stablished olumbus ississippi d | m Study reveals …...In this photo taken Feb. 12, Milce Cankovic Kadijevic and her dog Bak, who is in a wheelchair, walk in the park in Belgrade,

WEATHER

136th Year, No. 2

Gaziyah MeadyFirst grade, Sale Elementary

High 66 Low 60Rain likely

Full forecast on page 2A.

FIVE QUESTIONS1 What name is given to the contin-uous strong winds between South Africa and South America?2 Who wrote the not-quite-accurate poem “Paul Revere’s Ride”?3 What animal’s head is placed on a stick in “Lord of the Flies”?4 What Indian plant did medieval explorers report bore “tiny lambs on the ends of its branches”?5 What video game hero do some of his fans call Chomper?

Answers, 8B

INSIDEClassifieds 7BComics 5B

Obituaries 5AOpinions 4A

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LOCAL FOLKS

Maria Castanis Quinn lives in Columbus.

CALENDAR

Today, March 20■ Golden Gala: The Columbus Arts Council’s 50th anniversary Golden Gala begins at 6 p.m. at the Rosenzweig Arts Center, 501 Main St. Tickets are $50, available through March 13, and include cock-tails, hors d’oeuvres, dinner, live music, and silent and live auctions. Purchase online at columbus-arts.org, or call the CAC, 662-328-2787 Tuesdays-Saturdays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.

Saturday, March 21■ Italian Ideals: The Starkville-MSU Symphony Orchestra presents a concert of works by Italian com-posers and music inspired by Italy at Lee Hall on the MSU campus. The free concert begins at 7:30 p.m.

PUBLIC MEETINGSMarch 16: Lowndes County School Board, New Hope Elementary, 5:30 p.m. March 16: Columbus Mu-nicipal School District Board meeting, Brandon Central Office, 6 p.m.March 19: LCSD Bond Info Meeting, West Lowndes High School, 6 p.m. March 17: Columbus City Council, Municipal Complex, 5 p.m.March 17: Columbus High School Parents Meeting on New Principal, CHS cafete-ria, 5 p.m. March 19: CMSD Town Hall Meeting on “Pathways” pro-gram, Townsend Community Center, 6 p.m.

PAVING COLLEGE STREET

Luisa Porter/Dispatch StaffR.L. Grays, left, and Johnny Cotton smooth out newly-aid asphalt Thursday on College Street in Columbus. Paving on College Street and some of 11th Street South should be completed today. Grays is from West Point and Cotton is from Macon.

Luisa Porter/Dispatch Staff

Daulton Bran-denburg, 15,

left, plays the computer game Minecraft with

his brother, Daniel Bran-denburg, 16, at the Colum-bus-Lowndes Public Library on Thursday.

Daniel and Daulton are the sons of Wendy

Brandenburg of Columbus.

BY ANDREW [email protected]

Eighty percent of success is showing up, the saying goes. For 74,299 public school stu-dents in Mississippi — 15 per-cent of kindergarten through 12th grade students — that isn’t happening.

A study released this week

by Mississippi Kid’s Count ana-lyzed the chronic absentee rate, defined as missing 10 percent or more of the school year, and found large numbers of Missis-sippi students were not getting the education they need. The re-port states that missing three or more days of school per month can set the average student back one to two full academic years.

Schools in the Golden Tri-angle mirror the state average of 15 percent. In the 2013-2014 school year, 17.5 percent of Columbus Municipal School District students missed over ten percent of school. Lowndes County Schools posted better numbers, with 11.8 percent of students falling in the chron-ically absent range.

Starkville School District

Study reveals chronic absenteeism in Miss. schools

Teens in library build virtual worlds during Teen Tech Week

BY ISABELLE [email protected]

This week, a handful of teenagers have gathered in an upstairs room of the Columbus-Lowndes Public Library for a couple of hours each day and planted themselves behind computers. Under

the supervision and guid-ance of teen librarian Joy DuPont, the teens begin a multiplayer game of Mine-craft.

While it might be easy to write their game off as just more teenagers play-ing video games, the play-ers are doing more than killing virtual bad guys. In Minecraft,

Program may lead to creative center in library

DuPont

See TECH WEEK, 3A

Local districts on par with state average

See ABSENT, 6A

Chronic Absentee RatePercent of students missing at least 10 percent of school year

School District Percentage

Columbus 17.5 percent

Lowndes County 11.8 percent

Starkville 17.6 percent

Oktibbeha County 15 percent

West Point 19.9 percent

Clay County 15.8 percent

City’s event calendar booming13 diverse events planned through late AprilBY ANDREW [email protected]

Southern hospitality is about to be put to the test.

For the remainder of March and into late April, the city of Columbus will play host to 13 events that will draw strangers and fa-miliar faces to the friendly city. There are sports tour-naments, conventions, re-unions and even an Australian tour com-ing to town. There is the 75th Pilgrimage and all the events surrounding it in mid-April. That means added business for lo-cal hotels, shops and restaurants.

The Columbus-Lowndes Convention and Visitors Bureau is sponsoring 11 of those events and providing support for the others. CVB director Nancy Carpen-ter said the events are paying off for the local economy. For the CVB board, the mantra is: to earn money, one must spend money and not fear rejection.

“You have to be willing to be turned down,” Carpenter said. “We are actively soliciting business.”

Sports tournamentsThis year’s Pilgrimage will roll straight

into a youth soccer and senior tennis tour-nament April 17, 18 and 19. The soccer tournament is the Mississippi Soccer As-sociation’s Northern District tournament. The tennis tournament is a U.S. Tennis Association 65 and older competition at Magnolia Tennis Club.

Carpenter said the CVB spent $20,000

Carpenter

See VISITORS, 6A

Starkville’s Restaurant Week begins

BY ZACK [email protected]

STARKVILLE — Starkville’s third annual Restaurant Week starts today, and Greater Starkville Development Partnership leaders say event has

found its stride.GSDP Special Events

and Projects Coordi-nator Jennifer Prather said 31 restaurants had signed up to participate for the 10-day event that runs through March 22. That number is con-sistent with the event’s first two years, Prather said, despite

the Partnership’s requirement this year for each restaurant to pay a $100 entry fee. In the past, participating restaurants only had to provide GSDP with a $30 gift card to help with pro-moting the event.

She said seven of those restaurants are new to the event, because they ei-ther opened or joined GSDP within the last year.

Ten-day event boasts 31 restaurants

Prather

See RESTAURANT WEEK, 6A

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com2A FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2015

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Five-Day forecast for the Golden Triangle

Almanac Data National Weather

Lake Levels

River Stages

Sun and MoonSolunar table

Shown are noon positions of weather systems and precipitation. Temperature bands are highs for the day.

City Hi Lo W Hi Lo W City Hi Lo W Hi Lo W

Weather(W): s-sunny, pc-partly cloudy, c-cloudy, i-ice, sh-showers, t-thunderstorms, r-rain, sf-snow flurries, sn-snow

Yesterday 7 a.m. 24-hr.Lake Capacity yest. change

The solunar period schedule allows planning days so you will be fishing in good territory or hunting in good cover during those times.

Temperature

Precipitation

Tombigbee

Yesterday Flood 7 a.m. 24-hr.River stage yest. change

Columbus Thursday

High/low ..................................... 71°/55°Normal high/low ......................... 67°/43°Record high ............................ 87° (1955)Record low .............................. 28° (1981)

Thursday.......................................... 0.04"Month to date ................................. 3.70"Normal month to date ...................... 2.04"Year to date .................................. 12.84"Normal year to date ....................... 12.92"

Saturday Sunday

Atlanta 72 57 sh 76 49 pcBoston 44 33 r 41 27 snChicago 57 35 pc 61 47 sDallas 68 45 pc 69 50 pcHonolulu 77 65 s 79 66 pcJacksonville 81 61 t 82 57 shMemphis 66 55 sh 66 52 pc

75°

55°

Saturday

Mostly cloudy and warmer

73°

52°

Sunday

Clouds and sunshine

76°

52°

Monday

Mostly sunny and pleasant

74°

48°

Tuesday

Beautiful with some sun

Aberdeen Dam 188' 169.22' +0.05'Stennis Dam 166' 147.74' +0.05'Bevill Dam 136' 136.46' +0.09'

Amory 20' 18.39' -1.97'Bigbee 14' 13.63' -0.26'Columbus 15' 9.77' +1.11'Fulton 20' 16.96' +0.69'Tupelo 21' 3.96' -3.04'

Full

Apr. 4

First

Mar. 27

New

Mar. 20

Last

Mar. 13

Sunrise ..... 7:08 a.m.Sunset ...... 7:00 p.m.Moonrise ... 1:26 a.m.Moonset .. 12:07 p.m.

Forecasts and graphics provided by AccuWeather, Inc. ©2015

Major ..... 7:35 a.m.Minor ..... 1:21 a.m.Major ..... 8:03 p.m.Minor ..... 1:49 p.m.

Major ..... 8:28 a.m.Minor ..... 2:14 a.m.Major ..... 8:56 p.m.Minor ..... 2:42 p.m.

SaturdayFriday

Saturday Sunday

Nashville 70 50 r 69 49 pcOrlando 85 66 pc 84 66 shPhiladelphia 57 43 r 54 34 cPhoenix 88 63 pc 88 64 sRaleigh 70 52 sh 69 42 pcSalt Lake City 70 52 pc 76 51 pcSeattle 57 45 r 53 46 r

Tonight

A shower early; mostly cloudy

59°

A ThousAnd Words

AP Photo/Darko VojinovicIn this photo taken Feb. 12, Milce Cankovic Kadijevic and her dog Bak, who is in a wheelchair, walk in the park in Belgrade, Serbia. When Milica’s dog Bak crushed a spinal disk two years ago, Belgrade veterinarians told her to euthanize the dog. Then she went to Dragan Dimitrijevic, who made a wheelchair for her pet.

FridaySAY WHAT?“States are wondering which way to go, and one way is to send up a warning flag that if you don’t allow us freedom in this lethal-injection area, we’ll do something else.” Richard Dieter, of the Death Penalty Information Center, on Utah’s

decision to bring back execution by firing squad. Story, 8A.

Obama banters with Kimmel, reflects on FergusonBY JIM KUHNHENNThe Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — President Barack Obama read “Mean Tweets” on ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live” Thursday night, but he was unfazed.

After enduring the rou-tine — in which celebrities read hostile Twitter com-ments about themselves — Obama told Kimmel, “You should see what the Senate says about me.”

The president also joked about the perks and restrictions he faces, revealing that he’s not al-lowed to use cellphones that have recorders in them. (Hence his ev-er-present BlackBerry.)

He also noted that he can visit the dentist in the White House basement but doesn’t text and can’t drive.

Kimmel asked if that was because you have to have a birth certificate to get a driver’s license.

Obama — whom Kim-mel introduced as the “first Kenyan-born Mus-lim Socialist ever elected president” — deadpanned that Kenyans “drive on the other side” of the road.

With Sean Penn waiting in the wings, Obama said he was quite familiar with Penn’s 1982 coming-of-age comedy “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.”

“I lived it,” Obama said. “I didn’t just see it.”

AP Photo/Jacquelyn MartinPresident Barack Obama talks with Jimmy Kimmel during a break in taping on Jimmy Kimmel Live, in Los Angeles on Thursday.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BELGRADE, Serbia — When

his dog Mica suffered a spinal in-jury, Dragan Dimitrijevic made her a wheelchair, using small wheels, plastic pipes and old belts. It worked: the foxy-looking mongrel was back in the park in no time, oth-er dogs barking and sniffing inquis-itively at the strange construction dangling along.

Though homemade from used parts, word of Mica’s wheelchair spread swiftly among dog lovers in not-so-animal-friendly Serbia. Other pet owners with similar prob-lems started calling, and Dimitrije-

vic was soon taking orders.In more than three years, the

computer programmer from Bel-grade has made around 80 wheel-chairs for invalid dogs and cats, developing a small business with happy customers all over Serbia and other Balkan countries.

“I have a soft spot for dogs,” Dimitrijevic told The Associated Press. “A wheelchair is not a cure, but it enables them to run, sniff, do all the things other dogs normally do.”

For many in the impoverished Balkans — a region with low record both in care both for the disabled

and animal welfare — Dimitrijevic’s wheelchair is the only way to deal with pet disability. There are no other local producers, while obtain-ing a pet wheelchair from EU coun-tries costs many times more.

In Serbia, authorities have been unable to cope with the problem of tens of thousands of stray dogs, so injured animals are often simply put down.

Milce Cankovic Kadejevic was first told to euthanize her wire-haired dachshund Bak who squashed a spinal disk four years ago. Then she heard about Dimitri-jevic.

“This wheelchair has allowed Bak to live normally, to run and play,” Cankovic Kadijevic said. “He doesn’t even know he has a prob-lem!”

Home-made wheelchair helps injured pets in Balkans‘A wheelchair is not a cure, but it enables them to run, sniff, do all the things other dogs normally do’

BY JAKE COYLEAP Film Writer

NEW YORK — Let it go (on)!

The Walt Disney Co. on Thursday announced plans to make a sequel to the animated mega-hit “Frozen.” Bob Iger, Walt

Disney Co. chief execu-tive, and John Lasseter, head of Walt Disney An-imation Studios, joined in officially announcing “Frozen 2” at the compa-ny’s annual shareholders meeting in San Francisco.

The sequel had been widely expected for a film that has become a jug-gernaut for Disney. Since its release in November 2013, “Frozen” has made nearly $1.3 billion global-ly at the box office, gener-ated a massive merchan-dising revenue stream and won the Academy Award for best animated feature.

Disney didn’t an-nounce any details on the sequel’s plot or a release date, but said directors

Jennifer Lee and Chris Buck will be returning.

“We enjoyed making Frozen Fever so much and being back in that world with those charac-ters,” said Lasseter. “Jen-nifer Lee and Chris Buck have come up with a great

idea for a sequel and you will be hearing a lot more about it and we’re taking you back to Arendelle.”

Though a sequel was always only a matter of time, fans have waited eagerly for the announce-ment.

Let it go (again)! Disney announces plans for ‘Frozen 2’

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MIAMI — Talk show host Rodner Figueroa was fired from Univision after saying that Michelle Obama looks like someone from the cast of “Planet of the Apes.”

Figueroa, who’s known for his biting fashion commentary, made his remarks during a live seg-ment of the show “El Gor-do y la Flaca” in which the hosts were commenting on a viral video that shows

a makeup artist trans-f o r m i n g himself into d i f f e r e n t celebrities, i n c l u d i n g M i c h e l l e Obama.

“ W e l l , watch out, you know that Michelle Obama looks like she’s from the cast of ‘Plan-et of the Apes,’ the movie,” Figueroa, 42, said with a giggle.

When hostess Lili Este-

fan countered with “What are you saying?” and host Raul de Molina said Obama was very attrac-tive, Figueroa defended his remark, saying “but it is true.”

In a statement, Univi-sion called Figueroa’s com-ments “completely repre-hensible” and said they “in no way reflect the values or opinions of Univision.”

Figueroa, who in 2014 won a Daytime Emmy Award, did not respond to requests for comment.

AP Photo/DisneyThis image released by Disney shows Elsa the Snow Queen, voiced by Idina Menzel, in a scene from the animated feature “Frozen.”

Univision host fired for Michelle Obama comment

Figueroa

ONLINE SUBSCRIPTIONSFor less than $1 per month, print subscribers can get unlimited access to story comments, extra photos, newspaper archives and much more with an online subscription. Nonsubscribers can purchase online access for less than $8 per month. Go to www.cdispatch.com/subscribe

MSU SPORTS BLOGVisit The Dispatch MSU Sports Blog for breaking

Bulldog news: www.cdispatch.com/msusports@FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2015 3A


MARKS — A Mississippi man on Thursday was sen-tenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole after a jury found him guilty of murder in the 2013 slaying of an open-ly gay candidate for mayor of Clarksdale.

Jurors in Quitman County deliberated less than two hours before convicting Lawrence Reed, 24.

Reed testified that he stran-gled Marco McMillian, but said he did so because he feared Mc-Millian was trying to rape him.

“I’m sorry for what hap-pened, but I can’t take it back,” Reed told Circuit Court Judge Charles Webster on Thursday, according to the Clarksdale Press-Register.

Carter D. Womack, McMil-

lian’s godfather, said the family believes justice was served.

“The evidence showed that the murder was unjust ... and it deprived us all for the hard work Marco could have done for the city as mayor as well as for the nation,” Womack said.

Prosecutors argued that Reed acted with premeditation, noting Reed dragged McMil-lian into a water-filled ditch af-ter strangling him. Reed told jurors he sought to revive Mc-Millian, but told an investigator in a recorded interview that he did so because McMillian still appeared alive.

Reed dumped McMillian’s body near a Mississippi River levee and tried to burn it.

