By By Rocky Higginbotham/The Meridian Star
With Thanksgiving Day looming later this week, most of high schools in The Meridian Star's coverage area will play an abbreviated basketball schedule.
Still, there are some intriguing matchups on tap tonight and Tuesday before most teams pack it up until next week.
A pair of interesting matchups will take place tonight at Heidelberg, where Meridian High will be taking on the host Oilers and Lady Oilers.
Donald Shirley's MHS girls will put their 9-0 record and No. 2 ranking on the line when they take on an improving Heidelberg High squad. Meridian's girls are fresh off the Quitman Invitational Tournament title.
The boys' matchup pits MHS against an Oilers squad which has been to the Class 3A State Tournament the past two seasons.
Among other local matchups tonight, Southeast Lauderdale hosts Clarkdale, Choctaw Central entertains Forest, Neshoba Central is at West Lauderdale and Lamar School entertains East Rankin.
The Southeast/Clarkdale matchups are a repeat of last Friday afternoon's games in the Lauderdale County Tournament. Monique Horner is fresh off a 64-point performance that gave her the title of Mississippi's all-time girls' scoring leader, while Southeast's boys got their first win of the season with a 75-69 victory over Clarkdale.
At Choctaw Central, the Lady Warriors put their home-court winning streak on the line against last year's Class 3A state runnerup Lady Bearcats; while at Collinsville, Tausha Evans and Neshoba tangle with Jody Hurst's West Lauderdale team, which has won five-of-six.
Tuesday's slate of games includes West Lauderdale hosting Newton, Noxubee County entertaining Aberdeen, Philadelphia going to Neshoba Central and Newton County hosting Velma Jackson.
It's the first matchup for Noxubee's girls against an Aberdeen squad which ended the Tigerettes' season a year ago; while at Decatur, a pair of 8-1 teams from Velma Jackson invade NCHS to take on the Cougars and Lady Cougars in non-division action between Division 5-3A rivals.