By Shawn C. White
DOYLINE – Doyline Coach Michael Normand has made it a semi-tradition in the past few years to open the basketball season with the Class B powerhouse Zwolle Hawks from Sabine Parish. The Panthers have not had much success as they haven’t beaten the Hawks this millennium. The Panthers fortune turned tonight as it took the win 56-48 against the defending Class B runner up.
The Panthers were led by a 22-point performance by Decari Markay who also collected 8 rebounds for the evening. Jamaria “Juicy” Clark popped 15 to aid the Panthers in the win including three 3-pointers
The Hawks leading scorer was Kobe Montgomery who also scored 22 points. Corbin Jones backed him up with 13 points.
Zwolle started early as Montgomery piled on 7 points in the opening minutes to give the Hawks the early 11-5 lead. Zwolle didn’t score again the remaining 3 ½ minutes The Panthers sparked by a three-pointer from Clark went on an 8-0 run to close out the first quarter with a 13-11 lead.
Montgomery brought Zwolle back in the second quarter to give them lead once again at 15-14 and Coach Normand had to slow down the play. Each tossed the lead back and forth in the waning seconds but Doyline maintained their 2-point lead going into halftime.
Doyline opened up the second half with another 3-pointer from Clark kickstarted the Panthers as they opened up the lead. The Hawks made one field goal in the opening 4 ½ minutes. Zwolle tried to get their composure as they called a timeout. Doyline closed out the third quarter with the 36-23 lead.
The fourth quarter saw a lot of exchanging points, but Doyline increased their lead to 45-36 with shooting 5 for 6 from the free-throw line. Zwolle suffered another scoring drought as once again they didn’t score a field goal for another 3 minutes. The Panthers took advantage and increased the lead to 12 points. The Panther put it in cruise control and pulled out the win.
Zwolle will head back farther north next Monday as they will head to Summerfield. Doyline will head east to compete in the Choudrant Tournament.
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