Reed testified Wednesday as the only witness in his own de-fense, but prosecutors present-ed evidence contradicting key

parts of his story.Reed said he

blacked out be-fore from fear and anger over Mc-Millian’s sexual advances after McMillian drove the pair to a se-cluded road in Quitman County instead of taking Reed to a par-ty. The defendant said he want-ed to escape McMillian, who was looking at pornography on his cellphone and asking Reed questions about how he liked women. Reed said McMillian locked the car door and reached out to stop Reed from leaving moments before Reed strangled him with his wallet chain.

“I don’t know where or how I grabbed the chain,” Reed tes-tified. “My intent was just to hit him.”

Reed explained bruises on

McMillian’s body by saying when he opened the door of Mc-Millian’s Chevy Tahoe, the can-didate’s body hit the pavement. Reed said he was trying to wake McMillian when Reed dragged him into a water-filled ditch.

Reed also claimed he didn’t initially plan to try to burn Mc-Millian’s body, saying he bought 94 cents’ worth of gasoline to burn McMillian’s cellphone, fearing authorities would track the phone to find him.

Quitman County District Attorney Brenda Mitchell also asked Reed why he dumped Mc-Millian’s body.

“I didn’t know where else to take him or put him,” Reed said. “I wasn’t going to leave him in the truck.”

Mitchell said Reed’s testimo-ny contradicted accounts given by a Coahoma County sheriff’s deputy and Mississippi Bureau of Investigation Agent Brian

Sullivant. After Reed left the stand Wednesday, prosecutors played a recording of Reed tell-ing Sullivant that he dragged McMillian to the ditch to drown him because McMillian still appeared to be alive after Reed strangled him.

“He wasn’t moving. He was fidgeting a little bit,” Reed told Sullivant on the recording. “He was jerking a little bit. ... I think, I need to push him into the ditch before he wakes up.”

“I drug him to the ditch and I think I done killed this dude, and I don’t know what to do,” Reed said.

On the recording, Reed also said he intended to burn the body when he bought the gas.

“He burned for like a minute but that’s when I said ‘Man, I can’t do nothing with this,” Reed said on the recording. “And so I drug him behind the back side of a tree to try and hide him.”

Reed guilty of murder, sentenced to life, in Clarksdale case

Reed

‘I’m sorry for what happened, but I can’t take it back’

AREA ARRESTSThe following arrests

were made by Oktibbeha County Sheriff’s Depart-ment:

■ Justin Edward Cantrell, 35, was charged with house arrest viola-tion.

■ Brieanna Lashey Darby, 20, was charged with sale of controlled substance and sale of marijuana more than 30 grams.

■ Daimon Marcell Tay-lor, 35, was charged with sale of marijuana more than 30 grams and sale of cocaine.

■ Tommy L. Williams, 38, was charged with sale of marijuana more than 30 grams.

■ Clell Levette Glad-ney, 34, was charged with sale of cocaine and sale of marijuana more than 30 grams.

■ Dominique C. John-son, 25, was charged with sale of cocaine, sale of marijuana more than 30 grams and sale of con-trolled substance.

■ Raven Lashae John-son, 22, was charged with sale of marijuana more than 30 grams.

■ Jimmy D. Roby, 51, was charged with sale of cocaine.

■ Tommie James Law-rence, 35, was charged with sale of cocaine and chancery court order.

■ Linnie Danielle Head, 31, was charged with sale of marijuana more than 30 grams and no insurance.

■ Jacquet Xavier Mill-

er, 40, was charged with burglary of commercial building.

■ Benjamin Joseph Hartsell, 21, was charged with sale of marijuana more than 30 grams.

■ Mihir Rajesh Patel, 20, was charged with sale of marijuana more than 30 grams.

■ Christopher Brooks Ramsey, 29, was charged with sale within 1,500 feet of school, church or other designated area-two counts.

■ Chadrick Dwayne Boyd, 32, was charged with sale of marijuana more than 30 grams and contempt of court.

■ Theodore Lawrence Heilman, 26, was charged

with sale of marijuana more than 30 grams, sale of controlled substance and possession of con-trolled substance.

■ Ontonio D. Fairley, 20, was charged with sale of marijuana more than 30 grams, possession of marijuana and conspiracy.

■ Dwayne H. Sheehy Jr., 22, was charged with sale of marijuana more than 30 grams.

■ Martha Jene Stovall, 56, was charged with indictment.

■ Shaquille R. Riley, 20, was charged with sale of marijuana of marijuana.

■ Dwayne Homsey Sheehy, 43, was charged with sale of marijuana more than 30 grams and sale of cocaine.

■ Clay Atkins Joiner, 22, was charged with sale of controlled substance.

D. JohnsonGladneyWilliamsTaylorDarbyCantrell

HartsellMillerHeadLawrenceRobyR. Johnson

Sheehy Jr.FairleyHeilmanBoydRamseyPatel

JoinerSheehyRileyStovall

Buckle up...and your child, too

Tech WeedContinued from Page 1A

the players must search for resources, tame an-imals, create materials and build structures. Veteran players help the newer ones, giving them advice about where to dig or adding a room to their house for the newer play-er to stay until they get the hang of building their own home. And though there are zombies that come out when the virtual world gets dark, the teens who want to focus on cre-ating can switch from Survivor mode to Cre-ative mode and just build.

The game is part of Teen Tech Week, a pro-gram put on by the Young Adult Library Services Association for libraries to showcase technology and teach useful techno-logical skills to teenag-ers, according to DuPont. Different libraries imple-ment different programs, but all are meant to be ed-ucational.

“These are skills they can use in schools, in col-lege and in their jobs,”

said DuPont. “You’re not going to be able to get away from technology, so it’s good to go ahead and learn it now.”

Teen Tech Week is sup-posed to teach teenagers more about science, tech-nology, engineering, the arts and math, DuPont said. In the case of Mi-necraft, players do a lot of engineering, and more advanced players have op-portunities to solve equa-tions and learn coding. As players learn to code, Du-Pont says, they can create their own virtual worlds within Minecraft, a feat which allowed one teen librarian in Tennessee to create a topical map of Chattanooga.

DuPont and the Co-lumbus-Lowndes library chose Minecraft for this year’s Teen Tech Week because they are hoping to implement a Maker Spaces program for peo-ple visiting the library to collaborate on creative programs. Maker Space programs are becoming

a big part of some librar-ies across the country, according to DuPont. Minecraft would only be one part of the program, which could include sew-ing and knitting clubs, us-ing 3-D printers, a writing workshop, building with Legos and “anything you can think of that makes something,” said DuPont.

This week served as a dry run for Minecraft at the library which just got licenses for eight players to play the game at a time. DuPont has spent the week learning the ins and out of the game while the teenagers in the program play along.

“It was something that we’re really excited about and wanted to try,” Du-Pont said.

DuPont hopes to start weekly Minecraft games. The games and the Mak-er Spaces program would be part of bringing kids to the library and intro-ducing them to its other programs. Though some of the kids at the library

this week are in nearly ev-ery day, DuPont said she didn’t even know some of the others. Once the kids finished the game, some of them wandered around the library looking at books.

The game also gives kids the chance to social-ize, DuPont said. During the game, they help each other in Survivor Mode and compete in Player Versus Player mode. Du-Pont added that Wednes-day during the game, kids had in-depth conversa-tions about comic books, movies and other popular culture while they played.

“It’s really cool to share ideas across the board that way,” DuPont said.

DuPont is excited to continue the program. Only a handful of kids have enjoyed the game this week, but DuPont expects that once spring break is over, more kids will be in the library and will have the chance to play.

4A FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2015

OpinionBIRNEY IMES SR. Editor/Publisher 1922-1947BIRNEY IMES JR. Editor/Publisher 1947-2003BIRNEY IMES III Editor/Publisher

PETER IMES General ManagerWILLIAM BROWNING Managing EditorBETH PROFFITT Advertising DirectorMICHAEL FLOYD Circulation/Production ManagerDispatch

the

LOCAL VOICES

OUR VIEW

Restaurants build communityStarkville Restaurant Week

begins today, with 31 partic-ipants. This year marks the third year of the event, which has been expanded to 10 days, covering two weekends.

There are so many positives associated with the event, which is sponsored by The Starkville Convention and Visitors Bureau and Cadence Bank, it’s difficult to know where to start. In its two years, the event has proven to be a financial shot in the arm for the restaurants (sales have been up 15 to 20 percent) during what is typically a slow time in the business.

It’s been a great marketing tool, too. Last year, officials noted 60 percent of the ballots were cast by people who live outside the Golden Triangle.

That boost to the local economy also means higher sales-tax collections, which means that even residents who don’t participate derive some benefit.

It has proven to be a great fund-raiser, too, thanks to the $5,000 awarded by Cadence Bank for the winning charity. Each year, three charities are chosen to compete for the prize. Diners during Restaurant Week vote for their

favorite charity. Last year, the Oktibbeha County Humane Society took home the $5,000. This year, diners will cast their votes for Starkville Habitat for Humanity, The Salvation Army and Autism and Devel-opmental Disabilities Clinic.

Starkville Restaurant Week reminds us of the important role restaurants play in our communities. There are the obvious benefits, of course. Restaurants provide jobs and produce tax revenue.

But restaurants do far more.

Restaurants are places where we come together,

where we celebrate and so-cialize, where we conduct our civic meetings and throw our parties.

Think about it for a mo-ment: What is one of the first things you want to know when traveling? Chances are it’s “where should I eat?” When we think of cities like New Orleans or San Francisco or New York, we almost always think of the wonderful restau-rants. For some a trip to New Orleans without a visit to Commander’s Palace or the Acme Oyster House would be a wasted trip. A visit to Carne-gie Deli is almost essential for

the first-time visitor to New York City.

But that same dynamic applies in cities and towns, even “bumps on the road” everywhere. Few towns are without a “you have to eat there” spot. It may range from a place where you can have a good burger, to fine dining, to everything in between.

A town with a variety of restaurants has a decided ad-vantage over one that doesn’t. A really good restaurant can even affect how a community is perceived.

Good food makes for good memories, after all.

There seems to be a grow-ing trend in some parts of the country for some people to visit retail stores openly wearing guns. It recently happened at a Kroger in Virginia where the store manager asked them to leave the property.

This has prompted more than a little discussion in social media. Quite frankly, I am baffled there are people who want to come into areas that we traditionally don’t think of as threatening or hazardous armed to the teeth.

This flagrant display frightens the average citizen and has, more than once, resulted in tragedy. From the outside looking in, it appears to be no more than an ego-driven show of power by a paranoid few in what is a benign environment.

The Clarion-Ledger recently reported legislators are being pressured, if not bullied, by the Mississippi gun rights lobby to vote for unlicensed concealed carry in Mississippi. You have to wonder what has changed in our society to merit this level of activism.

If we were reacting to 9-11, I might not be surprised. But we are 14 years and a couple of conflicts away from that American nightmare.

Like most “boomers” I grew up watching westerns. Every Saturday night you could find me in front of the TV during Gunsmoke, fantasizing about being out West. There was my personal favorite, The Lone Ranger, on Saturday morning. Rawhide, Bonanza, etc. appeared in prime time throughout the week.

Watching Marshall Matt Dillon walk the board-walk into Miss Kitty’s saloon was a recurring scene. I thought nothing of all the ranchers and cowboys wearing their guns on their hips hanging out around the bar, hotel and feed store. That was the norm for that day and time.

The idea of guns wasn’t threatening because we knew Matt Dillon and Hoss Cartwright. We knew they weren’t going to shoot up the town because they had a bad day or were suffering from PTSD. Though I always wanted to be a cowboy in the “wild, wild West,” I under-stood that reality says “no” to many fantasies.

As someone with a Mississippi firearms permit, I am not anti-gun, quite the contrary. I was at one time a pretty fair skeet shooter. I have handgun training through the military, and I am comfortable in the pres-ence of guns in an appropriate atmosphere. Walmart simply doesn’t fit that bill. It is also troubling to think we may not know until it’s too late the training or men-tal state of the person one aisle over who happens to be armed.

I don’t suggest there is reason for anyone to give up their weapon for home or travel protection. But no mat-ter how many times someone talks about the “right to bear arms” today I can’t seem to reconcile why any ra-tional person finds it important or socially comfortable to strap a piece on their hip and mingle with friends and neighbors. There is something disturbingly surreal about the notion of someone packing heat amidst the vegetable producers at the local community market.

I remember vividly how disturbing it was 30 years ago seeing Taiwanese military police with automatic rifles across their arms walking the busy streets of Tai-pei. I thought then how glad I was we were not subject-ed to that in-your-face level of force in America.

There is something distinctly menacing about armed troops strolling around streets of retail shops and restaurants. But that is someone else’s country and their approach to external threats.

Absent the rare occasions when we need curfews and military involvement as we did during the Katrina disaster, we simply are not accustomed to such visual extremes. Our police are not normally seen patrolling America’s main streets with automatic weapons at the ready.

I am proud we Americans have no need to display our firearms on Main Street, though I confess to being torn between our right to do so and that some people feel a need to express that right. It is a dangerous trend, one I hope our leaders have the courage to withstand.

Lynn Spruill, a former commercial airline pilot, elected official and city administrator owns and manages Spruill Property Management in Starkville. Her email address is [email protected].

RACE IN AMERICA

WASHINGTON — The juxtaposition of the Justice Department’s damning Ferguson report and President Obama’s fine speech to mark the 50th anniver-sary of Bloody Sunday was coincidental. But the founders of the civil rights movement would certainly have found it providential, so I’ll go with that.

The report cleared a man while indicting a system. It describes a patchwork of municipal-ities that have become predators, trapping residents in a web of tickets, fines, fees and warrants in order to raise revenue. Police officers and municipal judges are employed as collection agents, squeezing citizens on behalf of local officials who want to spend public money without the inconvenience of taxation. And police departments such as Ferguson’s — lacking di-versity, proper training and accountability — are prone to swagger and profiling.

This is the elevation of the speed trap into a philosophy of government. Citizens are treated as marks and suckers. And the burdens fall heaviest on those without the resources to game a sys-tem that is gaming them. In this atmosphere of exploitation, any racially charged incident — even one in which racial animus can’t be demonstrated — can set spark to tinder.

The details of these practices are important to guide changes in Missouri law. But the situation in Ferguson also reveals something broader: How people who do not regard themselves as biased can be part of a system that inevitably results in bias. How men and women who view themselves as moral can comprise an immoral society.

It is inherently difficult to stand in judgment of a social structure that one is part of. It is hard to see the wheel on which we turn. This requires empathy — the ability to imagine oneself in a

different social circumstance; to feel just a bit of the helplessness and anger of someone facing injustice. And it calls upon moral imagination — the capacity to dream of a better future in accord with first principles.

Events like the Selma march demonstrate that history is not bunk, or one damn thing after another, or any such cynical rot. One week after Bloody Sunday, America was fortunate to have President Lyndon Johnson provide rhetorical con-text. “At times, history and fate,” he said, “meet at a single time in a single place to shape a turning point in man’s unending search for freedom.”

And America was fortunate, 50 years after Bloody Sunday, to have Obama appeal to Amer-ica’s moral imagination. “In one afternoon 50 years ago, so much of our turbulent history — the stain of slavery and anguish of civil war; the yoke of segregation and tyranny of Jim Crow; the death of four little girls in Birmingham, and the dream of a Baptist preacher — all that history met on this bridge. It was not a clash of armies, but a clash of wills; a contest to determine the true meaning of America.”

Obama, for whatever reason, has often been hesitant to provide rhetorical leadership on civil rights. He embodied something he seldom adequately explained. But that can no longer be said after Selma. His speech was skilled in its use of quotation and refrain. But it was remarkable for expressing the creative tension at the heart of the civil rights movement: a set a principles that both ennoble and judge our country — ideals that make it lovable and make it restless.

Obama told a compelling story of genuine but incomplete progress, while expressing a deep confidence in national ideals and character. He embraced “the belief that America is not yet finished, that we are strong enough to be self-crit-ical, that each successive generation can look upon our imperfections and decide that it is in our power to remake this nation to more closely align with our highest ideals.”

This is the reason that, while Ferguson may be our reality, it is not our identity or our destiny. America has a vision of human dignity that stands in perpetual challenge to our fallen practice, leav-ing us always haunted and always hopeful.

Michael Gerson’s email address is [email protected].

Viewing Ferguson from Selma

Packing heat at Walmart

Lynn Spruill

Michael Gerson

This is the el-evation of the speed trap into a philosophy of government.

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Larry FieldsERIE, Pa. — Larry

Fields, 61, died March 6, 2015, at Hamot Medi-cal Center in Erie.

Services are 1 p.m. Saturday at Charity Mission Full Gos-pel Baptist Church in Craw-ford with the Rev. Donna An-thony and the Rev. R. J. Matthews officiating. Burial will follow at Pleasant Ridge House of Worship Cemetery. Visitation is today from 4-6 p.m. at Carter’s Funeral Services of Columbus.

