Saturday night, February 7th in the Paris High gym, the unbeaten Paris Wildcats boys basketball team will square off with their crosstown rivals with history on the line in addition to a virtual District 15-4A championship.
The Cats romped past Liberty-Eylau, 94-49, Tuesday night in Texarkana to extend their school record unbeaten streak to 27-0. With their next win, they will tie a school mark for victories in a season. The 2010 team finished with a 28-4 ledger.
The Panthers, meanwhile, made the long trek to Atlanta Tuesday and returned with a 72-16 rout to remain a game behind the Cats in district standings. NL (24-5) has fallen to Paris in three previous meetings this season by margins of 17, 16, and 13 points.
If the Cats can continue their success and grab a fourth series win Saturday night in the Wildcat Gym, they can virtually lock up the district title with just 3 games left in the regular season.
It will be a matchup of state ranked teams (No. 20 Paris vs. No. 24 NL) and is sure to draw a capacity crowd to the Paris High gym. Action starts at 4:30 p.m. with the freshmen game, followed by JV around 6, then varsity at approximately 7:30. The PHS baseball team will hold its annual Chili Supper in the cafeteria from 5 to 8:30 with tickets available from any baseball player or at the door for $6. A live video feed of the basketball action will be shown on the big screen in the cafeteria.
The last meeting between Paris and NL, a 58-45 district win at the Panther Gym, was an historic one for Paris had coach Billy Mack Steed. He reached the 200-win milestone for coaching wins during his 8 seasons at PHS. For his 20-year coaching career, the NL alum and former NL head coach is now 435-168.
All-Region senior wing Seljah Johnson played a central role breaking the Leopards press and scoring a game-high 41 points. He also pulled down 19 rebounds. Senior point guard Roy’D Jones scored 20, Jared Embry had 10 points and 8 rebounds, and Jordan Embry scored 5 with 10 boards.
The athletic Leopards were able to hang with the Cats for the first quarter before a 25-3 run by Paris blew the game open right before halftime.
With 4 district games remaining, Paris tops the standings at 6-0. NL remains a game behind at 5-1, followed by Pleasant Grove 4-2, L-E 2-4, Pittsburg 1-5, and Atlanta 0-6. Despite the 3-0 showing against their crosstown rivals this season, an upset by the Panthers on Saturday would create a first-place tie.
A win by Paris would give the Cats a 2-game edge and mean that Paris would have to lose all three remaining district games (PG at home, Pittsburg and Atlanta on the road) to not finish as district champions.