. If you make it to the playoffs out of this region you have a shot to win a state championship,” Jennings said. “Super proud to be 1-0 in region, we don’t play again until next Tuesday, so we need to get some rest.”
Morey had 14 points to lead Brandon (4-8, 0-1).
“We got tight down the stretch and started missing shots we normally make,” said Brandon coach Fred Thornton. “Offensively we didn’t have the energy to get offensive rebounds late in the game and defensively we couldn’t guard three-point shooters.”
GIRLS
Brandon 53, Petal 21
