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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

The Pelham Panthers secured a pair of road victories as they went into Sylacauga and Montevallo and walked away with wins.

Pelham defeated the Sylacauga Aggies 66-35 on Thursday, Dec. 5 and turned around and beat the Montevallo Bulldogs 73-12 on Friday, Dec. 6.

Tee King and Ally Barfield paced the Panthers offense early with each player scoring seven points in the opening quarter. Baskets from Shea Gallagher and Janiah Harris also helped Pelham outpace Sylacauga in the opening quarter and take an 18-6 lead into the second.

King’s offensive success continued into the second quarter where she scored nine points to take her into double figures for the half. Barfield hit another 3-pointer to join her in double figures and extend the lead.

The Panthers held the Aggies to just seven points in the third quarter to take the lead to 33-15 going into the halftime break.

Sylacauga’s offense rebounded in the opening minutes of the second half and ended up scoring 13 points in the third quarter compared to just 15 for the entire first half.

However, Pelham saved its best offensive effort of the game for the third quarter as well.

King continued her strong night by scoring nine points in the third, and she got some help from Taylor Hollingsworth, who hit a pair of 3-pointers and scored eight points in the third after only hitting one free throw in the first half.

The pair helped the Panthers outscore the Aggies by six and take a 52-28 lead into the fourth quarter.

Pelham continued to pull away in the final minutes of the game as some of the role players got in on the action with Hannah Bankston and Kaitlyn Cook scoring multiple baskets each.

In the end, the Panthers secured the 31-point victory to get back to winning ways.

King led Pelham with a game-high 27 points, and Hollingsworth and Barfield both had at least 10 points as well as Hollingsworth scored 12 points and Barfield had 10 points. Bankston earned seven points and Cook and Gallagher each had four points in the win.

The Panthers took that win into a county showdown the next day against Montevallo.

Pelham came out of the gate firing from deep, hitting six 3-pointers in the first quarter, three of which came from Ally Barfield.

Big quarters from Barfield, King and Hollingsworth helped the Panthers raced ahead to a double-digit lead while the defense kept the Bulldogs to just a single field goal in the first quarter.

With Pelham up 28-2 at the start of the second quarter, the offense slowed down but continued to build out its lead, outscoring Montevallo 10-5 in the remaining minutes before halftime. Barfield knocked down another 3-pointer to reach double figures.

As a result, the Panthers took a 38-7 lead into the halftime locker room.

Pelham used a balanced offensive effort to continue powering past the Bulldogs with six different scorers finding the bottom of the basket.

The Panthers built out their lead by 10 more points and led 53-12 at the end of the third quarter.

Pelham kept its foot on the gas during the fourth quarter, holding Montevallo scoreless during the final eight minutes of the game and scoring 20 more points during that time.

Jaeda Hall made the most of her opportunity in the fourth quarter to score eight points to get into double figures and Harris scored five points in the fourth quarter to finish out the win.

With that, the Panthers defeated the Bulldogs by 61 points and won their second straight game.

Barfield led Pelham with 17 points, King had 12 points, Hollingsworth dropped 11 points and Hill added 10 points. Harris scored eight points and Kaitlyn Cook earned six points.

While the Panthers fell to Marbury 58-50 on Monday, Dec. 9 to snap their short win streak, Pelham will be back in action on Thursday, Dec. 12 when it hosts Mountain Brook at 5:30 p.m.