All season long the Paris Wildcats have shown a special second-half resilency on the rare occasions they’ve faced adversity. Saturday night before a record crowd of 2,500 in the Wildcat Gym (including an overflow of 200 watching via a video feed in the cafeteria), they kept their school record unbeaten streak intact at 28-0 with a hard-fought, 65-56 win over the North Lamar Panthers.
Trailing their crosstown rivals, 44-45, heading into the final quarter of play, the Cats finally got their running game up and running to outscore the Panthers, 21-11, over the final 8 minutes to notch victory No. 28. They lead the District 15-4A chase by 2 games over NL and Pleasant Grove with just 3 games remaining in the regular season. Paris is a perfect 7-0 in district, while NL falls into a tie with PG at 5-2.
It was a matchup with statewide importance, pairing the Nos. 20 and 24 ranked Class 4A teams. With the win, the Cats pull off a rare 4-game sweep over the Panthers, now 24-6 for the season.
The Panthers’ challenge was led by junior guard Versache Buchanan, who led all scorers with 27 points on nine 3-pointers. On the defensive end, NL concentrated on stopping all-Region forward Seljah Johnson, who was held to 11 points.
Senior teammate Roy’d Jones took up the slack, however, scoring 15 of his team-high 20 points in the second half. But it was a team effort for Paris, including some big plays off the bench from KD Scott and Jalon Pipkins.
The 28 wins ties the previous school record for victories in a season held by the 2010 team (28-4).