Pine Prairie picks up commanding home court wins

The Pine Praire Panthers and Lady Panthers trounced the rivaling Westminster Crusaders and Lady Crusaders here Wednesday night, as both teams picked up wins in dominant fashion.
The blazing Lady Panthers continued their hot streak, collecting their 11th win in a row with a 50-13 pasting of the Lady Crusaders. Win the win the Pine Prairie moves to 12-5 on the season. They were scheduled to hit the road to Crowley this Thursday for a district contest.
The Panthers also picked up a sizable win, blowing past the Crusaders 84-38. Pine Prairie improves to 9-2 on the year with their victory and will travel to Church Point on January 2 for their next game.
The Lady Panthers were the first to hit the court and when they did they hit the ground running. After Westminster picked up the first score of the game, Pine Prairie took complete control, scorching the nets for 21 unanswered points, ten of which came from guard Asia George. That 21-1 advantage remained until the close of the opening period.
Pine Prairie didn’t stop rolling in the second period, scoring four points in less than a minute. The Lady Crusaders finally found an opportunity to score, but couldn’t keep up with the Lady Panthers.
Pine Prairie stayed hot in the second period, holding fast to a 35-7 lead with 1:31 left in the quarter. The Lady Panthers scored five quick points to close out the second stanza and take a 40-7 lead into the locker room.
The third period was relatively low scoring as both teams started to slow down offensively. Pine Prairie continued to dominate regardless, scoring six points and holding the Lady Crusaders to two, ending the third period with a commanding 46-9 lead.
The fourth period was also low scoring, with Westminster managing to keep up with the Lady Panthers. Both teams scored four points in the quarter, mostly by the bench players.
George led all Pine Prairie players with 24 points, while Brashaylin Doucet pitched in 11 points.
The Panthers were up next and had big expectations to live up to after the impressive Lady Panther win. Luckily, they would not disappoint.
Pine Prairie opened up the scoring first, with a quick three-pointer from JJ Simms. The two teams traded a couple of baskets that ended with a 9-4 lead by the Panthers at the 5:30 mark.
From that point, Pine Prairie reeled off 14 unanswered points, with eight of those points coming out of the hands of Isaiah Payne. By the time the first quarter came to an end the Panthers were in total control and owned a 27-6 lead.
Westminster tried to keep up in the second period and had some success, but still couldn’t keep pace with Pine Prairie. The two teams scored one basket after the other, but the Panthers were all around more efficient. The quarter closed out with the Panthers holding an insurmountable 44-16 lead.
Pine Prairie took complete control of the third period, holding Westminster to 12 total points. Isaiah Payne and Raylin Thomas had major success in this period, with Payne scoring 11 and Thomas scoring 10. The Panthers out produced the Crusaders 28-12 to open up a 72-28 lead.
Pine Prairie refused to slow down in the fourth period, scoring eight unanswered points right off the bat. After this the Panthers cleared their bench, which allowed the Crusaders to pick up 10 points down the stretch while the Panthers scored four to close out the game.
Payne knocked down 27 points to lead the Panthers. Thomas chipped in 20 points in the win.