The Byrd Yellow Jackets held off the Parkway Panthers 64-61 Thursday in the boys semifinals of the Jack Clayton Haughton Invitational Thursday night at BPCC.
Chad Lott led the Yellow Jackets with 24 points. Artavious Lynn led Parkway with 21.
Byrd plays the winner of Friday’s Haughton-Lakeside game in the championship game at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Haughton. The Haughton-Lakeside game is at 7 p.m. at BPCC.
The Byrd-Parkway game was close all the way. Parkway led by as many as seven points in the first half, but Byrd scored the final five points of the second quarter and the score was tied at 35 at the break.
The Yellow Jackets led 49-47 going into the fourth quarter. Byrd’s lead was just one, 57-56, with 4:07 left.
Parkway briefly took a 59-58 lead on a 3-pointer by Gabe Decuir, but Byrd answered and led 64-61 with 55.1 seconds left.
The Panthers had two chances to tie at the end. The first time they missed a 3-pointer with a little more than 20 seconds left.
The second time they threw the ball inside the lane possibly hoping for a three-point play instead of shooting the 3-pointer. The shot was missed and time ran out.
The Panthers had a tough night at the free-throw line. In the fourth quarter, they were just 3-for-10 from the line.
Juwon Johnson added 14 points for Parkway. Trevon Rogers chipped in with 10.
In a consolation semifinal, Benton fell to Minden 80-72. Willam Givens paced the Tigers with 23 points. Da’Jerick White added 13, Jerryun Lawrence 10 and Tanner Craft nine.
Haughton advanced to the semifinals of the girls division with a 70-16 victory over Lakeside. In other games, North DeSoto downed Northwood 48-26, Richwood topped Captain Shreve 57-35 and Ruston edged Minden 43-40.
All thirteen players who dressed out for Haughton scored against Lakeside as the Lady Bucs raced to a 35-6 halftime lead. Mary Gladney and Ebone’ Green led the way with 11 points each.
The Lady Bucs face North DeSoto in the semifinals at 7 p.m. Friday at Haughton. Ruston plays Richwood in the other semifinal at 5:30.
— Russell Hedges, rhedges@bossierpress.com
