Johnny Rucker drives to the basket in a tough match up against Clinton.By TAYLOR MITCHELL
Sports Editor

A day after losing a close battle to Bailey the Indians of Yazoo City High School showed that one performance was a fluke with a 52-36 victory against Canton.
Yazoo City started the game off strong and never let up, scoring 14 points in the opening quarter of play. The Indians kept the pace up in the second quarter with another 10 points while holding Canton to just seven, making the score 24-16 at halftime.
The defense for Yazoo City kept playing the best it has all season long as they held Canton to just six points in the third quarter. Meanwhile, the offense kept finding the basket on the other end of the court with 13 points. The story wouldn’t change in the fourth quarter, with Canton trailing 37-22, as the Indians poured onto their point total with 15 points. Canton managed to score 14 points in the final quarter to account for the final score of 52-36.
-------for the rest of the story see The Yazoo Herald printed edition or subscribe to the Digital Edition.----------

Fletcher Cox and head coach Dan Mullen had a lot to celebrate about after a 23-17 victory in the Music City Bowl, but now there isn’t much celebrating as Cox is headed to the NFL next year.By TAYLOR MITCHELL
Sports Editor

Following his teams’ 23-17 victory over Wake Forest in the Music City Bowl, Mississippi State junior defensive tackle Fletcher Cox has announced he will forgo his senior season in Starkville and will enter the NFL Draft in April.
“God works in many ways,” Cox said during an interview with The New York Times. “He answered my prayer and I knew deep down in my heart it was time for me to go.”
Cox, a 2011 All-American and All-SEC player, recorded 14.5 tackles for a loss and five sacks for the Bulldogs. Currently, Cox is projected to be a late-first round to early second round pick in April and ESPN’s Todd McShay has Cox rated as the second-best defensive tackle behind Penn State’s Devon Still.
Against Wake Forest, Cox had seven total tackles and a pair of tackles for a loss to go along with his lone sack.
Cox will now go through the evaluation process all 32 NFL squads put soon-to-be-rookies through, starting with the scouting combine in March.

The Mitchell ReportWait, what?
It’s 2012? When did that happen?
Surely I’m not the only one who thinks 2011 went by way too fast. It seems like yesterday going to school at Delta State and being excited about the last semester of classes for me. So much has happened in the last year that I have forgotten that I’ve only been in Yazoo for five full months (it seems much longer).
Like it or not, though, we all have changed or will be (there’s your reminder) changing our calendars to the 2012 version. With a new year comes new expectations, hopes, dreams, victories, defeats and the occasional controversy.
In the sporting world there is always something to look forward to with the new year. There’s the college football national championship game at the beginning of every year that is intertwined with the NFL playoffs. A month later, it’s the Super Bowl.
Then you’ll have the NCAA men’s basketball tournament to go along with the hundreds of high school playoffs.
If you think about it, baseball and softball season is around the corner. So is track and field, tennis, swimming and, of course, hunting.
That’s just the bare essentials of what is to come (I left out next fall’s football season).

Sondya Hudson (30) scored eight points in a 68-49 loss to Jackson Prep last week. Hudson and the Lady Panthers must now turn their attention towards the brunt of their district schedule after the Jackson Academy New Year’s Classic.By TAYLOR MITCHELL
Sports Editor

JACKSON- Generally, when a player for Yazoo County’s girls basketball squad scores 22 points, it is safe to assume those points came from one of the top players in the state, senior Ashanti Spencer.
However, in a 68-49 loss to Jackson Prep at the Jackson Prep Holiday Classic, it was another Spencer that gave the Lady Patriots trouble. Ashaki Spencer scored 22 points in the loss to Jackson Prep last week.
While Spencer stole the spotlight, the game wasn’t anything spectacular for the Lady Panthers.
After gaining a 16-10 lead over Jackson Prep in the first quarter, Yazoo County doomed itself in the second quarter with just eight points while the Lady Patriots totaled 21 points, en route to the 19-point loss.
-------for the rest of the story see The Yazoo Herald printed edition or subscribe to the Digital Edition.----------