Halftime of Panola-PJC women’s game proves to be showtime for toddler

This someday-cheerleader wandered onto the court during halftime of the women’s game between Paris Junior College and Panola College. He clapped, and waved and at one point attempted a somersault.(eParisExtra photo by Charles Richards)

Matt Johnson, Lynsee Parish honored as Mr. & Miss PJC

Matt Johnson and Lynsee Parish are shown after they were presented as Mr. and Miss PJC on Wednesday at halftime of the men’s basketball game between Paris Junior College and Panola College. (PJC Photo)

PARIS — Mr. and Miss PJC — Matt Johnson of Plano and Lynsee Parish of Yantis — were announced Wednesday night at halftime of the men’s basketball game between Paris Junior College and Panola College.

Johnson is a two-year member of the Dragons baseball team and was recently named to Who’s Who Among Students in American Junior Colleges. After PJC, he will transfer to the University of Pittsburgh to play baseball while continuing his education. The 5-10, 172-pound sophomore plays shortstop.

Parish attends the PJC-Sulphur Springs Center, where she is president of The Blend club and vice president of the two-year college honor society Phi Theta Kappa in Sulphur Springs. After PJC she plans to pursue her degree in education and become a teacher.

Both students were named to the President’s Honor List, a feat requiring a 4.0 GPA. Candidates were nominated by PJC faculty and staff and selected by a vote of the student body. To qualify, they needed to be a full-time student, carry at least 12 semester hours and be a graduating sophomore.

Region 5 & 14 Women’s Junior College Standings and scores (through Wednesday, Feb. 27)

MONDAY, FEB. 25, 2013:

   Region 14

Paris 60, San Jacinto 51

Region 5- West:

New Mexico JC 61, Odessa 50

Midland 110, Clarendon 54

South Plains at Frank Phillips, ppd., weather

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 27, 2013:

   Region 14:

Tyler 58, Kilgore 56

Blinn 71, Jacksonville 66

Panola 56, Paris 50

Trinity Valley 96, San Jacinto 22

   Region 5-North:

McLennan 86, SW Christian 28

Collin 75, Ranger 60

Hill 77, Cisco 8

Weatherford 86, Temple 70

 THURSDAY, FEB. 28, 2013:

  Region 5-West:

Frank Philips at Howard

Midland at New Mexico JC

Clarendon at South Plains

SATURDAY, MARCH 2, 2013:

   Region 14:

Tyler at Jacksonville, 2 p.m.

Angelina at Kilgore, 4 p.m.

Blinn at Trinity Valley, 4 p.m.

Paris at San Jacinto, 4 p.m.

MARCH 5-9, 2013:

Region XIV Tournament

Herrington Patriot Center

UT-Tyler, Tyler, Texas

March 6-9, 2013:

Region 5 Tournament

LCU Rip Griffin Center

Lubbock, Texas

PJC Dragons defeat Panola behind Mike Harmon’s seven 3-pointers

David Tucker (20) looks toward former high school teammate Courtney Austin (31) in the second half of PJC’s 80-65 victory over Panola. They played together on Dallas Kimball’s state championship team two yeas ago. Also shown are Paris players Will Ransom (44) and Delvin Dickerson. (eParisExtra photo by Charles Richards)

By CHARLES RICHARDS

eParisExtra.com

Mike Harmon went berserk from outside Wednesday night, draining seven 3-pointers in a span of 12 minutes, leading Paris Junior College to an 80-65 victory over Panola College..

The win wrapped up the regular season for the Dragons (15-15 overall, 9-10 in conference). Panola fell to 8-20, 0-18.

Eddie Leal and Delvin Dickerson added 11 points each. All of Leal’s points and eight of Mitchell’s came in the first half, providing the spark for Paris’ 36-27 halftime lead.

JaRon Denmark had 19 points and Marquis Yates 16 for Panola, which fell to 0-18 in conference play and 8-20 overall.

In other Region XIV action, Tyler (21-7, 12-6) defeated Navarro 65-58 to sweep its home-and-away series with the Bulldogs and create a first-place tie in the North Zone between Navarro and Kilgore at 14-4.

Trinity Valley beat Bossier 90-72, Blinn clinched the No. 12 seed over Bossier and Panola by beating Coastal Bend 72-62, San Jacinto beat Lee 101-96, and Jacksonville beat Lamar-Port Arthur 90-80.