Mr. Fields was born in Crawford on May 4, 1953, to the late Ledora and Lott Fields. He was formerly employed with GE Company.

In addition to his parents, he was pre-ceded in death by eight siblings.

He is survived by his companion, Sandra Fields of Columbus; children, Larunda Hart-Horton of Mich-igan, Trina McCoy of Tennessee, Demarko Polk, Luchetta Manus, Sam Pope, Shannon Williams, Virginia Fields and Jeff Ranson, all of Pennsylvania, Larry Fields of Califor-nia, Santel Fields-Blair and Sonya Fields of Co-lumbus; siblings, Eliz-abeth Mays of Wiscon-sin, Mary Ann Hines of Michigan, Betty Harris of Crawford, Catherine

Hughes, Connie Duck and Roy Fields, all of Erie, Bessie Verdell and Elvis Fields, both of Columbus, Orma Fields and Willie Fields, both of Flint, Michigan, Beverly Scott of Birmingham, Alabama, Johnny Fields of Artesia and Eugene Fields of Phoe-nix.

Latisha LagroneCOLUMBUS — Lati-

sha Rena Griffin La-grone, 33, died March 7, 2015, at North MS Medical Center in Tupelo.

Ser-vices are 2 p.m. Saturday at Charity Full Gos-pel Baptist Church with the Rev. Donnie D. Fields Sr. officiating. Burial will follow at Strudivant Cemetery. Visitation is today from noon-6 p.m. at Carter’s Funeral Services of Columbus.

Mrs. Lagrone was born in Columbus on July 21, 1981, to Nette Lee Griffin and the late Dan H. Griffin Jr. She was a member of Holy Ghost Temple of Deliverance and for-merly employed with Michael’s.

In addition to her mother, she is survived by her husband, Mar-cus Lagrone of Colum-bus; son, Quinterius Khalil Griffin of Co-lumbus; and siblings, Lucketa M. Reynolds, Dan H. Griffin III and De’Andre Griffin, all of Columbus.

Virginia BrewerCOLUMBUS — Vir-

gina Hill Brewer, 80, died March 6, 2015, at her residence.

Services are 11 a.m. Saturday at Fourth Street MB Church with the Rev. Jimmy Rice officiating. Burial will follow at Union Ceme-tery. Visitation is today at Carter’s Funeral Services of Columbus.

Mrs. Brewer was born in Tunica on May 11, 1934, to the late Henry C. Hill and Emma Jane Edwards. She was a member of Fourth Street MB Church and formerly employed with United Technologies and John-ston Tombigbee

In addition to her parents, she was pre-ceded in death by her husband, Huella Brew-er; and one son, Albert

James.She is

survived by her children, Hugh L. Brewer, Elizabeth Brewer Bush and Milton E. Brewer, all of Colum-bus, James A. Brewer of Huntsville, Alabama, and Vanessa Brewer of Memphis, Tennessee; sister, Hattie Parks of Columbus; eight grand-children; and nine great-grandchildren.

Thaddues BanksCOLUMBUS —

Thaddues Banks, 57, died March 7, 2015, at his residence.

Services are 3 p.m. Sunday at Mt. Zion MB Church with the Rev. Jesse Slater officiating. Burial will follow at Sandfield Cemetery. Visita-tion is Saturday from noon-6 p.m. at Carter’s Funeral Services of Columbus.

Mr. Banks was born in Columbus on May 6, 1957, to the late Jes-sie James Billups and Annie Bell Billups. He was formerly employed with Eka Nobel Con-struction.

In addition to his parents, he was pre-ceded in death by one sister, Gwendolyn Dillard.

He is survived by children, Kalisha Evette Blevins of Columbus, Thaddues C. Fields and Deme-trius Fields, both of Birmingham, Alabama; siblings, Millie Jean Mixon and Lucious Dil-lard, both of Columbus; step-brother, Larry Billups of Chicago Heights, Illinois; and eight grandchildren.

Deborah HentonWEST POINT —

Deborah Ann Newell Henton, 58, died March 6, 2015, in West Point.

Services are 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Paul United Methodist Church in West Point with the Rev. Leevel Yarbrough officiating. Burial will follow at Greenwood Cemetery in West Point. Visita-tion is today from 3-6 p.m. at Carter’s Mortu-ary Services.

Mrs. Henton was born in Warren, Ohio, on Jan. 20, 1957, to the late Waymon Newell

and Elizabeth Laura Jones Newell.

In addition to her parents, she was pre-ceded in death by one sister, Gwen Newell.

She is survived by her husband, Tom Hen-ton Jr.; son, Tom Kelly; and brothers, Larry Newell, Kevin Newell and Waymon Newell Jr.

Mae HollidayWEST POINT —

Mae Rose Holliday, 91, died March 9, 2015, in Dearborn, Michigan.

Services are 1 p.m. Sunday at Lake Grove MB Church in Prairie with the Rev. Robert Townsel officiating. Burial will follow at Randle Memorial Cem-etery in Prairie. Visita-tion is Saturday from 2-5 p.m. at Carter’s Mortuary Services.

Mrs. Holliday was born in Kansas City, Kansas, on March 3, 1924, to the late John Michael Perry and Elizabeth Brown. She was formerly employed as a principal.

In addition to her parents, she was pre-ceded in death by her husband; and one sis-ter, Callie Huddleston.

She is survived by sister, Bernice Taylor.

Andrewnette LockettAndrewnette Lock-

ett, 47, died March 5, 2015, at her residence.

Services are 11 a.m. Saturday at Tabernacle MB Church with the Rev. James Lockett officiating. Burial will follow at Noxcedar Cemetery. Visitation is today from noon-3 p.m. at Harrison Grove Full Gospel Bap-tist Church in Shuqual-ak. Arrangements are entrusted to Lee-Sykes Funeral Home.

Mrs. Lockett was born in Shuqualak on July 10, 1967, to Arlee Williams Murray and the late Louis Murray Sr.

In addition to her mother, she is survived by her husband, Rev. James Lockett; and children, Rev. Anotnio Lockett, Laquinton Lockett, Desmond Lockett and DD Lock-ett.

Author LusterCOLUMBUS — Au-

thor Lee Luster, 78, died March 5, 2015, at Baptist Memorial

Hospi-tal-Golden Triangle.

Ser-vices are 1 p.m. Satur-day at St. Mathew MB Church with the Rev. Curtis L. Clay Sr. officiating. Burial will follow at the church cemetery. Visitation is today at Century Hair-ston Funeral Home of Columbus.

Mr. Luster was born on March 5, 1935, to the late Philanders Luster and Levator Luster. He was for-merly employed as a factory worker.

In addition to his parents, he was pre-ceded in death by two brothers, Sol Hender-son and Cal Wallace; and two sisters, Philoer Luster and Fannie Luster.

He is survived by sons, T. J. Walls of Hilo, Hawaii, Author L. Lus-ter Jr. and Willie J. Lus-ter, both of Newman, Connecticut; daughter, Barbara Wilson of Newman; brother, Phil-lip Luster of Chicago; 23 grandchildren; 38 great-grandchildren; and one great-great-grandchild.

Dollie JonesCOLUMBUS, OH

—Dollie M. Jones, 74, died Feb. 15, 2015.

Services were Friday, February 20, 2015, at Union Grove Baptist Church in Columbus, Ohio, with the Rev. Henry L. Johnson offi-ciating the service.

Mrs. Jones was born in Columbus on April 19, 1940, to the late Myers and Willie Mae Poole. She was for-merly employed with Shottenstein’s South Department Store.

In addition to her parents, she was pre-ceded in death by her husband, Vernon Jones; daughter, Veronica; sis-ter, Coretta; brothers, Myers Jr. and Wardell; and two grandchildren.

She is survived by children, Lora King and Rodney Jones; five grandchildren; and seven great-grandchil-dren.

Lizzie LangCOLUMBUS — Liz-

zie Mae Conner Lang, 67, died March 12,

2015, at Baptist Memo-rial Hospital-Golden Triangle.

Services are in-complete and will be announced by Lee-Sykes Funeral Home of Columbus.

Mary HallMary Lee Hall, 90,

died March 12, 2015, at The Windsor Place Nursing & Rehab Center.

Graveside services are 11 a.m. Saturday at Friendship Cemetery. Visitation is one hour before service time at Memorial Funeral Home.

Mrs. Hall was born in Meridian on April 7, 1924, to the late Lee and Bessie Pilgrim Ramia. She was for-merly employed as the secretary for the Princess Theater.

In addition to her parents, she was pre-ceded in death by her husband, Orvel Elliot Hall.

She is survived by sister, Sadie Honnoll of Columbus; and broth-er, Johnny Ramia of Jackson.

Lee GreenMILLPORT, Ala.

— Lee Green, 81, died March 12, 2015, at Fay-ette Medical Center.

Services are in-complete but will be announced by Dowdle Funeral Home.

Fields

Lagrone

Brewer

Banks

Luster

Lockett


DURHAM, N.C. — The “violent sleepwalk-ing” defense worked for a man who strangled his 4-year-old and tried to kill his other two children.

A jury decided unani-mously that Joseph Antho-ny Mitchell is not guilty of murder and attempted murder after an expert witness said he was effec-tively unconscious at the

time of his attacks four years ago.

Jurors had asked Su-perior Court Judge James Roberson if they could consider a lesser verdict of manslaughter, but the judge said it was all or nothing: murder, or not guilty.

Mitchell, 50, sobbed af-ter Wednesday’s verdict,

but made no comment as he walked out of court a free man.

His ex-wife, Christine Perolini, was so shocked that she hyperventilated and had to be wheeled out on a stretcher.

Mitchell testified that he was in financial dis-tress and had not been sleeping well.

‘Violent sleepwalking’ defense works for boy’s stranglerMan killed his 4-year-old son and tried to kill his other two children

Jones


PHOENIX — President Barack Obama is making a first-time visit to the Ar-izona veterans’ hospital that triggered a national examination into how the government cares for its former service members to get an appraisal on the health system’s progress and its lingering needs.

Obama will travel to Phoenix today to draw

attention to the Veterans Affairs Department re-sponse to widespread mis-management where VA workers falsified waiting lists to conceal chronic delays in care.

The visit comes amid questions from lawmak-ers who say veterans are still not benefiting from changes in the law that were meant to improve their access to care. A

month ago, O b a m a drew crit-icism for t r a v e l i n g to Phoenix w i t h o u t stopping at the VA hos-pital.

Obama, joined by the new VA secretary, Robert McDonald, is expected to meet with veterans, VA employees, veterans’ groups and elected offi-cials, including Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake, the two Republican sen-

ators from Arizona. Mc-Cain has been especially critical of the administra-tion’s response to the VA’s troubles.

The White House de-fended the VA’s actions to correct problems.

“Long after it fades from the headlines, this is something a lot of peo-ple have been working on and that he president feels strongly about,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said.

Today’s visit comes at the end of a two-day West Coast trip by Obama.

Obama to visit VA hospital, check progress on veterans careLawmakers: Vets still not benefiting from improved access to care

Obama


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Bryant sets special election to fill legislative seatTHE ASSOCIATED PRESS

JACKSON — Gov. Phil Bryant has set a special election to fill a vacant state House seat in cen-tral Mississippi, but it’s unclear whether the win-ner will ever get to vote on bills.

The election is May 6, a month after the legisla-

tive session ends. A run-off, if needed, will be May 26.

The winner will serve the final months of a four-year term started by longtime Rep. Bennett Malone, a Democrat who resigned in early March.

The new lawmaker will handle constituent ser-vices, but will serve at the

Capitol only if the gover-nor calls a special session.

House District 45 is in parts of Leake, Neshoba, Rankin and Scott coun-ties. The special election will use district boundar-ies that existed in 2011, before they were updated.

Candidates’ qualifying deadline is April 6.

AbsentContinued from Page 1A

had a 17.6 percent chron-ic absent rate; Oktibbeha County Schools hit right on the state average with 15 percent.

West Point School Dis-trict posted the highest chronic absent rate in the area, with 19.9 percent of students missing 10 per-cent of school. Clay Coun-ty Schools had a 15.8 per-cent chronic absent rate.

Interpreting the dataDetermining which

schools and what stu-dents are prone to being chronically absent does not fall into one particular pattern, said Anne Buff-

ington, the lead author of the report.

“We are just getting in to this type of research,” Buffington told The Dis-patch Thursday.

Mississippi is one of six states currently study-ing chronic absenteeism. School districts nation-wide measure average daily attendance (ADA) in accordance with the No Child Left Behind Act. Buffington said the problem with ADA is that it does not identify individual students who are falling through the cracks.

“When you look at ADA, it sort of masks the

real problem,” Buffington said. “All of our districts in Mississippi are over 90 percent (in ADA).”

She said by break-ing attendance down by chronic absenteeism, dis-tricts can better address the real problem.

Tracking the numbersThis issue came up at

last month’s CMSD board meeting, when board of trustees president Angela Verdell requested a way to track students who are missing a great deal of school. The district has posted ADA num-bers around its goal of 95

percent throughout the school year, taking a hit in December when ADA dropped to 92.71 percent district wide.

Buffington noted those suffering from chronic absenteeism come at the youngest and oldest ages. The report found that 14 percent of kindergartners were chronically absent. Numbers drop through middle school, and begin to sharply rise toward the

end of high school. In the 2013-2014 school year, 36 percent of high school se-niors missed over 10 per-cent of the school year.

By demographic, white female students are the most likely to be chronically absent; 17.7 percent of white girls missed over 10 percent of school statewide.

Districts rich and poor were affected by chronic absenteeism. “A” rated

districts had a 13.4 per-cent chronic absent rate; “D” and “F” rated dis-tricts averaged 16.4 per-cent.

In the early stages of research, Buffington said it is hard to know what to make of these findings or to discover what the trends are, but said it is important to make people aware.

“If this report can bring awareness to ad-ministrators, policy mak-ers and parents, then that’s the goal,” she said. “It’s not meant to point fingers at anyone, it’s meant to get the informa-tion out there.”

By demographic, white female students are the most likely to be chronically absent

Restaurant WeekContinued from Page 1A

“We were very pleased to see we were consistent with the number of our restaurants returning,” Prather said. “I feel that’s attributed to the success of the event itself for our restaurants.”

At its core, Starkville Restaurant Week helps bolster revenue for restaurants the week af-ter spring break — a time Prather said is typically slow for local eateries. But the spirit of giving ac-tually helps drive traffic to the restaurants during the event, as patron votes will earn a local charity a $5,000 donation from Ca-dence Bank.

This year, restaurant patrons will choose be-tween the Autism and Developmental Disabil-ity Clinic, Habitat for Humanity and the Salva-tion Army to receive the grand prize donation. Pa-trons will receive a ballot each time they order an entree at a participating restaurant, and they can vote as often as they eat out — a process Prather called “Eat. Vote. Repeat.”

The second-place char-ity will receive a $1,000 donation from Vollor Law Firm and third place will receive $500 from Scrub-ville.

GSDP accepts public nominations for charities each year, Prather said, and the Convention and Visitors Bureau Board selects the three final-ists. Previous winners are the Oktibbeha Coun-ty Humane Society and the T.K. Martin Center at Mississippi State Univer-

sity.“For charities, this is

such a unique opportuni-ty to market and promote themselves, especially if they have tight budgets,” Prather said. “We like to see them get active, es-pecially on social media, and have things like vot-ing parties at the restau-rants.”

Restaurants also benefit from the extra exposure. Prather said participating eateries typ-ically report a 15-20-per-cent increase in sales for the week, and they often use the event as a way to especially push their sig-nature dishes. Some even offer specials throughout the week, she added, and they are posted on GS-DP’s website.

Patron participation has also risen since the event’s inception, Prath-er said, with more than 10,000 ballots cast in 2013 and about 16,000 cast last year. Prather said GSDP extended the event to 10 days last year to include dates for the MSU base-ball team’s home series this weekend against Ala-bama. With the extension, and the influx of tourism inherent with a weekend home baseball series, Prather hopes to see cast ballots top 20,000.

“Last year, about 60 percent of the ballots we received came from people who lived outside of the Golden Triangle,” Prather said. “Restaurant Week included a home baseball weekend last year, too, and I think a lot of those votes came from

(out-of-town fans).”The restaurants them-

selves also bring excite-ment for the charities. Chick-Fil-A invites each charity to have a special night at the restaurant, marketing director Molly Martin said, allowing rep-resentatives of each the opportunity to share their work with patrons and en-courage them to vote.

“We don’t promote that as a ‘voting party,’ per say, but it lets the charities educate our customers on what they do,” Martin said. “We’re excited , and we’re ready for Restau-rant Week to be here.”

