The Paris Eagles senior high boys improved their 2020-21 record to 3-0 with another win over a Class 4A program. This time, it was a late fourth quarter rally that propelled the Eagles to a win over the Lamar Warriors at Paris Gymnasium on Tuesday night. Paris played behind for most of the game, but kept themselves in the game with a hard-nosed, pressure defense that has become the trademark of the Eagles this season. Paris was led again by sophomore power forward Sam Muldrow who had 23 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals on the night.

Paris coach Blain Brewington expressed pride for his team who never gave up and found a way to get the win over a good Lamar team. Coach Brewington said after the game, “Extremely proud of the kids and their effort. Faced some adversity in the second half, but the kids never quit and found a way to get a win. Still a lot of things to clean up: turnovers, shot selection, and missed defensive assignments. But the thing I am most proud of is the effort the kids gave no matter what the score was. We battled and competed. Attitude and effort is what we have preached since day one and the kids get all of the praise in the world for buying into it and building the foundation of how we want to do things. We want to take pride in putting on a Paris Eagle jersey. We want it to mean something and the kids showed a lot of heart and a lot of toughness getting that win.”

On the night, Juan Santos had 9 points and 2 rebounds. Caleb Cunningham had 12 points and 5 rebounds. Cayden McDaniel added 3 rebounds and 5 assists. Coach Brewington added that Cayden guarded Lamar’s best player and “did a terrific job keeping him in check.” Senior Dylan Krigbaum took 2 charges on defense, and sophomore Jesse Wells had 11 points and 4 rebounds in the Paris win.

The Paris senior girls lost a close game to Lamar in the first game of the session on Tuesday night. The Lady Eagles played without sophomore forward Brailey Forst who was a late loss to the team on Tuesday (approximately 2:30 p.m. on game day.) Lady Eagles coach Donald Hart was forced to change his game plan just hours before the game. After the game, Coach Hart said, “I thought the Lady Eagles played good defense for 32 minutes considering we were without a starter and had to change the game plan late in the day. We had a limited bench but we still had opportunities to win the game. Lamar had a good game plan to shut our leading scorer, Jadyn Hart down to only 12 points on the night. The game was played 98% with only five players and I felt like that lead to some turnovers in the second half. Our second leading scorer was Karsyn Tencleve with seven points. All five players managed to get on the scoreboard in a low scoring affair. I get two more players back and will have our full team for the first time in our next game against Mansfield, providing no unexpected setbacks. Once our offense gets going with a stingy defense we should find ourselves on the “W” side of the column more often than not. We’ve got to have a continued focus on improving daily and all things will fall into place.”

Coaches in all sports across the state have been battling the COVID virus, quarantining of players, and simultaneously trying to keep their teams competitive. As in the case of the Lady Eagles’ game on Tuesday, the unexpected loss of players due to quarantining will necessitate that others on the roster step up to take up the slack in both scoring and on defense. On Tuesday night, junior Karsyn Tencleve was one such player that stepped up to take up the loss of point production from leading scorer Jadyn Hart.

The Paris basketball games that were originally scheduled for Thursday night against Lincoln have been rescheduled to December 2. Lincoln, like many schools across the state, are dealing with COVID issues and were forced to reschedule the games with Paris.

Both Paris teams will now be off through next week for the Thanksgiving holiday. Paris will resume action on Monday, November 30 when the Eagles travel to Waldron. First game begins at 4 p.m. at the Waldron Events Center.

Both Paris teams are making good progress and appear to be on track to be ready to begin conference play in December. Once the Thanksgiving break is over, it will be a short run in December to start the conference schedule, followed by the Christmas break, and then the long stretch run in January and February on the way to post season play.

So Eagles fans, enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday…enjoy the Eagles football team in the playoffs, and Resident Press will see you on November 30 for coverage of Paris basketball when it travels to Scott County to take on the Bulldogs!