EL DORADO - Magnolia and El Dorado split their regular-season final games Thursday night.
The Panthers defeated the Wildcats 66-56, while the Lady Panthers fell 48-19 to the Lady Wildcats.
The Panthers pulled away in the fourth quarter.
Magnolia will now turn its attention to the 5A-South District Tournament that starts Monday at Hot Springs High School.
The second-seed Panthers will square off against seventh-seed Hope at 8:30 p.m. Monday, while the sixth-seed Lady Panthers will take on second-seed De Queen at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Games in the district tournament will be played Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.
Teams must win their first games to qualify for the Class 5A State Basketball Tournament that will be held at Maumelle Feb. 26-March 2.
In El Dorado, the Lady Panthers scored one bucket in the second quarter and trailed 20-9 at the half. They had only three field goals in the second half and one of those came after clearing the bench.
Shadiamond Love led the Lady Panthers in scoring with eight points.
El Dorado led the Panthers 23-22 at the half and were up 25-22 before the Panthers went on a 9-0 spurt, ignited by Tyler Brown’s 3-pointer.
Magnolia led 34-30 before Brown hit back-to-back 3-pointers.
The Panthers led 43-32 late in the third quarter.
The Wildcats closed the gap to three, 43-40, in the final period.
But, Magnolia regained control. Kadyn Roach converted a three-point play before Brown pulled up on the break to nail another 3-pointer.
Braelyn Beasley converted a three-point play to push the margin to 52-40 with 4:58 remaining.
The Wildcats never got closer than eight points the rest of the way.
Roach poured in 25 for Magnolia. Brown scored all of his 18 in the second half and Beasley finished with 12. Markeveon Strickland finished with six.