Starkville’s “Biscuit Lady” Michelle Tehan advocated heavily for Starkville Restaurant Week on social media and cast her share of ballots for local charities before she owned The Biscuit Shop on Jackson Street. This year, though, she will lead a participating restaurant stocked with plenty of ballots for her customers.

“What I like about this event is that it allows com-munity participation from start to finish, all the back to allowing community members to nominate charities,” Tehan said. “This event brings the community and charities together, while also rais-ing sales at the restau-rants.”

Starkville became the second city in Mississip-pi to start a restaurant week, as GSDP followed the lead of Jackson’s wild-ly successful annual ren-dition. Now, Prather said,

Tupelo and Oxford have implemented some form of restaurant week.

For Starkville, Prather said the growing pains of the first two years help

establish a strong local event built to last.

“Now, it’s like sec-ond-nature to us,” she said. “It’s not as big of an animal to sell as it used

to be because the people and the restaurants look forward to it every year. And it’s easier to promote because it’s more orga-nized.”

VisitorsContinued from Page 1A

of its annual $40,000 budgeted for soccer tour-naments on the MSA district tournament; for that investment, she said the city will see an eco-nomic impact of around $360,000-$400,000. Co-lumbus Parks and Recre-ation Director Greg Lew-is said 35-50 youth teams will be competing in the tournament. The soccer complex received $29,000 for new lighting from the CVB board, according to Carpenter. Lewis believes these investments to the soccer complex are help-ing the community.

“It has a tremendous economic impact for the city,” Lewis said.

The CVB board cov-ers the expenses of the officials for soccer tour-naments. Carpenter said

treating those officials well is what has kept large tournaments, such as the President’s Cup, com-ing back to Columbus. Putting out real food for breakfast, Hank’s BBQ for lunch and having a fish fry for dinner at last year’s President’s Cup has lingered in the mem-ories of visiting soccer officials.

“We’ve had officials say they were treated like royalty here,” Carpenter said.

The Friends and Fami-ly Tournament, hosted by Columbus United Soccer Club March 27-29 will bring over 20 teams to Columbus and the soccer complex, according to Lewis.

“That’s one of those in-house tournaments that’s

always been successful,” Lewis said.

The seniors tennis tournament has 225 registered participants, which does not include any spouses or families who may accompany them. Carpenter said many of the tournament participants are arriving in Columbus Wednesday, April 15 to catch the end of Pilgrimage before they play.

Hotel occupancy growing

Columbus has added around 300 hotel rooms in the past year, but the average occupancy rates continue to rise, accord-ing to Carpenter.

“Last Friday and Satur-day, we had 76 percent oc-

cupancy,” Carpenter said of local hotels, “That’s up 33 percent over last year at that time. That’s huge.”

Nikki Mays, who has worked at the Ramada Inn in Columbus for 10 years, said business has been up this year.

“Normally we are pret-ty slow this time of year, but we’ve been pretty busy,” Mays said.

Mays said the Ramada Inn is already 50 percent booked for the weekend of April 17 and 18, when the tournaments and Pil-grimage cross over.

Other eventsCurrently, the Trotter

Convention Center is host-ing around 300 guests for the Mississippi Full Gos-pel Baptist Church annu-

al state conference. Next week, a group of journal-ism students from the University of Mississippi will be staying for three days, working on a proj-ect for The Commercial Dispatch.

Carpenter is hosting 26 managers of state wel-come centers the week of March 22. She said the goal is to show them what the city has to offer, so they can point Mississippi visitors in the direction of the Golden Triangle.

The weekend of March 27 will also bring a host of strangers to Colum-bus. The Phi Beta Lamb-da business fraternity is bringing 177 people to Columbus. That same weekend the Columbus United Friends and Fam-ily tournament will be in

town and the Mississippi University for Women will be celebrating home-coming.

In April, the 75th Pil-grimage will coincide with the 25th “Tales from the Crypt.” Carpenter said it is not uncommon to have visitors from ev-ery state come for the two week stretch of tours of the city’s 350 registered historical properties.

The week of April 22, Possum Town will be vis-ited by a group of Austra-lians touring the South, who got in touch with Carpenter two years ago to schedule their visit.

Guests may be com-ing in from as far away as Down Under, but the local economy should be what comes out on top.

If you don’t read The Dispatch, how are you gonna know?

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2015 7A

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BY ALAN SCHER ZAGIERThe Associated Press

FERGUSON, Mo. — Protesters called for calm but vowed to keep pushing for change in Ferguson a day after the shooting of two of-ficers in front of the city’s police department heightened tensions in the St. Louis suburb.

Dozens gathered for a candle-light vigil Thursday night, where they expressed sympathy for the wounded officers. They also prayed for peace as Ferguson moves for-ward in the wake of a scathing Jus-tice Department report on racial bias in its law-enforcement practic-es.

A larger crowd of about 200 pro-testers gathered later outside the police department, but the scene was a marked contrast to the pre-vious night, when fights broke out before the shootings.

Some called for specific chang-es: the resignation of Ferguson’s mayor or the disbanding of the po-lice department. Others were there to remember 18-year-old Michael Brown, whose shooting death by a

Ferguson police officer in August made the city a national focal point.

“We’ll not be derailed in the pursuit of justice by anybody or anything that wants to get in our way,” said the Rev. Traci Blackmon, a member of the state’s Ferguson Commission who led the prayer vig-il at a public plaza in downtown Fer-guson near the police department. “We refuse to stop.”

Officers from the St. Louis

County Police Department and the Missouri Highway Patrol were summoned to bolster security but largely stood idle in the distance. The protesters had largely disband-ed by 11:30 p.m. No arrests were made.

The shootings just after mid-night on Thursday came as protest-ers had gathered after the resigna-tion of the city’s embattled police chief.

Calm prevails in Ferguson after shooting of police officers


NAVARRE, Fla. — Grieving families and comrades of 11 soldiers and Marines whose Black Hawk helicopter slammed into the water during a training exer-cise can only wait until the dense fog clears and rough seas calm enough for their bodies to be re-covered from the wreck-age, which settled in just 25 feet of water.

The Army said it has recovered the bodies of two of the four soldiers from the Louisiana Army

National Guard helicop-ter. The remains of two other soldiers and of sev-en Marines from North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune were unaccounted for late Thursday.

The helicopter went down in thick fog Tues-day night during a routine training mission at Eglin Air Force Base in the Flor-ida panhandle. The cause of the crash — described as “high impact” by Eglin Fire Chief Mark Giuliano — is being probed by the U.S. Army Combat Read-iness Center out of Fort Rucker, Alabama.

Military officials said they need better weather before they can pull the

UH-60’s shattered core from the bottom of Santa Rosa Sound.

Fog delays recovery in military helicopter crash

‘We’ll not be derailed in the pursuit of justice by anybody or anything’

11 soldiers and Marines killed when helicopter slammed into water during training exercise

AP Photo/Northwest Florida Daily News, Devon RavineAmerican flags stand in the median near the bridge entrance to Navarre Beach, Fla., on Thursday.

BY STEPHEN OHLEMACHERThe Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Fake IRS agents have tar-geted more than 366,000 people with harassing phone calls demanding payments and threaten-ing jail in the largest scam of its kind in the history of the agency, a federal in-vestigator said Thursday.

More than 3,000 peo-

ple have fallen for the ruse since 2013, said Timothy Camus, a Treasury dep-uty inspector general for tax administration. They were conned out of a total of $15.5 million.

The scam has claimed victims in almost every state, Camus said. One unidentified victim lost more than $500,000.

“The criminals do not discriminate. They

are calling people ev-erywhere, of all income levels and backgrounds,” Camus told the Senate Finance Committee at a hearing. “The callers of-ten warned the victims that if they hung up, local police would come to their homes to arrest them.”

The scam is so wide-spread that investigators believe there is more than one group of perpetrators, including some overseas.

Camus said even he re-ceived a call from one of the scammers at his home on a Saturday. He said he

had a stern message for the caller: “Your day will come.”

Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., said he got a sim-ilar call, but realized it wasn’t a real IRS agent.

“It was a very convinc-ing, convincing phone call,” Isakson said.

So far, two people in Florida have been arrest-ed, Camus said. They were accused of being part of a scam that in-volved people in call cen-ters in India contacting U.S. taxpayers and pre-tending to be IRS agents.

Fake IRS agents target more than 366k in scamMore than 3,000 already conned out of a total of $15.5 million


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AP Photo/Trent Nelson, Pool, FileThis 2010 file photo shows the firing squad execution chamber at the Utah State Prison in Draper, Utah. Utah’s Gov. Gary Herbert will not say if he’ll sign a bill to bring back the firing squad but does say the method would give Utah a backup execution method.

BY BRADY MCCOMBSThe Associated Press

SALT LAKE CITY — A vote by Utah lawmakers to bring back exe-cutions by firing squad is the most dramatic illustration yet of the nation-wide frustration over bungled execu-tions and shortages of lethal-injection drugs.

Utah and several other states are scrambling to modify their laws on the heels of a botched Oklahoma le-thal injection last year and one in Ar-izona in which the condemned man took nearly two hours to die. Mean-while, Texas executed a Mexican ma-fia hit man Wednesday evening with its second-to-last dosage of drugs.

Utah Republican Gov. Gary Her-bert has declined to say if he will sign

the firing-squad bill, a decision that’s not expected for a week or so.

“States are wondering which way to go, and one way is to send up a warning flag that if you don’t allow us freedom in this lethal-injection area, we’ll do something else,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment. “This might be a message rather than a preferred route of punishment.”

States have struggled to keep up their drug inventories as European manufacturers opposed to capital punishment refuse to sell the com-ponents of lethal injections to U.S. prisons. The Texas deadline is the most imminent, but other states are struggling, too.

The Utah bill’s sponsor, Republi-can Rep. Paul Ray, argues that a team of trained marksmen is faster and more humane than the drawn-out deaths involved when lethal injec-tions go awry.

Though Utah’s next execution is probably a few years away, Ray said Wednesday that he wants to settle on a backup method now so authorities are not racing to find a solution if the drug shortage drags on.

He’s hopeful that the proposal will become law, saying he thinks the governor would have already an-nounced his intention to veto it if that were his plan.

Opponents, however, said firing squads are a cruel holdover from an-other era and will earn the state inter-national condemnation.

Lawmakers stopped offering in-mates the choice of firing squad in 2004, saying the method attracted intense media interest.

Vote for firing squad shows frustration with drug shortages‘This might be a message rather than a preferred route of punishment’


BEI RU T — Islamic State mili-tants have accepted a pledge of a l leg ia nc e by the Nige-r ian-grown Boko Haram extremist group, accord-ing to a spokesman for the Islamic State movement.

The development Thursday came as both groups — among the most ruthless in the world — are under increasing mil-itary pressure and have sustained setbacks on the battlefield.

Islamic State seized much of northern and western Iraq last summer, gaining control of about a third of both Iraq and Syr-ia. But it is now struggling against Iraqi forces seek-ing to recapture Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit, while coming under fire from U.S.-led coalition air strikes in other parts of the country and in Syria.

Boko Haram, mean-while, has been weakened by a multinational force that has dislodged it from a score of northeastern Ni-gerian towns. But its new Twitter account, increas-ingly slick and more fre-quent video messages, and a new media arm all were considered signs that the group is now being helped by IS propagandists.

IS group accepts Boko Haram pledge of allegianceBoth groups under increasing military pressure

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PREP BASKETBALLMHSAA State Tournament

Championship GamesAt Mississippi Coliseum, Jackson

Admission: $10 per sessionn CLASS 1A GIRLS: Ashland vs. Pelahatchie, 10 a.m. Todayn CLASS 1A BOYS: Coffeeville vs. Shaw, noon Todayn CLASS 2A GIRLS: East Webster vs. West Tallahatchie, 10 a.m. Saturdayn CLASS 2A BOYS: Bay Springs vs. Okolona, noon Saturdayn CLASS 3A GIRLS: Belmont vs. Booneville, 2 p.m. Todayn CLASS 3A BOYS: Aberdeen vs. Velma Jackson, 4 p.m. Todayn CLASS 4A GIRLS: Bay High vs. Raymond, 2 p.m. Saturdayn CLASS 4A BOYS: McComb vs. Quitman, 4 p.m. Saturdayn CLASS 5A GIRLS: Natchez vs. West Jones, 6 p.m. Todayn CLASS 5A BOYS: Callaway vs. Ridgeland, 8 p.m. Todayn CLASS 6A GIRLS: Horn Lake vs. Olive Branch, 6 p.m. Saturdayn CLASS 5A BOYS: Madison Central vs. Starkville, 8 p.m. Saturday

PREP BASKETBALL: MISSISSIPPI HIGH SCHOOL ACTIVITIES ASSOCIATION STATE TOURNAMENT

LOCAL RACING

COLLEGE BASEBALL/SOFTBALL

See SOFTBALL, 4BSee BASEBALL, 4B

See YOUNG, 5B

See SHS BOYS, 3B

See RACING, 2B

ROCKING THE BIG HOUSEBob Smith/Special to The Dispatch

Starkville High knocked off Meridian 53-47 in the semifinal round of the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 6A State Tournament Thursday night at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson.In the photo above, Starkville junior Tyson Carter (11) attempts to put up a shot against the defense of Meridian sophomore Ledarius Brewer (25).RIGHT: Starkville senior Josh Skinner (24) rams one through the net for two points.Starkville improved to 25-5 overall with its 12th straight win. Saturday night at 8, Starkville will face region rival Madison Cen-tral for the state championship.Starkville will be looking for its first state championship in boys’ basketball since the 2009-10 season.

THIS WEEKENDBaseball

No. 13 Mississippi State (15-4, 0-0 SEC) vs. Alabama (9-6, 0-0 SEC)

At Dudy Noble Field, StarkvilleRadio: WKBB-FM (100.9)

n TODAY: 6:30 p.m. (SEC Network +)n SATURDAY: 2 p.m. (SEC Network +)n SUNDAY: 1:30 p.m. (SEC Network +)

SoftballMississippi State (18-5, 1-2 SEC)

vs. No. 19 Texas A&M (20-5, 2-1 SEC)At MSU Softball Field, Starkville

n TODAY: 5:30 p.m. (SEC Network +)n SATURDAY: 1 p.m. (SEC Network +)n SUNDAY: 1 p.m. (SEC Network +)

Complete standings, schedule, Page 2B

COMING SUNDAYn GAME COVERAGE: Recaps of weekend play and a look ahead

Baseball Bulldogs lookto regain confidence

Walk-off magic giveslift to softball Bulldogs

BY BRANDON [email protected]

S T A R K V I L L E – Mississippi State first baseman Wes Rea admits that his team has been strug-gling lately.

He also believes MSU’s baseball team can turn those strug-gles into a positive.

“We’ve got a lot of young guys on the team, newcom-

ers who haven’t been through this before,” said Rea. “We’ve been kicked in the teeth a few times lately, but if we use it to get better, it can be a good thing.”

The Bulldogs, who started the season at 13-0, have lost four of

BY SCOTT [email protected]

STARKVILLE — When Mississippi State’s Katie Anne Bai-ley stepped into the bat-ter’s box in the bottom of the ninth inning Sun-day, she only wanted one thing.

What she got instead was a whole lot better.

“With nobody on, you are thinking getting a base hit,”

said Bailey. “I am not a home run hit-ter because I nor-mally don’t get lift with my balls. So really I am think-ing get on and get something started to help the team.”

Instead, Bailey

MSCCS Super Late Model series kicks off 2015 schedule this weekendBY DAVID MILLERSpecial to The Dispatch

The top of the Mississippi State Championship Challenge Series will not have a repeat champion or runner-up this season.

As the MSCCS Super Late Model season kicks off Satur-day at Columbus Motor Speed-way, last year’s points champi-on, Oktibbeha County resident

David Breazeale will be a spec-tator.

Breazeale, who edged New Hope’s Rick Rickman by 55 points last season, had a tough choice to make at the end of 2014: race a full slate, or take a step back to dedicate more time and effort to his logging busi-ness.

He chose the latter.“In a way, it’s relieving,”

Breazeale said. “I get so busy,

especially in the summer, when racing also picks up. Just takes such a toll, mentally and phys-ically.

“But if I’m not working, I want to be racing.”

Breazeale did anticipate weather adversely affecting the logging industry -- and the rac-ing season -- for the last month. Now, with free time, there’s still a chance he may get a call to race someone’s car this week-

end. Breazeale left open the chance to run on a race-by-race basis if anyone needs a driver, much like he did three years ago, his final year driving for Leon Henderson.

“Haven’t been out trying to get anything for this weekend, either,” Breazeale said. “I decid-ed at the end of last year to take a step back. Didn’t want to com-mit to anything knowing my work schedule and how busy I’d

be.”Breazeale likely would have

been a favorite for Saturday night’s feature, as he won two MSCCS races and finished second in another at “The Bull-ring” in 2014.