A 3-pointer by Denmark and a put-back by Josh Brannon pulled Panola with a point at 26-25 with 3:48 to play in the first half. But Antonio Arnold and Harmon  answered with 3-pointers to spark a 10-2 run into halftime.

Two goals inside by Mitchell and a three-point play by Dickerson increased Paris’ lead over Panola to 43-29 in the first two and a half minutes of the second half.

Then Harmon took over, hitting 3-pointers on the next three times Paris went down court. Anthony Adams stole the ball and drove the length of the court for a lay-up, and 6-11 Marcus Holt added an exclamation mark with a slam dunk on an alley oop pass.

Paris led 57-41 with 11:20 to play, and Harmon went crazy again, hitting 3-pointers on each of the Dragons’ next three possessions, and the lead was 23 at 66-43.

Paris coach Chuck Taylor emptied his bench in the second half. That was in his game plan anyway, since Panola was going with only seven players and he wanted to keep running fresh players at the Ponies.

Harmon, a 5-9 sophomore from Houston, finished with a game-high 21 points. Mo Mitchell, a 6-6 sophomore from Atlanta, Ga., backed him up with 12 points, all on tough baskets inside, mostly on put-backs.

Paris will be the No. 9 or 10 seed in next week’s Region XIV tournament at the Herrington Patriot Center on the UT-Tyler campus.

Angelina is at Lamar State-Port Arthur on Saturday. If Angelina wins, Paris’ first game in the tournament will be at 1 p.m. Tuesday as the No. 9 seed. If Lamar State-Port Arthur wins, Paris’ first game will be at 6 p.m. Tuesday as the No. 10 seed.

Kilgore can clinch the No. 1 seed in Region XIV with a win at Tyler on Saturday.

For Navarro to get the top seed, Kilgore must lose and Navarro must beat Trinity Valley.

If both Kilgore and Navarro lose, Kilgore will still get the top seed if San Jacinto defeats Jacksonville. Otherwise, Jacksonville would get the No. 1 seed.

Navarro must finish ahead of Kilgore. If both win or both lose, they’ll finish with the same record, and Kigore has the tie-breaker over Navarro. The two teams split their two games against each other, and the next tie-breaker is the record against other teams in the North Zone. Going into Saturday’s games, Kilgore has a 7-2 record against the six other North Zone teams (losses to Navarro and Paris), while Navarro is 6-3 (two losses to Tyler and one to Kilgore).

After winning that tie-breaker with Navarro, the process then is to break the tie with the team from the other zone. Kilgore has the tie-breaker over San Jacinto, which it defeated in inter-zone play 75-66. A Kilgore-Jacksonville tie would be resolved in Jacksonville’s favor because the Jaguars defeated Kilgore 89-82. (Navarro beat Jacksonville, and San Jacinto defeated Navarro, but those results are irrelevant.)

If Tyler does knock off Kilgore on Saturday, it will have the same 13-6 record as the loser of the Jacksonville-San Jacinto game, and Tyler has the tie-breaker advantage over both those teams. However, that is trumped by a conference rule that guarantees two teams from each zone a Top 4 seed and first-round bye.

Having the best record in a zone does not guarantee one of the top two seeds. If both Kilgore and Tyler win, giving them 15-4 conference records, they would be seeded No. 1 and No. 2 respectively; the Jacksonville-San Jac winner would be the No. 3 seed with its 14-5 record; and the loser with its 13-6 record would be the No. 4 seed.

Beating Kilgore -WOULD- assure Tyler of the No. 5 seed. However, if Tyler loses and Lee beats Coastal Bend, both Tyler and Lee would have 12-7 records and Lee would be the No. 5 seed and Tyler the No. 6 seed — because Lee defeated Tyler 73-62 on Dec. 8.

PANOLA       27-38—65

PARIS          36-44—80

Panola (8-20, 0-18) – Ben Merritt 3 3-6 9, Gilbert Carter 3 2-2 9, Patrick Branch 1 0-0 2, Marquis Yates 6 0-0 16, JaRon Denmark 7 1-6 19, Josh Brannon 4 2-2 10. Totals: 24 8-16 65. Three-Pointers: 9 (Yates 4, Denmark 4, Carter 1). Fouls: 16. Fouled Out: Nonr.

