The Centralia boys had to wait a long time to defeat rival Hallsville in the playoffs. Some Panthers were able to eliminated the Indians twice in a year since after the football team defeated Hallsville in districts in the fall, the No. 3 seed basketball team knocked off No. 2 seed Hallsville 54-46 on Thursday to advance to Saturday's Class 4 District 8 championship game at 1 p.m. in Centralia against eighth-ranked Mexico (25-2).
The football Panthers had been eliminated by Hallsville two previous times in the playoffs before a 24-18 victory this past season, and the basketball Panthers outtebounded the Indians 42-30 to defeat them in districts for the first time since 2012.
Anthony Ford plays football and basketball for Centralia (17-11) but wasn't able to take the field for the football game due to a pulled hamstring. Ford was front-and-center in basketball's triumph with 13 points and 14 rebounds, followed by Noah Kropf with 15 points and eight rebounds, Travis Brooks with 12 points on four 3-pointers, Cullen Bennett with nine points and five rebounds, and Elliott McCoy added seven rebounds off the bench.
Zach Jouret led Hallsville (17-10) with 21 points on five 3-pointers, including three in a fourth quarter the Panthers outscored the Indians 22-14 following a tie game at 32 at the end of three. Xavier Stinson had five points and 11 rebounds.
Look for the full story on the Mexico Ledger website on Saturday morning.