Breazeale said Bud McCool, of Vicksburg, has taken over his former ride owned by Randy Thompson.

With Breazeale out this

MEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL: SEC TOURNAMENTSEC TOURNAMENT

Bridgestone ArenaAt Nashville, Tennessee

Thursday’s GamesSecond Round

Florida 69, Alabama 61Auburn 66, Texas A&M 59Tennessee 67, Vanderbilt 61South Carolina 60, Ole Miss 58

Today’s GamesQuarterfinal Round

(All Games on SEC Network)Florida vs. Kentucky, noonAuburn vs. LSU, 2:30 p.m.Tennessee vs. Arkansas, 6 p.m.South Carolina vs. Georgia, 8:30 p.m.

BY ADAM [email protected]

JACKSON — Point guards ar-en’t made overnight.

As much as coaches would like to think it’s possible, they can’t go into a laboratory and whip up a potion that infuses a player with all of the skills someone needs to play the position.

If an elixir like that existed, Que-shod Young gladly would have accept-ed it at the begin-ning of the 2014-15 season. With more experience and a greater comfort level as a shooting guard, Young entered the season unsure of what it would take to transition from that role into the starting point guard for the Aber-deen High School boys basketball team.

Young admitted there were les-sons learned — as well as plenty of turnovers — in the first part of the season as he immersed him-self in all of the subtleties involved with being a floor general.

You only needed to see one play from Aberdeen’s 57-48 vic-tory against Forest on Tuesday to see how quickly Young has applied what he has learned and has taken ownership of his new responsibilities.Expanding a lead

With Aberdeen leading 24-14 late in the second quarter, Young attacked Forest’s three-quarter court pressure defense on the right side in the backcourt. Young kept his head up and saw it would be difficult for him to attempt to beat the defenders scattered in front of him, so he turned his gaze to the left and snapped a diagonal pass to Marcus Carouthers. The pass came too quickly to give the defense time to shift and allowed Carouthers to blitz the rim from the three-quarter court mark and drive in for a layup and draw the foul.

“In our first game, I used to dribble with my head down some-times,” Young said.

Young leadsAberdeento 3A final

Bailey

BY ADAM [email protected]

JACKSON — Keith Harris’ shot hung on the rim for what seemed like longer than a few sec-onds.

When your team has turned the ball over on four of its last five posses-sions, waiting that long can be agoniz-ing.

When that hap-pens to your team and you’re sudden-

ly clinging to a four-point lead in the final two minutes, you’ll try anything, even twisting your body to affect the ball, to get something to go your way.

Thankfully, Harris turned his body language the right way as he watched the ball — and the Starkville High School boys bas-ketball team’s season — hang in the balance.

“I was just thinking we had to make a play,” Harris said, “so I

Jackets meetregion rivalin 6A final

BY GARY B. GRAVESThe Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A night that was mostly a sta-tistical disaster for South Carolina somehow ended happily because Tyrone Johnson executed a final play just as Gamecocks coach Frank Martin envisioned.

Several seconds after Jar-

vis Summers’ four-point play put Mississippi ahead 58-57, Johnson took Laimonas Chatkevicius’ inbounds pass and took a couple of dribbles past midcourt and prepared to launch a desperation 3-pointer that realistically had no chance with two Mis-sissippi players contesting it.

Rebels upset at end

See REBELS, 4B

Prep BaseballToday’s Games

Caledonia vs. Hamilton, Ala. (Lamar County), 2 p.m.New Hope at Tupelo, 2 p.m.Heritage Academy at Oak Hill Academy, 3 p.m.Caledonia vs. Marion County, Ala. (Lamar Coun-ty), 7 p.m.Columbus at Smithville Tournament

Saturday’s GamesCaledonia vs. Berry, Ala. (Lamar County), noonOak Hill Academy at Columbus Christian, 1 p.m.New Hope at Columbus, 1 p.m.American Christian (Ala.) at Starkville, 5 p.m.Caledonia at Lamar County, 6 p.m.

Prep BasketballToday’s Game

Mississippi High School Activities AssociationClass 3A State TournamentState Championship Game

At Mississippi Coliseum, JacksonAberdeen boys vs. Velma Jackson, 4 p.m.

Saturday’s GameMississippi High School Activities Association

Class 6A State TournamentState Championship Game

At Mississippi Coliseum, JacksonStarkville boys vs. Madison Central, 8 p.m.

Women’s College BasketballToday’s Game

Conference USA TournamentAt Bartow Arena, Birmingham

Southern Mississippi vs. Middle Tennessee, 10 a.m.

College BaseballToday’s Games

FIU at Southern Miss, 6 p.m.Alabama at Mississippi State, 6:30 p.m.Ole Miss at LSU, 7 p.m.

Saturday’s GamesAlabama at Mississippi State, 2 p.m.FIU at Southern Miss, 2 p.m.Ole Miss at LSU, 7 p.m.

Sunday’s GamesFIU at Southern Miss, noonAlabama at Mississippi State, 1:30 p.m.Ole Miss at LSU, 3 p.m.

College SoftballToday’s Games

Alabama at Georgia, 5 p.m.Texas A&M at Mississippi State, 5:30 p.m.

Saturday’s GamesTexas A&M at Mississippi State, 1 p.m.Southern Miss at North Texas (DH), 1 p.m.Alabama at Georgia, 1:30 p.m.Auburn at Ole Miss, 6 p.m.

Sunday’s GamesTexas A&M at Mississippi State, 1 p.m.Alabama at Georgia, 1 p.m.Southern Miss at North Texas, 1 p.m.Auburn at Ole Miss, 4:30 p.m.

Women’s College GolfSaturday’s Match

Ole Miss at Notre Dame Clover CupSunday’s Match

Ole Miss at Notre Dame Clover Cup

College GymnasticsToday’s Meet

Oklahoma at Alabama, 7:30 p.m.

Men’s College TennisToday’s Matches

Southern Miss vs. Boston University (Fort Myers, Fla.), 11 a.m.Alabama at Auburn, 3 p.m.Mississippi State at Florida, 4 p.m.

Saturday’s MatchSouthern Miss at Florida Gulf Coast, 5 p.m.

Sunday’s MatchesAlabama at Florida, noon.Mississippi State at Auburn, 1 p.m.

Women’s College TennisToday’s Matches

Auburn at Mississippi State, 4 p.m.Alabama at Ole Miss, 5 p.m.

Saturday’s MatchSouthern Miss at Florida Atlantic, 2 p.m.

Sunday’s MatchesAlabama at Mississippi State, 1 p.m.Auburn at Ole Miss, 1 p.m.Alabama A&M at Mississippi State, 5 p.m.

CALENDARBRIEFLYLocalPickens Academy sweeps baseball pair

Pickens Academy swept a baseball doubleheader from Restoration Academy with a pair of 10-0 wins Thursday afternoon.

In the opener, Jeff White (3-0) allowed two hits with 12 strikeouts in five innings of work.

Landon Hattaway, Chance Britt, Ryan Harcrow, Hugh Cameron, Jeff White and Nyc Gann each had a single and RBI.

In the second game, Preston Pogue (3-1) threw a five-inning no-hitter with 13 strikeouts.

Ryan Harcrow had three hits, including a double and triple. Logan Potts had a single and two RBIs. White, Cameron and Hattaway each had a single and RBI.

Pickens Academy (6-2, 3-0 area) will play host to Russell Academy at 6 p.m. Thursday.

Mississippi StateWomen’s tennis plays host to Auburn today

STARKVILLE — Following last weekend’s sweep of SEC oppo-nents Missouri and No. 44 Arkansas, the 41st-ranked Mississippi State women’s tennis team will continue its current five-match homestand Friday, welcoming the No. 31 Auburn Tigers to town.

Match time is set for 4 p.m. at the A.J. Pitts Tennis Centre. Due to the threat of rain on Friday afternoon, fans should consult HailStateWT (on Twitter) and HailState.com for updates on the match’s status. The match will honor all current and former military members as part of Mil-itary Appreciation Day, and fans will also receive MSU drinking glasses and the chance to win Mississippi State baseball tickets.

The Bulldogs (11-3/2-2 SEC) enter this weekend ranked 41st nationally, the team’s highest ranking in over nine years (since Jan. 31, 2006), when the Bulldogs were ranked at No. 33.

After dropping her SEC opener against Vanderbilt, sophomore transfer Jasmine Lee has been solid, winning three straight conference matches. Lee enters the weekend at 9-1 overall and 3-1 in the SEC, with all of her wins coming at the No. 2 slot. Sophomore Martina Frantova is also on a winning streak of her own, sitting at 2-2 in the SEC and 9-3 overall, with seven of those wins coming at the No. 3 position.

Another Bulldog that continues to perform well is freshman Jennifer Brown at the No. 5 position. Brown is 10-2 in dual match play so far and 2-1 in the SEC after earning the team-clincher against Arkansas on Sunday. Although both of her matches last weekend were suspended, sophomore Timea Guibe continues to dominate at the No. 6 slot, sitting at 9-0 in dual match play and 2-0 in the SEC. Guibe is the only remain-ing Bulldog that holds an undefeated record in singles.

Rounding out the singles lineup is junior Georgiana Patrasc at the top position and freshman Louise Ronaldson at No. 4. They are 9-4 and 7-5, respectively, in dual matches this spring.

Doubles play continues to be a driving force for State, as the Bulldogs have taken the doubles point 11 times in 12 contests where doubles have been contested this season. The Bulldogs are 23-6 in dual match play this season and 6-2 in the SEC. Frantova and senior Naomi Tran anchor the No. 1 slot for the Bulldogs at 7-4 in dual match play, while the duo of Lee and Patrasc are 5-1 on the season and 2-1 in SEC action.

Auburn enters the weekend at 11-4 overall and 1-3 in the SEC. The 31st-ranked Tigers earned their first SEC win of the season on Sunday, defeating Tennessee 4-0. The Tigers are led by the sixth-ranked doubles tandem of Pleun Burgmans and Emily Flickinger, who own a 52-16 career record and are 2-1 in the SEC at the No. 1 slot. Burgmans also leads the Tigers at the No. 1 singles position and is ranked at No. 73 nationally. She is 7-4 in dual matches this season.

Following Friday’s match, State will entertain No. 6 Alabama in Starkville at 1 p.m. Sunday.

n Women’s basketball hosts Selection Show: At Starkville, Mississippi State finds out where it’s going dancing Monday night, and fans can celebrate with the Bulldogs during the NCAA Selection Show at Dawg House Sports Grill.

The program begins at 5:30 p.m., with the selection show tipping off at 6 p.m. on ESPN.

Dawg House Sports Grill is located in downtown Starkville at 217 E. Main St.

In addition to the selection show, fans can also enjoy food and beverage specials at the event, which is free to the public.

Monday’s selection is the culmination of a record-setting campaign that has seen Vic Schaefer’s squad set school records for overall wins (26) and league victories (11) while matching the best SEC finish in program annals with a third-place showing.

n Men’s tennis plays at Florida: At Starkville, looking to stay perfect in Southeastern Conference play, the 42nd-ranked Mississippi State Bulldogs (11-3, 2-0 SEC) take to the road to face No. 18 Florida (6-5, 1-2 SEC) in Gainesville on Friday, March 13.

Today’s contest is set for 4 p.m., at the Alfred A. Ring Tennis Complex.

The outing to the Sunshine State is a part of a two-match road trip for the Bulldogs, as they will travel to No. 39 Auburn on Sunday, March 15 to close out the weekend. MSU and AU is set for a 1 p.m., first serve.

MSU will be looking to keep its successful 2015 season going after wins against No. 55 Arkansas and Nicholls State last weekend in Starkville. MSU is seeking to capture its seventh win in its last eight matches this year.

Despite dropping a 4-1 decision last season in Starkville against the Gators, State is vying for its third victory in the past four contests with UF. MSU downed the Gators in a 4-3 decision its last time in Gainesville in 2013.

Leading the way for the Bulldogs are a pair of ranked singles play-ers in Florian Lakat and Tassilo Schmid. No. 112 Lakat, the Bulldogs’ No. 1 in the lineup, is 9-2 this spring and is currently riding a three-match winning streak. Schmid, ranked 105th, has three victories this spring, with his most recent against Alabama’s Becker O’Shaughnessey to clinch State’s SEC opener.

n Quartet of Bulldogs set for track championships: At Starkville, four Mississippi State track and field athletes will make their way to Fayetteville to compete for the 2015 NCAA Indoor Champion-ships on Friday and Saturday.

“This has been the goal all season for these athletes,” MSU coach Steve Dudley said. “Making it to nationals means these athletes at MSU are among the best in the nation. I’m so proud of them and hopefully we will bring back champions.”

Three members of the women’s team, Erica Bougard, Ebony Brinker and Rhianwedd Price will represent MSU. On the men’s side will be reigning indoor and outdoor 800m National Champion Brandon McBride.

McBride, who is currently on the watch list for The Bowerman Tro-phy, ran a time of 1:48.17 to claim last year’s 800m National Champion title and set the MSU school record at the time. This season McBride has since broken that record with a time of 1:46.80 earlier this season at the Spire Invitational. This time is currently the third best time in the nation.

For senior Bougard, this will be her fourth year in a row to compete at nationals in the pentathlon. During her sophomore year, Bougard claimed the Pentathlon National Champion title after scoring 4,399 points. She returned to the championships her junior year where she finished second with 4,586 points, the second highest score in the pentathlon in NCAA Indoor Championship history and the current MSU school record.

Bougard will also be competing in the 60m hurdles, which she broke the MSU school record in at the SEC Championships after running a time of 8.03. This is the currently the third best time in the nation. Bougard’s third event she will be partaking in is the long jump. Her season-best leap of 21-00.00 came at the Armory Invite and is the ninth best jump in the nation going into the championships.

In the triple jump, Brinker tied her personal-best of 42-04.25 at the SEC Championships, which is also the MSU school record. Her leap is the 17th best in the nation. This will be Brinker’s first appearance in the NCAA Indoor Championships.

Distance runner Price will be making her first appearance at the NCAA Indoor Championships as well. Price ran a personal-best of 4:32.74 in the mile two weeks ago at the SEC Championships. Her time ranks second in the MSU school record books, and seventh nationally.

The championships will be held on March 13 and 14 at the Randal Tyson Track Center. ESPN3 will stream the meet live both days.

Junior collegesTrickett joins EMCC coaching staff as assistant

SCOOBA – Former West Virginia and Florida State quarterback Clint Trickett has been hired as an assistant football coach at three-time NJCAA National Champion East Mississippi Community College. His hiring has been approved by EMCC President Dr. Rick Young and EMCC Vice President/Director of Athletics Mickey Stokes.

Trickett, who divided his four-year collegiate playing career be-tween WVU and FSU, will primarily tutor EMCC’s quarterbacks among other coaching responsibilities. Under the leadership of eighth-year head football coach Buddy Stephens, the EMCC Lions have produced an NJCAA All-American quarterback every year dating back to the 2008 season.

“Clint is certainly one of the young, up-and-coming coaching stars in the game,” said EMCC’s Stephens, who guided the Lions to back-to-back NJCAA Championships the past two years as well as three national titles over the last four seasons. “With his maturity, knowledge of the game and drive to succeed, he will fit very well into our system and should help maintain our tradition of excellence at the quarterback coaching position.”

—From Staff, Special Reports

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com2B FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2015

BaseballSpring Training

AMERICAN LEAGUE W L PctKansas City 9 1 .900Boston 7 2 .778Oakland 7 2 .778Houston 5 2 .714New York 6 4 .600Minnesota 4 3 .571Texas 5 4 .556Los Angeles 4 4 .500Detroit 5 6 .455Seattle 4 6 .400Chicago 3 5 .375Tampa Bay 3 5 .375Toronto 4 7 .364Cleveland 3 6 .333Baltimore 3 8 .273

NATIONAL LEAGUE W L PctLos Angeles 5 2 .714Arizona 6 3 .667Miami 5 3 .625St. Louis 5 3 .625Philadelphia 5 4 .556Cincinnati 5 5 .500Colorado 4 4 .500Pittsburgh 4 4 .500Washington 4 4 .500San Diego 4 5 .444New York 4 6 .400Milwaukee 3 5 .375Atlanta 3 6 .333San Francisco 3 7 .300Chicago 1 7 .125NOTE: Split-squad games count in the stand-ings; games against non-major league teams do not.