Paris (15-15, 9-10) – Antonio Arnold 3 1-2 10, Mike Harmon 7 0-0 21, Anthony Adams 1 0-0 2, Chris Jones 1 2-2 4, David Tucker 0 0-0 0, Delvin Dickerson 4 3-5 11, Eddie Leal 4 1-1 11, Lamar Walker 1 1-2 3, Sheldon Yearwood 0 0-0 0, Marcus Holt 2 2-5 6, Courtney Austin 0 0-0  0, Mo Mitchell 6 0-0 12, Will Ransom 0 0-0 0. Totals: 29 10-19 80. Three-Pointers: 12 (Harmon 7, Arnold 3, Leal 2). Fouls: 13. Fouled Out: None.

Region 5 & 14 Men’s Junior College Basketnball stadings and scores through Wednesday, Feb. 27

MEN’S   JUCO
(Thru Feb. 27)
			CONF				ALL
Region   14	W	L	PCT.		W	L	PCT.
Kilgore	14	4	0.778		24	4	0.857
Navarro	14	4	0.778		22	7	0.759
Jacksonville	13	5	0.722		22	7	0.759
SanJacinto	13	5	0.722		22	5	0.815
Tyler	12	6	0.667		21	7	0.750
Lee	11	7	0.611		18	10	0.643
TrinityValley	10	8	0.556		19	10	0.655
Lamar-PA	9	9	0.500		20	10	0.667
Angelina	9	9	0.500		16	13	0.552
Paris	9	10	0.474		15	15	0.500
CoastalBend	7	11	0.389		14	11	0.560
Blinn	4	15	0.211		12	18	0.400
Bossier	2	16	0.111		9	18	0.333
Panola	0	17	0.000		8	19	0.296
* top 12   advance
to R14 tourney
	###
			CONF				ALL
Region_5-N	W	L	PCT.		W	L	PCT.
Ranger	10	2	0.833		18	12	0.600
Hill	8	3	0.727		20	9	0.690
McLennan	8	4	0.667		23	7	0.767
Temple	5	7	0.417		19	11	0.633
Collin	5	6	0.455		19	9	0.679
SWChristian	3	8	0.273		7	22	0.241
Weatherford	1	10	0.091		5	19	0.208
* top 4   advance
to R5 tourney
			CONF				ALL
Region_5-W	W	L	PCT.		W	L	PCT.
Howard	12	3	0.800		25	4	0.862
Odessa	12	4	0.750		22	7	0.759
NewMexicoJC	11	4	0.733		23	6	0.793
SouthPlains	10	5	0.667		21	7	0.750
Midland	10	5	0.667		19	7	0.731
Clarendon	4	11	0.267		15	14	0.517
FrankPhillips	4	11	0.267		14	15	0.483
WesternTexas	3	12	0.200		13	16	0.448
NMMI	2	13	0.133		6	22	0.214
* top 4   advance
to R5 tourney

MONDAY, FEB. 25:

Region 5-West:

Midland 95, Clarendon 69

Odessa 81, New Mexico JC 50

Howard 87, NMMI 68

TUESDAY, FEB. 26:

Region 14-South:

Jacksonville 90, Lamar-Port Arthur 80

Region 5-W:

South Plains 91, Frank Phillips 90

WEDNESDAY, FEB. 27:

Region 14-North:

Tyler 65, Navarro 58

Trinity Valley 90, Bossier Parish 72

Paris 80, Panola 65

Region 14-South:

Blinn 72, Coastal Bend 62

San Jacinto 101, Lee 96

Region 5-North:

Weatherford 86, Temple 70

Collin 75, Ranger 60

McLennan 86, SW Christian 28

THURSDAY, FEB. 28:

Region 5-West:

Frank Phillips at Howard

Midland at NewMexico JC

Western Texas at NMMI

Clarendon at South Plains

SATURDAY, MARCH 2:

Region 14-North:

Bossier Parish at Panola

Kilgore at Tyler

Navarro at Trinity Valley

Region 14-South:

Jacksonville at San Jacinto

Angelina at Lamar-Port Arthur

Lee at Coastal Bend