Eagles claw past Warriors in two-overtime thriller

December 21, 2023 Bob Bakken

Photo: Jason Edwards looks for the ball inside against Pontotoc Thursday night in the Horn Lake double-overtime win. (Bob Bakken/desotocountynews.com)

The Horn Lake High School boys’ basketball team has brought a lot of excitement to their fans of late. Thankfully for coach Chico Potts’ Eagles, they’ve been ending in the win column at the same time.

After a thrilling 67-64 home win Tuesday night against cross-county rival Center Hill, Horn Lake welcomed Pontotoc to the Horn Lake gym. What transpired was a double-overtime battle before the Eagles prevailed 70-65.

Jason Edwards’ 24 points led the way for Horn Lake, improving to 8-5 with the victory. Ronald Wilson scored 20 and Derrick Gilliam added 12 more. Pontotoc was led in scoring by Mackinly Brown with 19, Jordan Blackmon with 17 and Emarion Hinton with 15.

Pontotoc took the early lead with the first six points and led 15-13 after one quarter. The closeness of the game continued in the second quarter, which was tied at 21-21 with two minutes before halftime. A late basket would give the Warriors a two-point edge at halftime, 27-25.

In the second half, Horn Lake finally would take its first lead of the game at 31-29 with 6:40 remaining in the third quarter. The Eagles’ offense became a bit more deliberate in the final minute of the period and when a rebound shot went in at the buzzer, Horn Lake held a 50-41 lead entering the final eight minutes of what would be regulation.

It would be 58-50 Eagles with 3:44 left until the Warriors put together a furious rally to tie the game at 58-all going into overtime.

The Eagles scored the first points of the overtime period and led 65-63 with 1:23 remaining, but the Pontotoc basket sent us to a second overtime session, when Horn Lake outscored the Warriors 5-0 for the 70-65 victory, aided by some important defensive steals both inside and backcourt during the period.

Potts was pleased Edwards provided the offense for his team, but added he expects that on a more consistent basis from his sophomore shooting forward.

“The last two ball games he’s really come out and helped this team tremendously,” Potts said. “I told him, ‘no teasers.’ If this is going to be the Jason Edwards of the last two games, that’s who you need to be. Every night in and every night out, that’s who you need to be.”

PONTOTOC GIRLS 55, HORN LAKE 15: The Horn Lake girls found out Thursday night what number one looks like, as Pontotoc, the top team in Class 5A and top-rated team overall by Maxpreps, easily handled the Lady Eagles 55-15.

Channing Lane scored 22 to lead Pontotoc in their win. The Lady Eagles were led by Kalia Pernell with 9, all but three in the second half.

The 14-0 Lady Warriors scored the first 13 points of the game and increased it to 21-3 late in the first quarter. Pontotoc would add a basket for a 23-3 at quarter’s end.

The carnage continued in the second quarter as Pontotoc held a 34-5 edge halfway in the second quarter and the Lady Warriors added 13 more points for a 47-5 lead at halftime.

That would put the clock in continuous motion for the second half with a lead greater than 35 points and it was rolling for the rest of the game.