Thursday’s GamesHouston 4, Detroit (ss) 3, 10 inningsMinnesota 7, Miami 6Philadelphia 6, Detroit (ss) 5Tampa Bay 10, Toronto 3Boston 5, Pittsburgh 1St. Louis 8, Baltimore 2N.Y. Mets 11, Washington 9Oakland 4, Seattle 3Kansas City 10, Cleveland 5Texas 7, Chicago White Sox (ss) 3Milwaukee 5, Colorado 3L.A. Angels 10, Chicago Cubs 9Cincinnati 12, Arizona 4San Francisco 7, Chicago White Sox (ss) 4N.Y. Yankees 3, Atlanta 2L.A. Dodgers 1, San Diego 0

Today’s GamesMinnesota vs. Pittsburgh at Bradenton, Fla., 12:05 p.m.St. Louis vs. Miami at Jupiter, Fla., 12:05 p.m.Houston vs. Washington at Viera, Fla., 12:05 p.m.Detroit vs. Atlanta (ss) at Kissimmee, Fla., 12:05 p.m.Tampa Bay vs. Philadelphia at Clearwater, Fla., 12:05 p.m.Baltimore vs. Toronto at Dunedin, Fla., 12:07 p.m.Atlanta (ss) vs. N.Y. Mets at Port St. Lucie, Fla., 12:10 p.m.Texas vs. San Francisco at Scottsdale, Ariz., 3:05 p.m.Oakland vs. Kansas City at Surprise, Ariz., 3:05 p.m.Milwaukee vs. Seattle at Peoria, Ariz., 3:05 p.m.Arizona vs. Cleveland at Goodyear, Ariz., 3:05 p.m.Cleveland vs. Chicago Cubs at Mesa, Ariz., 3:05 p.m.Chicago White Sox vs. Colorado at Scottsdale, Ariz., 3:10 p.m.San Diego vs. L.A. Angels at Tempe, Ariz., 3:10 p.m.N.Y. Yankees vs. Boston at Fort Myers, Fla., 6:05 p.m.Oakland vs. Chicago Cubs at Las Vegas, 7:05 p.m.Cincinnati vs. L.A. Dodgers at Glendale, Ariz., 9:05 p.m.

Saturday’s GamesDetroit (ss) vs. N.Y. Yankees (ss) at Tampa, Fla., 12:05 p.m.Tampa Bay vs. Baltimore at Sarasota, Fla., 12:05 p.m.Pittsburgh vs. Boston at Fort Myers, Fla., 12:05 p.m.Miami vs. Washington (ss) at Viera, Fla., 12:05 p.m.Minnesota vs. St. Louis at Jupiter, Fla., 12:05 p.m.Philadelphia vs. Detroit (ss) at Lakeland, Fla., 12:05 p.m.N.Y. Yankees (ss) vs. Toronto at Dunedin, Fla., 12:07 p.m.Washington (ss) vs. N.Y. Mets at Port St. Lucie, Fla., 12:10 p.m.Oakland (ss) vs. Chicago Cubs (ss) at Las Ve-gas, 2:05 p.m.San Francisco vs. Oakland (ss) at Mesa, Ariz., 3:05 p.m.Chicago Cubs (ss) vs. Milwaukee at Phoenix, 3:05 p.m.Colorado vs. Cincinnati at Goodyear, Ariz., 3:05 p.m.Cleveland vs. L.A. Dodgers at Glendale, Ariz., 3:05 p.m.Texas vs. San Diego at Peoria, Ariz., 3:05 p.m.L.A. Angels (ss) vs. Kansas City at Surprise, Ariz., 3:05 p.m.Chicago White Sox vs. L.A. Angels (ss) at Tem-pe, Ariz., 3:10 p.m.Seattle vs. Arizona at Scottsdale, Ariz., 3:10 p.m.Houston vs. Atlanta at Kissimmee, Fla., 5:05 p.m.San Francisco vs. Arizona at Scottsdale, Ariz., 9:10 p.m.

Thursday’s College ScoresEAST

William Paterson 10, Baruch 6SOUTH

Bellarmine 5-4, Kentucky St. 2-0Castleton 4-5, South Carolina 3-2Cumberlands 13-9, Baptist Bilbe College 1-1La Roche 12, St. Scholastica 7Lee 7, Carson-Newman 6Milligan 9, Georgetown (Ky.) 8, 8 inningsRandolph-Macon 7, New Paltz 1Thiel 14, Pitt.-Bradford 1Tusculum 5, Lander 4

SEC Eastern Division

Conference All Games W L Pct. W L Pct.Florida 0 0 .000 16 2 .889South Carolina 0 0 .000 14 3 .824Kentucky 0 0 .000 13 3 .812Vanderbilt 0 0 .000 13 4 .765Missouri 0 0 .000 12 4 .750Georgia 0 0 .000 12 5 .706Tennessee 0 0 .000 7 6 .538

Western Division Conference All Games W L Pct. W L Pct.Texas A&M 0 0 .000 18 0 1.000LSU 0 0 .000 16 1 .941Mississippi St. 0 0 .000 15 4 .789Auburn 0 0 .000 13 4 .765Arkansas 0 0 .000 9 5 .643Alabama 0 0 .000 9 6 .600Mississippi 0 0 .000 9 7 .562

Thursday’s GamesNo games scheduled

Today’s GamesMissouri at Georgia, 5 p.m. (SEC Network +) Kentucky at South Carolina, 6 p.m. (SEC Network +)Tennessee at Florida, 6 p.m. (SEC Network +)Alabama at Mississippi State, 6:30 p.m. (SEC Network +)Arkansas at Vanderbilt, 6:30 p.m. (SEC Network +)Auburn at Texas A&M, 6:35 p.m. (SEC Network +)Ole Miss at LSU, 7 p.m. (SEC Network +)

Saturday’s GamesMissouri at Georgia, 1 p.m. (SEC Network +)Arkansas at Vanderbilt, 2 p.m. (SEC Network +)Alabama at Mississippi State, 2 p.m. (SEC Network +)Kentucky at South Carolina, 3 p.m. (SEC Net-work +)Auburn at Texas A&M, 4 p.m. (SEC Network)Tennessee at Florida, 6 p.m. (SEC Network +)Ole Miss at LSU, 7 p.m. (SEC Network)

Sunday’s GamesTennessee at Florida, noon (SEC Network +)Missouri at Georgia, noon (SEC Network +)Arkansas at Vanderbilt, noon (SEC Network +)Kentucky at South Carolina, 12:30 p.m. (SEC Network +)Auburn at Texas A&M, 1:05 p.m. (SEC Net-work +)Alabama at Mississippi State, 1:30 p.m. (SEC Network +)Ole Miss at LSU, 3 p.m. (SEC Network)

BasketballNBA

EASTERN CONFERENCEAtlantic Division

W L Pct GBToronto 38 26 .594 —Boston 27 36 .429 10½Brooklyn 25 38 .397 12½Philadelphia 14 50 .219 24New York 13 51 .203 25

Southeast Division W L Pct GBx-Atlanta 50 14 .781 —Washington 37 28 .569 13½Miami 29 35 .453 21Charlotte 28 35 .444 21½Orlando 21 45 .318 30

Central Division W L Pct GBCleveland 42 25 .627 —Chicago 40 26 .606 1½Milwaukee 34 31 .523 7Indiana 30 34 .469 10½Detroit 23 41 .359 17½

WESTERN CONFERENCESouthwest Division

W L Pct GBMemphis 45 20 .692 —Houston 43 22 .662 2San Antonio 40 24 .625 4½Dallas 41 25 .621 4½New Orleans 36 29 .554 9

Northwest Division W L Pct GBPortland 42 20 .677 —Oklahoma City 35 29 .547 8Utah 28 36 .438 15Denver 24 41 .369 19½Minnesota 14 49 .222 28½

Pacific Division W L Pct GBGolden State 51 12 .810 —L.A. Clippers 42 23 .646 10Phoenix 34 32 .515 18½Sacramento 22 41 .349 29L.A. Lakers 17 47 .266 34½x-clinched playoff spot

Thursday’s GamesWashington 107, Memphis 87

Indiana 109, Milwaukee 103, OTUtah 109, Houston 91Cleveland 128, San Antonio 125, OTNew York 101, L.A. Lakers 94

Today’s GamesSacramento at Philadelphia, 6 p.m.Chicago at Charlotte, 6 p.m.Miami at Toronto, 6:30 p.m.Orlando at Boston, 6:30 p.m.Minnesota at Oklahoma City, 7 p.m.L.A. Clippers at Dallas, 7:30 p.m.Golden State at Denver, 8 p.m.Atlanta at Phoenix, 9 p.m.Detroit at Portland, 9 p.m.

Saturday’s GamesSacramento at Washington, 6 p.m.Boston at Indiana, 6 p.m.Brooklyn at Philadelphia, 6:30 p.m.Milwaukee at Memphis, 7 p.m.Detroit at Utah, 8 p.m.New York at Golden State, 9:30 p.m.

GolfValspar Scores

ThursdayAt Innisbrook Resort, Copperhead Course

Palm Harbor, Fla.Purse: $5.9 million

Yardage: 7,340; Par 71 (36-35)First Round

Brian Davis 35-30—65Sean O’Hair 33-33—66Ricky Barnes 33-33—66Justin Thomas 32-35—67Henrik Stenson 35-32—67Derek Ernst 34-33—67Brendon de Jonge 34-33—67Nicholas Thompson 36-31—67Alex Cejka 33-34—67John Peterson 34-34—68Kevin Streelman 33-35—68Luke Guthrie 33-35—68Shawn Stefani 34-34—68Will Wilcox 34-34—68Rod Pampling 33-35—68Jason Kokrak 34-34—68Ian Poulter 35-33—68Andrew Svoboda 36-32—68Adam Hadwin 32-36—68Hudson Swafford 33-36—69Billy Hurley III 36-33—69William McGirt 35-34—69Ryan Moore 34-35—69Ernie Els 36-33—69Vijay Singh 36-33—69Lucas Glover 35-34—69Jeff Overton 38-31—69Russell Knox 34-35—69Greg Chalmers 34-35—69Jim Furyk 34-35—69Harris English 36-33—69Martin Laird 37-32—69Stewart Cink 33-36—69Kenny Perry 35-34—69Will MacKenzie 37-32—69Carlos Ortiz 34-35—69Kyle Reifers 36-33—69Francesco Molinari 34-36—70Nick Taylor 36-34—70Scott Brown 34-36—70Jordan Spieth 36-34—70Steven Bowditch 36-34—70Brendon Todd 34-36—70Jason Dufner 36-34—70Charles Howell III 35-35—70Jamie Donaldson 36-34—70Andres Gonzales 34-36—70Michael Putnam 38-32—70Jason Bohn 36-34—70Brandt Snedeker 37-33—70Matt Kuchar 35-35—70David Toms 36-34—70Mark Wilson 34-36—70Daniel Summerhays 35-35—70Chad Campbell 36-34—70David Hearn 37-33—70Sam Saunders 37-33—70Jonathan Randolph 37-33—70Robert Garrigus 36-35—71Brian Stuard 35-36—71Rory Sabbatini 37-34—71Adam Scott 38-33—71Kevin Na 35-36—71Michael Thompson 38-33—71Sangmoon Bae 35-36—71Carl Pettersson 37-34—71Ryo Ishikawa 38-33—71Spencer Levin 35-36—71Woody Austin 37-34—71Boo Weekley 36-35—71Kevin Chappell 35-36—71Kevin Kisner 36-35—71S.J. Park 38-33—71Scott Langley 32-39—71J.J. Henry 35-36—71John Huh 35-36—71Cameron Tringale 39-32—71Lee Westwood 36-35—71Ollie Schniederjans 37-34—71Bo Van Pelt 35-37—72Freddie Jacobson 35-37—72Gonzalo Fdez-Castano 35-37—72Patrick Reed 37-35—72George McNeill 35-37—72Morgan Hoffmann 35-37—72Erik Compton 37-35—72Danny Lee 35-37—72Jon Curran 37-35—72Martin Flores 37-35—72Steve Wheatcroft 35-37—72Jerry Kelly 37-35—72Luke Donald 35-37—72Nick Watney 35-37—72Brian Harman 37-35—72Charlie Beljan 37-35—72Troy Merritt 37-35—72Derek Fathauer 37-35—72Zac Blair 39-34—73D.A. Points 36-37—73Scott Stallings 37-36—73Ken Duke 37-36—73Chesson Hadley 37-36—73John Merrick 37-36—73Daniel Berger 38-35—73Marc Leishman 40-33—73Oscar Fraustro 37-36—73Scott Pinckney 36-37—73Tony Finau 36-37—73Justin Leonard 37-36—73Retief Goosen 37-36—73Matt Every 36-37—73Max Homa 39-34—73Alex Prugh 36-37—73Robert Allenby 39-35—74Jonathan Byrd 38-36—74Chez Reavie 37-37—74Bryce Molder 37-37—74Ben Crane 37-37—74Jonas Blixt 36-38—74Andres Romero 39-35—74Joost Luiten 37-37—74Justin Rose 38-36—74John Senden 38-36—74Gary Woodland 37-37—74K.J. Choi 38-36—74Emiliano Grillo 36-38—74Rod Perry 36-38—74Rafael Cabrera Bello 37-37—74Tim Wilkinson 40-35—75Louis Oosthuizen 39-36—75Chris Smith 37-38—75Jhonattan Vegas 38-37—75Trevor Immelman 38-37—75Brice Garnett 40-35—75Michael Kinkopf 38-37—75Tim Petrovic 37-38—75Justin Hicks 35-40—75Padraig Harrington 37-39—76Colt Knost 39-37—76Roberto Castro 38-38—76Jimmy Brandt 38-38—76Blayne Barber 37-40—77Charley Hoffman 36-43—79John Daly 41-40—81

Webcom ScoresThursday

At Sao Paulo Golf ClubSao Paulo

Purse: $850,000Yardage: 6,574; Par: 71 (35-36)

First RoundPlay suspended by darkness

Matt Weibring 31-33—64Darron Stiles 32-33—65Tyrone Van Aswegen 31-34—65Patton Kizzire 31-34—65Jason Allred 33-32—65Jeff Curl 33-33—66Patrick Rodgers 31-35—66Andrew Landry 32-34—66Rick Cochran III 34-32—66Tag Ridings 34-32—66Peter Malnati 32-34—66Abraham Ancer 33-33—66Brad Schneider 31-35—66Tommy Gainey 32-34—66John Mallinger 33-34—67Michael Kim 30-37—67Ryan Blaum 34-33—67Stephan Jaeger 34-33—67Matt Davidson 34-33—67Ariel Canete 34-33—67Adam Crawford 34-33—67Tain Lee 34-33—67Casey Wittenberg 34-33—67Marc Turnesa 33-34—67Cameron Wilson 34-33—67Ted Purdy 34-34—68Kevin Tway 33-35—68Roland Thatcher 34-34—68Julian Etulain 32-36—68Travis Bertoni 33-35—68Wes Roach 31-37—68Bronson La’Cassie 34-34—68Erik Barnes 33-35—68Brett Drewitt 34-34—68Brandon Hagy 35-33—68Kelly Kraft 33-35—68D.J. Trahan 34-34—68Si Woo Kim 33-35—68Chris Gilman 33-35—68Rob Oppenheim 34-34—68Zack Fischer 32-36—68D.H. Lee 34-35—69Mathew Goggin 33-36—69Scott Parel 34-35—69Greg Eason 36-33—69Andy Winings 33-36—69Mark Silvers 34-35—69Aron Price 34-35—69Charlie Wi 34-35—69Steve Allan 33-36—69Harold Varner III 34-35—69Rhein Gibson 33-36—69Brady Schnell 33-36—69Kevin Foley 36-33—69Jorge FernandezValdes 34-35—69Kelvin Day 36-33—69Roberto Diaz 34-35—69Edward Loar 35-35—70Aaron Watkins 36-34—70Chase Wright 36-34—70Craig Barlow 36-34—70Frank Lickliter II 36-34—70Ashley Hall 32-38—70Tyler McCumber 36-34—70Brad Hopfinger 37-33—70Brock Mackenzie 33-37—70Brian Richey 35-35—70Jose de J Rodriguez 38-32—70Jhared Hack 36-34—70Sam Love 35-35—70

