Bobcats Fall to Panthers

LONGVIEW - Taylor Dishman may not have been the first or second option, but he proved to be the winning option for the Spring Hill Panthers on Tuesday night.

Dishman followed in his own miss just ahead of the fourth quarter buzzer as the Panthers rallied for a thrilling 75-73 victory over the Hallsville Bobcats.

Shadd Berg's steal and layup gave Hallsville a seemingly comfortable 57-40 lead over Spring Hill with 1:54 left in the third period.

Kyren Miller and Casey Mudoh connected on back-to-back extra-point launches in the waning moments of the third as the Panthers started chipping away at the sizable deficit.

Tyler Caron, who led the Panthers with 26 points, answered a Ty Huff turnaround jumper with a trifecta to start the fourth period.

Miller, who netted 22 points and a half dozen treys, rained in consecutive extras as Spring Hill took its first lead since midway of the second quarter with only 22 seconds left.

Hallsville's Kobe Hogan, who had missed two free throws earlier in the period, calmly sank a pair from the stripe to tie the game at 73-all with 14.2 seconds remaining.

Dishman took the ball at the top of the key and drove the lane. His first shot missed the mark, but he stayed with it and got the ball off just in the nick of time.

"At first I was looking to pass it to Tyler or Kyren for the shot. I saw the open lane and just took it," Dishman said.

"We've got good team chemistry and our coach keeps pushing to not give. Sooner or later you're going to catch back up."

The Panthers (7-3) never seemed to panic when things looked bleak. They just took things one trip at a time down the floor and got hot at the right time.

A couple snow-bird layups from Miller and Mudoh followed a Caron 3-pointer and started a 13-2 surge that enabled Spring Hill to claws its way back into contention.

Berg, who led all scorers with 27 points, appeared to give the Bobcats command with a pair of 3-pointers on successive trips down the floor in the final two minutes.

Jeremy Swalley and Huff joined Berg in double figures for Hallsville (8-2) with 17 and 14 points, respectively.

Mudoh was the only other Panther in twin figures with 11 points.