Daniel Stapff 36-34—70Miguel A Carballo 35-35—70Matt Fast 33-37—70Hunter Haas 32-38—70Troy Matteson 34-36—70Henrik Norlander 35-35—70Sebastian Cappelen 35-35—70Shane Bertsch 35-35—70Sung Kang 34-36—70Seamus Power 36-34—70Brad Fritsch 36-34—70Jeff Gove 36-34—70Andres Echavarria 33-37—70Alex Aragon 34-36—70Marcelo Rozo 34-36—70Curtis Thompson 34-36—70Wes Homan 34-36—70Martin Piller 37-34—71Nick Flanagan 36-35—71Alistair Presnell 36-35—71Nathan Tyler 36-35—71Peter Tomasulo 37-34—71Andrew Yun 35-36—71Kyle Stanley 34-37—71Ryan Sullivan 34-37—71Hugo Leon 34-37—71Richy Werenski 36-35—71Tyler Aldridge 35-36—71Oliver Goss 34-37—71Bryden Macpherson 36-35—71Andre Tourinho 33-38—71Rafael Becker 36-35—71Felipe Navarro 36-35—71Brett Stegmaier 36-35—71Michael Hebert 36-35—71Aaron Goldberg 36-35—71Matt Atkins 36-35—71Bronson Burgoon 35-37—72Ben Geyer 34-38—72Justin Peters 36-36—72Chris Wilson 35-37—72Ben Kohles 34-38—72Joel Dahmen 37-35—72Hao Tong Li 36-36—72Sam Chien 36-36—72Brad Elder 36-36—72Josh Persons 37-35—72Cody Gribble 34-39—73Carlos Franco 38-35—73Mikey Moyers 38-35—73Luke List 35-39—74Rafael Barcellos 38-36—74James Nitties 33-41—74Scott Gardiner 35-39—74Steve Marino 38-37—75Manuel Villegas 39-36—75Andy Pope 37-38—75D.J. Brigman 38-38—76Brandon Smith 36-40—76Mark Anderson 36-40—76Jamie Lovemark 38-38—76Ted Brown 39-37—76

HockeyNHL

EASTERN CONFERENCEAtlantic Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GAMontreal 68 42 19 7 91 179 152Tampa Bay 69 42 20 7 91 225 180Detroit 66 37 18 11 85 193 175Boston 67 35 22 10 80 182 173Florida 67 30 23 14 74 167 190Ottawa 66 31 24 11 73 190 178Toronto 68 27 35 6 60 183 212Buffalo 67 19 42 6 44 129 228

Metropolitan Division GP W L OT Pts GF GAN.Y. Rangers 66 42 17 7 91 203 157N.Y. Islanders 69 43 22 4 90 219 194Pittsburgh 67 39 18 10 88 195 166Washington 68 36 22 10 82 201 168Philadelphia 69 28 27 14 70 178 198New Jersey 68 28 29 11 67 154 178Columbus 67 29 34 4 62 173 211Carolina 66 25 33 8 58 158 183

WESTERN CONFERENCECentral Division

GP W L OT Pts GF GASt. Louis 67 43 19 5 91 210 167Nashville 69 42 20 7 91 199 168Chicago 67 40 21 6 86 192 155Minnesota 67 37 23 7 81 192 170Winnipeg 68 33 23 12 78 189 185Colorado 68 31 26 11 73 181 191Dallas 68 31 27 10 72 214 224

Pacific Division GP W L OT Pts GF GAAnaheim 69 42 20 7 91 202 192Vancouver 67 38 25 4 80 189 183Calgary 67 37 25 5 79 197 175Los Angeles 67 33 21 13 79 184 170San Jose 68 34 26 8 76 191 187Arizona 68 21 39 8 50 144 226Edmonton 68 18 39 11 47 156 233NOTE: Two points for a win, one point for over-time loss.

Thursday’s GamesBoston 3, Tampa Bay 2, SOSt. Louis 1, Philadelphia 0, SOColorado 2, New Jersey 1, SOPittsburgh 6, Edmonton 4Dallas 5, Carolina 3Ottawa 5, Montreal 2Columbus 3, Detroit 1Florida 4, Winnipeg 2Los Angeles 4, Vancouver 0Chicago 2, Arizona 1San Jose 2, Nashville 0

Today’s GamesOttawa at N.Y. Islanders, 6 p.m.Dallas at Washington, 6 p.m.Edmonton at Columbus, 6 p.m.Anaheim at Minnesota, 7 p.m.Toronto at Calgary, 7 p.m.

Saturday’s GamesDetroit at Philadelphia, noon.Boston at Pittsburgh, noon.Chicago at San Jose, 3 p.m.N.Y. Rangers at Buffalo, 6 p.m.Winnipeg at Tampa Bay, 6 p.m.Montreal at N.Y. Islanders, 6 p.m.Florida at Carolina, 6 p.m.Toronto at Vancouver, 6 p.m.Minnesota at St. Louis, 7 p.m.New Jersey at Arizona, 8 p.m.Calgary at Colorado, 9 p.m.Nashville at Los Angeles, 9 p.m.

SoftballSEC

Conference All Games W L Pct. W L Pct.LSU 3 0 1.000 25 0 1.000Missouri 3 0 1.000 15 3 .833Alabama 3 0 1.000 18 4 .818Georgia 2 1 .667 23 3 .885Texas A&M 2 1 .667 20 5 .800Mississippi St. 1 2 .333 18 5 .783Kentucky 1 2 .667 15 5 .750Florida 0 0 .000 27 0 1.000Auburn 0 0 .000 26 2 .929Tennessee 0 0 .000 18 3 .857South Carolina 0 3 .000 18 8 .692Mississippi 0 3 .000 15 8 .652Arkansas 0 3 .000 13 11 .542

Thursday’s GameArkansas 11, Missouri State 5

Today’s GamesMissouri vs. Fordham (Raleigh, N.C.), 10:15 a.m.Missouri vs. Lipcomb (Raleigh, N.C.), 12:30 p.m.LSU at Florida, 5 p.m. (SEC Network +)Alabama at Georgia, 5 p.m. (SEC Network +)Tennessee at South Carolina, 5 p.m. (SEC Network +)Texas A&M at Mississippi State, 5:30 p.m. (SEC Network +)

Saturday’s GamesLSU at Florida, noon (SEC Network)Missouri vs. Binghamton (Raleigh, N.C.), 12:30 p.m.Texas A&M at Mississippi State, 1 p.m. (SEC Network +)Tennessee at South Carolina, 1 p.m. (SEC Network +)Texas at Arkansas, 1 p.m. (SEC Network +)Ohio University at Kentucky (DH), 1 p.m. (SEC Network +)Alabama at Georgia, 2 p.m. (SEC Network)Missouri at North Carolina State, 5 p.m.Auburn at Ole Miss, 6 p.m. (SEC Network +)

Sunday’s GamesMissouri vs. Longwood (Raleigh, N.C.), 8:30 a.m.LSU at Florida, 11 a.m. (SEC Network)Tennessee at South Carolina, noon (SEC Network +)Texas A&M at Mississippi State, 1 p.m. (SEC Network +)Ohio University at Kentucky, 1 p.m. (SEC Network +)Alabama at Georgia, 2 p.m. (SEC Network)Auburn at Ole Miss, 4:30 p.m. (ESPNU)Texas at Arkansas, 6:30 p.m. (SEC Network)

Monday’s GamesAuburn at Ole Miss, 6 p.m. (SEC Network)Texas at Arkansas, 8 p.m. (SEC Network)

TransactionsThursday’s Moves

BASEBALLAmerican League

TORONTO BLUE JAYS — Optioned LHP Rob Rasmussen to Bluefield (Appalachian) and LHP Juan Pablo Oramas to Buffalo (IL).

BASKETBALLNational Basketball Association

MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES — Recalled F/C Jarnell Stokes and G Russ Smith from Iowa (NBADL).SAN ANTONIO SPURS — Assigned F Kyle Anderson to Austin (NBADL).WASHINGTON WIZARDS — Signed G Toure’ Murry from Rio Grande Valley (NBADL).

FOOTBALLNational Football League

ARIZONA CARDINALS — Released C Lyle Sendlein.ATLANTA FALCONS — Agreed to terms with CB Phillip Adams and DE Adrian Clayborn.BALTIMORE RAVENS — Agreed to terms wtih RB Justin Forsett on a three-year contract.BUFFALO BILLS — Signed QB Tyrod Taylor. Re-signed WR Marcus Easley.CAROLINA PANTHERS — Re-signed TE Ed Dickson to a three-year contract.CLEVELAND BROWNS — Signed QB Thad Lewis.DALLAS COWBOYS — Signed FB Jed Collins.JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS — Released DE Red Bryant.KANSAS CITY CHIEFS — Released WR Dwayne Bowe.NEW ORLEANS SAINTS — Agreed to terms with CB Brandon Browner on a three-year contract and LB Ramon Humber on a two-year contract.NEW YORK JETS — Re-signed G Willie Colon to a one-year contract and LS Tanner Purdum to a two-year contract.OAKLAND RAIDERS — Signed S Nate Allen.SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS — Re-signed QB Blaine Gabbert to a two-year contract and TE Garrett Celek to a one-year contract. Released WR Stevie Johnson.TAMPA BAY BUCCANEERS — Signed S Chris Conte and DT Henry Melton.

RacingContinued from Page 1B

weekend — for now — Rick Rickman is a favorite to win the $2,500-to-win State race. Rickman is banking on another new Bob Pierce race car will produce the same fresh-out-the-box result as last year, when he used a brand-new Pierce car to win at Whynot Speedway in Meridian. Rickman said he’ll have his one-year-old Bob Pierce car as a backup, either for himself or another member of the Rickman team, which includes broth-er, Brian, who finished third in the MSCCS standings last year.

“The new car hasn’t touched the dirt year,” Rick Rickman said. “We’ve all been itching to get on a track — anywhere.

While Rickman is happy to see an addi-tional state race at Columbus this year — now up to four — he likely will not have a chance to use the advantage of his hometown track to chase a championship. Rickman said he’ll dedicate more time in the late summer and fall to watching son, Trey, who also races, play his final season of football at New Hope High School.

“I missed a lot of games last year,” he said. “We’ll run the majority of the races, but I won’t miss his games this year, like I did last year.”

Rickman said his brother, Brian, is still undecided on running a full MSCCS slate, a decision that’ll likely be made after the first few races of the season. If he does, he’ll be a favorite to claim his first MSCCS points title.

“He was tough all year,” Breazeale said. “If he races all year, he’ll be at the top. Chad Thrash came on strong the last several years, too. The last couple of years he’s missed a cou-ple for different reasons, but he’ll be tough. Neil Baggett will be tough, too.”

The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2015 3B

BRIEFLYAlabamaMen’s tennis set for pair of road matches

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The 66th-ranked Alabama men’s tennis team (11-9, 1-2 SEC) travels south for the weekend, playing matches at No. 39 Auburn (11-4, 1-2 SEC) and No. 18 Florida (6-5, 1-2 SEC). To-day’s match versus the Tigers is slated for a 4 p.m. start, while Sunday’s match in Gainesville will begin at noon.

The Crimson Tide went 3-1 last week with wins against No. 9 Ole Miss, 4-2, and twice against Alabama State, 4-1; 5-0, after being edged at Arkansas on Thursday, 4-3. Nikko Madregallejo extended his winning streak to seven matches in singles, while Becker O’Shaughnessey pushed his streak to six, including the clincher versus the Rebels on Saturday. Korey Lovett had the biggest win of his rookie season thus far against Ole Miss, topping three-time All-American and reigning SEC Player of the Year Nik Scholtz, 6-2, 6-2, at the No. 1 spot. Lovett and O’Shaughnessey enter this weekend ranked No. 32 in the nation in doubles.

Ole MissMen’s tennis grabs league win over Arkansas

OXFORD — In a match that started outside at the Palmer/Salloum Tennis Center and finished indoors at the Gillom Sports Center, the No. 13 ranked Ole Miss men’s tennis team powered past Arkansas 4-1 here Thursday night.

With their 28th straight win in the series, the Rebels improved to 10-4 overall and 2-1 in the SEC. They are off until next weekend, when they host Auburn and Florida.

The Rebels won the doubles point and got two huge three-setters from Gustav Hansson and Stefan Lindmark, before freshman Zvonimir Babic finished off Arkansas’ Juan Marino 6-4, 6-1 at No. 5 singles to clinch the win.

“The doubles point was huge in giving us a big lift early,” head coach Toby Hansson said. “Even though we were down in some singles matches all the guys were battling, and I felt confident that we could turn them around. We took two of the top three singles and that set the tone. We would like to thank the fans who waited out the delays with us and came indoors to see the finish. They made a huge difference in the outcome.”

Nik Scholtz and Zvonimir Babic won 6-1 at No. 1 doubles, and then Gustav Hansson and Stefan Lindmark took out Jovan Parlic and Gimy Micolani 6-4 at No. 2 to clinch the early 1-0 lead for the Rebels.

Arkansas (11-7, 1-3) won the first set at one, three and six, while Ole Miss claimed the first set at four and five before play was suspend-ed for light rain. After another delay, the match was moved indoors. Once inside, Parlic served out his first set against Lindmark at No. 2 to give the Razorbacks four first sets.

Before play was stopped outside, Hansson got off to a 3-1 lead in the second against Razorback William Albanese. Once play resumed indoors, Hansson held out to win the second set 6-2 and then gained an early break in the third and won it 6-3 to give the Rebel s a 2-0 lead.

“He had me exactly where he wanted me in the first set, he played much better,” Gustav said. “In the second and third sets I just tried to keep the ball in play and fight for every point, and it turned out pretty well.

“I am so happy for Zvonimir, because he’s been a little unlucky this spring. He’s had a tough start, so it was great to see him finish it off. This is a great win for us. The team spirit is really good right now, and it’s nice to see everybody step up when we are a missing a player.”

The Reigning SEC Player of the Year, Scholtz had his 18-match home win streak snapped by Micolani. Micolani won the first set outdoors 6-2, but indoors, Scholtz was able to regroup and take the second set 6-2. Serving 3-4 in the final set, Scholtz was broken and Micolani served it out 6-3 to get the Razorbacks on the board.

“I was mentally prepared to go inside, because we knew there was a chance of rain,” he said. “After we came indoors, the guys started playing much better and we got the momentum back. At that point I was excited to go back on the court and play my best tennis. I am glad I was able to finish it off quickly.”

Southern MississippiWomen’s basketball knocks off UAB in C-USA quarterfinal

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The Southern Miss women’s basketball team eliminated UAB in a thrilling quarterfinal battle that saw the Lady Eagles nearly 54 percent from the field to hold off a Blazers squad that drilled 12 3-pointers in an 80-66 win.

Senior star Tamara Jones led the way as she dropped 18 points and sprinkled in seven boards. Alex Coyne scored a career-high 16 points to go with seven assists and four steals. Voche’ Martin chipped in 14 points. Seven players scored six or more points in the victory.

Southern Miss owned the first half against the host Blazers, shutting down top UAB scoring threat Janae Smith in the block, while pouring in 41 points on 61 percent shooting.

Southern Miss will face Middle Tennessee at 10 a.m. today in the semifinal round of the tournament on the CBS Sports Network.

NationalSEC picks Sankey as new commissioner

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Greg Sankey has been Mike Slive’s right-hand man at the Southeastern Conference the past 12 years and now he’s been tabbed to replace him in a move widely expected for months.

Sankey will replace Slive as SEC commissioner starting Aug. 1 af-ter more than two years of handling the league’s day-to-day operations.

Vanderbilt Chancellor Nick Zeppos, the president of the SEC presidents and chancellors, announced Sankey’s appointment on Thursday. Slive, the SEC’s commissioner since 2002, said in October he would retire effective July 31 and that he was receiving treatment for a recurrence of prostate cancer.

Sankey said he learned from watching Slive, calling him “a calm in the storm” adept at listening and building relationships.

“Before I worked with him, I was a friend,” Sankey said on the SEC Network Thursday night. “Every day when I’ve shown up, I’ve probably learned a little bit something more. He slowed me down when I needed to be slowed down, sped me up when I needed to be sped up. Those are characteristics and traits and lessons I’ll carry with me for life.”

Sankey is in his 13th year with the SEC and has served as the conference’s executive associate commissioner and chief operating officer for the league office since 2012, freeing Slive to concentrate on major projects like the SEC Network and College Football Playoffs. Before joining the SEC staff, Sankey was the Southland Conference commissioner for nearly seven years starting when he was just 31.

n NFL: Running back Murray heads to Philadelphia: At Phil-adelphia, DeMarco Murray got the money and opportunity he wanted from his former team’s biggest rival.

The All-Pro running back agreed Thursday to a five-year contract with the Philadelphia Eagles. Murray’s deal was valued at $42 million, with $21 million guaranteed, according to a person familiar with the deal who spoke on condition of anonymity because terms weren’t disclosed.

“It wasn’t about financial security,” Murray said, explaining his decision to leave the Dallas Cowboys. “I felt this was a great opportunity for us to win a Super Bowl. Obviously, you want something that you deserve and that’s respectful. I felt that those two things were important to me and I was able to accomplish that here.”

Wearing a gray suit, white shirt and black tie, Murray arrived at team headquarters with his fiancée, Heidi Mueller, on Thursday afternoon.

Less than two hours later, the Eagles confirmed they had reached agreement on a three-year contract with former San Diego running back Ryan Mathews.

The tandem joins Darren Sproles and Chris Polk in a crowded backfield.

“I don’t think we extended ourselves financially,” Eagles coach Chip Kelly said. “You’ve got to run the football in this league. That’s what we believe in. That’s what I’ve always believed in.”

Murray helped the Cowboys win the NFC East title last season while rushing for a franchise-record 1,845 yards. He broke the Dallas record held by NFL career rushing leader Emmitt Smith and also set a league mark with eight straight 100-yard games to start the season.

n NBA: Wizards run over Grizzlies: At Washington, Washington Wizards point guard John Wall considered it a slap in the face that the Memphis Grizzlies would hold out so many important players against his team.

“They sit ‘em, and I don’t know the reason why,” Wall said. “I think we’re a team that’s on the rise, and teams respect us now. And I guess they don’t respect us.”

Taking advantage of a watered-down version of the No. 2 team in the Western Conference, Wall finished with 21 points, seven rebounds and six assists Thursday night, leading the Wizards past the Grizzlies 107-87.

“We didn’t want to come out here,” Wall said, “and lose to their reserves.”

Yet that’s what the Wizards were doing early, trailing by as many as nine points in the opening quarter, which ended with Memphis ahead 33-26, despite missing starters Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph and Mike Conley and key reserve Tony Allen. Only Conley, who twisted his right ankle in a loss at Boston on Wednesday night, sat because of an injury.

The others were out because Grizzlies coach David Joerger wanted them to rest, something Wall called “shocking to see.”

So was the way the Wizards played at the start.“Giving up 30 points in the first quarter, especially when they don’t

have their two big, leading-scorer, All-Star guys in,” said Washington’s Paul Pierce, “was kind of embarrassing to us.”

—From Special, Wire Reports

TodayAUTO RACING

2 p.m. — NASCAR, Sprint Cup, practice for CampingWorld.com 500, at Avondale, Arizona, FS13:30 p.m. — NASCAR, XFINITY Series, practice for Faster Tougher Brighter 200, at Avondale, Arizona, FS111:30 p.m. — Formula One, practice for Aus-tralia Grand Prix, at Melbourne (delayed tape), NBC Sports Network

BOXING8 p.m. — Welterweights, Shawn Porter (24-1-0) vs. Roberto Garcia (36-3-0); welterweights, Andre Berto (29-3-0) vs. Josesito Lopez (33-6-0), at Ontario, California, Spike9 p.m. — Bantamweights, Adam Lopez (9-0-0) vs. Pablo Cruz (11-0-0); super middleweights, Jerry Odom (12-1-0) vs. Andrew Hernandez (8-0-1); lightweights, Ismael Barroso (16-0-2) vs. Issouf Kinda (17-2-0); middleweights, Antoine Douglas (16-0-1) vs. Thomas LaManna (16-0-0), at Westbury, New York, Showtime

CYCLING10:30 p.m. — Paris-Nice, stage 5, Saint-Eti-enne to Rasteau, France (same-day tape), NBC Sports Network

GOLF5:30 a.m. — European PGA Tour, Tshwane Open, second round, at Pretoria, South Africa (same-day tape and live), TGC2 p.m. — PGA Tour, Valspar Championship, second round, at Palm Harbor, Florida, TGC

MEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL11 a.m. — Big Ten Conference, quarterfinal, Michigan vs. Wisconsin, at Chicago, Illinois, ESPN11 a.m. — American Athletic Conference, quarterfinal, East Carolina vs. SMU, at Hart-ford, Connecticut, ESPN211 a.m. — Atlantic 10 Conference, quarterfi-nal, La Salle v s. Davidson, at Brooklyn, New York, NBC Sports NetworkNoon — Southeastern Conference, quar-terfinal, Florida vs. Kentucky, at Nashville, Tennessee, SEC Network1 p.m. — Big Ten Conference, quarterfinal, Penn State vs. Purdue, at Chicago, Illinois, ESPN1 p.m. — American Athletic Conference, quarterfinal, Memphis vs. Temple, at Hartford, Connecticut, ESPN21:30 p.m. — Atlantic 10 Conference, quar-terfinal, VCU vs. Richmond, at Brooklyn, New York, NBC Sports Network2:30 p.m. — Southeastern Conference, quarterfinal, Auburn vs. LSU, at Nashville, Tennessee, SEC Network3 p.m. — Conference USA, semifinal, Middle Tennessee vs, UTEP, at Birmingham, Alabama, CBS Sports Network5:30 p.m. — Atlantic 10 Conference, quarter-final, St. Bonaventure vs. Dayton, at Brooklyn, New York, NBC Sports Network5:30 p.m. — Conference USA, semifinal, UAB vs. Louisiana Tech, at Birmingham, Alabama, CBS Sports Network6 p.m. — Atlantic Coast Conference, semifi-nal, North Carolina vs. Virginia, at Greensboro, North Carolina, ESPN6 p.m. — Big 12 Conference, semifinal, Baylor

vs. Kansas, at Kansas City, Missouri, ESPN26 p.m. — American Athletic Conference, quarterfinal, Houston vs. Tulsa, at Hartford, Connecticut, ESPNU6 p.m. — Big East Conference, semifinal, Providence vs. Villanova, at New York, FS16 p.m. — Southeastern Conference, quarter-final, Tennessee vs. Arkansas, at Nashville, Tennessee, SEC Network8 p.m. — Atlantic Coast Conference, semi-final, Notre Dame vs. Duke, at Greensboro, North Carolina, ESPN8 p.m. — Big 12 Conference, semifinal, Okla-homa vs. Iowa State, at Kansas City, Missouri, ESPN28 p.m. — American Athletic Conference, quarterfinal, Connecticut vs. Cincinnati, at Hartford, Connecticut, ESPNU8 p.m. — Atlantic 10 Conference, quarterfi-nal, George Washington vs. Rhode Island, at Brooklyn, New York, NBC Sports Network8 p.m. — Mountain West Conference, semi-final, Wyoming vs. Boise State, at Las Vegas, Nevada, CBS Sports Network8:30 p.m. — Big East Conference, semifinal, Xavier vs. Georgetown, at New York, FS18:30 p.m. — Southeastern Conference, quarterfinal, South Carolina vs. Georgia, at Nashville, Tennessee, SEC Network10:30 p.m. — Pac-12 Conference, semifinal, Utah vs. Oregon, at Las Vegas, Nevada, ESPN10:30 p.m. — Mountain West Conference, semifinal, Colorado State vs. San Diego State, at Las Vegas, Nevada, CBS Sports Network11 p.m. — Big West Conference, semifinal, UC Irvine vs. UCSB, at Anaheim, California, ESPNU

WOMEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL10 a.m. — Conference USA, semifinal, Southern Mississippi vs. Middle Tennessee, at Birmingham, Alabama, CBS Sports Network12:30 p.m. — Conference USA, semifinal, Old Dominion vs. Western Kentucky, at Birming-ham, Alabama, CBS Sports Network

SaturdayAUTO RACING

10:30 a.m. — NASCAR, Sprint Cup, practice for CampingWorld.com 500, at Avondale, Arizona, FS111:30 a.m. — NASCAR, XFINITY Series, pole qualifying for Faster Tougher Brighter 200, at Avondale, Arizona, FS11:30 p.m. — NASCAR, Sprint Cup, “Happy Hour Series,” final practice for CampingWorld.com 500, at Avondale, Arizona, FS13 p.m. — NASCAR, XFINITY Series, Faster Tougher Brighter 200, at Avondale, Arizona, WLOV

BOXING8:45 p.m. — Light heavyweights, Isaac Chilemba (23-2-2) vs. Vasily Lepikhin (17-0-0); heavyweights, Vyacheslav Glazkov (19-0-1) vs. Steve Cunningham (28-6-0); champion Sergey Kovalev (26-0-1) vs. Jean Pascal (29-2-1), for WBO/IBF/WBA light heavyweight titles, at Montreal, HBO

COLLEGE BASEBALL4 p.m. — Auburn at Texas A&M, SEC Network7 p.m. — Ole Miss at LSU, SEC Network

COLLEGE SOFTBALLNoon — LSU at Florida, SEC Network

2 p.m. — Alabama at Georgia, SEC NetworkCYCLING

9 p.m. — Paris-Nice, stage 6, Vence to Nice, France (same-day tape), NBC Sports Network

GOLF5:30 a.m. — European PGA Tour, Tshwane Open, third round, at Pretoria, South Africa, TGCNoon — PGA Tour, Valspar Championship, third round, at Palm Harbor, Florida, TGC2 p.m. — PGA Tour, Valspar Championship, third round, at Palm Harbor, Florida, NBC Sports Network

MEN’S COLLEGE BASKETBALL10 a.m. — America East Conference, champi-onship, teams and site TBD, ESPN2Noon — Big Ten Conference, doubleheader, semifinals, teams TBD, at Chicago, WCBINoon — Southeastern Conference, semifinal, teams TBD, at Nashville, Tennessee, ESPNNoon — Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, championship, teams TBD, at Norfolk, Virginia, ESPN22 p.m. — Southeastern Conference, semifinal, teams TBD, at Nashville, Tennessee, ESPN2 p.m. — American Athletic Conference, semifinal, teams TBD, at Hartford, Connecti-cut, ESPN22:30 p.m. — Conference USA, championship, teams TBD, at Birmingham, Alabama, FS14 p.m. — American Athletic Conference, semifinal, teams TBD, at Hartford, Connecti-cut, ESPN25 p.m. — Mountain West Conference, champi-onship, teams TBD, at Las Vegas, WCBI5 p.m. — Big 12 Conference, championship, teams TBD, at Kansas City, Missouri, ESPN5:30 p.m. — Southwestern Athletic Confer-ence, championship, teams TBD, at Houston, ESPNU6:30 p.m. — Mid-American Conference, championship, teams TBD, at Cleveland, Ohio, ESPN27 p.m. — Big East Conference, championship, teams TBD, at New York, FS17:30 p.m. — Atlantic Coast Conference, championship, teams TBD, at Greensboro, North Carolina, ESPN8 p.m. — Big Sky Conference, championship, teams and site TBD, ESPNU8:30 p.m. — Southland Conference, champi-onship, teams TBD, at Katy, Texas, ESPN210 p.m. — Pac-12 Conference, championship, teams TBD, at Las Vegas, ESPN10 p.m. — Western Athletic Conference, championship, teams TBD, at Las Vegas, ESPNU10:30 p.m. — Big West Conference, cham-pionship, teams TBD, at Anaheim, California, ESPN2

NBA6 p.m. — Milwaukee at Memphis, SportSouth

NHL6 p.m. — Montreal at N.Y. Islanders, NBC Sports Network

SOCCER7:40 a.m. — Premier League, Queens Park at Crystal Palace, NBC Sports Network9:55 a.m. — Premier League, Arsenal at West Ham United, NBC Sports Network12:25 p.m. — Premier League, Manchester United at Burnley, NBC Sports Network

ON THE AIR

SHS boysContinued from Page 1B

took a shot and it went in. I saw it hang-ing there. I was like, ‘Please, please go in.’ “

Harris followed his layup with a steal near midcourt and another layup with 12.8 seconds remaining Thurs-day night that helped Starkville beat Meridian 53-47 in the semifinals of the Mississippi High School Activities As-sociation Class 6A State tournament at Mississippi Coliseum.

Starkville (25-5) will play Madison Central, which defeated Provine 45-37, at 8 p.m. Saturday for the Class 6A title.

Starkville, which beat Meridian 57-51 in 2010 to win the Class 6A state title for its last state championship in boys basketball, has beaten Madison Cen-tral twice in three meetings this sea-son. The Jaguars won the first game 59-52 on Jan. 23, but the Yellow Jack-ets won 71-58 on Feb. 6 and 78-53 on Feb. 20. The second win came in the title game of the Region 3 tournament in Starkville.

On Thursday, Starkville delivered another memorable performance.

“They made plays,” Starkville coach Greg Carter said. “The way Meridian plays, you’re not going to get a basket off something you drew up. You’re not going to come off screens and make shots. It ain’t going to be pretty. You just have to be able to go out there and make plays. We made enough plays to pull it out.

“We struggled at times with the trapping, but, for the most part, we handled it,” Carter said. “We panicked a little bit at the end. The last two or three minutes wasn’t like we normally are. We panicked a little bit. I think we will be fine.”Protecting a lead

Starkville equaled its biggest lead, 47-33, on an offensive rebound putback and free throw by Raphael Leonard (12 points, team-high nine rebounds) with 3 minutes, 44 seconds to play. But Meridian (27-7) turned up the inten-sity and forced four turnovers in the next 2:29 to get back into the game. A 3-pointer by Kenderrick Pringle (nine points) sliced Starkville’s lead to 47-43 with 1:32 remaining.

That basket set the stage for Harris’ first basket. After Starkville survived the heart-stopping moment with the basketball hanging on the rim, Har-ris did himself one better with anoth-er game-winning play. This time, he threw himself into the fray with two Meridian players and went high to tip a 50-50 ball.

“When I tipped the ball I just knew I had it,” said Harris, who joined guard Tyson Carter with eight points. “All I

had to do was make the layup, and I did.”

Harris said he tipped the ball over one of the players who were near mid-court. His layup gave Starkville a 51-45 lead with 12.8 seconds to play and came after a turnover and two misses that could have helped the Yellow Jack-ets put the game away.

Meridian’s Brandon Miller (team-high 16 points) answered with two free throws with 4.5 seconds to go, but Josh Skinner (team-high 14 points) sealed the deal with two free throws with 2.2 seconds left.

“We played hard,” Harris said. “Coach (Carter) always tells us to de-fend and rebound, and we did it. We played hard today. It means a lot to play for a state title. I just can’t wait to play.”

Starkville beat Meridian 63-57 on Nov. 15, 1014. The rematch appeared to be in the Yellow Jackets’ control for much of the evening. Skinner (5 of 9 from the field, including 2 of 3 from 3-point range) led a balanced scoring effort that also saw center Jesse Little (11 points, eight rebounds) reach dou-ble figures.Carter leads at point

Carter, who played all 32 minutes, had a team-high five assists to lead six players who had an assist. That teamwork helped Starkville finish with more assists (14) than turnovers (13).

“We executed real well,” coach Car-ter said. “I thought we hurt their man so he had to go to something else. I didn’t think he would stay 2-3 zone, so I figured it would be trapping the rest of the way. In the second half, he may have played one possession of straight man. The rest of it was trapping defens-es.”

Carter said a key was having Leon-ard in the middle of the press-break-er. Once the Yellow Jackets worked through the initial wave and found Leonard, the 6-foot-3 senior forward used his strength and leaping ability to explode to the rim.

“We played against that type of de-fense most every game all year,” Leon-ard said. “They tell me when I catch the ball to face up and attack the goal.”

In the third quarter, Starkville ex-tended its lead to 38-27 on an offensive rebound follow by Leonard with 2:02 to go. That eight-minute stretch featured Starkville’s third charge taken, solid half-court defense in which the Yellow Jackets moved their feet and switched assignments, and patience on offense to take the best shot available, not the first shot given to them.

Starkville twice led by eight points once in the first quarter and twice by

eight in the second quarter. The Yel-low Jackets spread the floor and were content to pass the ball back and forth as the Wildcats sat back and tried to trap when the ball went to the wings. But Starkville was too quick and the defense was too passive, which allowed it to find openings in the center and at-tack the rim.

But Meridian picked up the pace in the second quarter. The Wildcats moved their front three players on de-fense up just inside of halfcourt to meet the Yellow Jackets as they advanced the basketball. The move energized Meridian and helped it force three turnovers in the final four minutes. The last two — a traveling call as a re-sult of the trap and a 10-second call in which the Yellow Jackets were too slow getting it into the frontcourt — were unforced and enabled the Wildcats to trim the lead to 22-21 at halftime on a jump shot by Pringle.Making plays

Like coach Carter said, though, Starkville had players in the right po-sitions and enough of those players made things happen to overcome the turnovers down the stretch. The final stat sheet reflected the number of play-ers who contributed to a 44.7-percent shooting effort from the field and a 36-25 rebounding edge Meridian also was 2 of 18 from 3-point range.

Those numbers didn’t reflect Starkville’s ability to deliver a big play whenever it needed one. In the fourth quarter, Skinner had one such play when he didn’t hang his head af-ter a turnover at midcourt. Meridian couldn’t convert the layup at the oth-er end and ultimately paid the price as Skinner drained a 3-pointer from the left wing to give Starkville its first 14-point lead (43-29) of the quarter.

“I just wanted to step up and make shots and be a leader for the team,” Skinner said. “I was just thinking, ‘Let it go,’ and hopefully it would go in.’ “

Skinner’s play was just one example of the teamwork and balance Leonard said have been keys for the Yellow Jack-ets all season, so he wasn’t surprised to see them be key ingredients one more time.

“That is what makes us a whole team,” Leonard said. “We don’t really rely on one person to win us the game. We believe anybody on the court can make a basket or a defensive stop, so we rely on everybody to help the team out and win.”

On this night, a little body language didn’t hurt, either.

Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor


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BaseballContinued from Page 1B

their last six games, and have averaged just three runs per game during that stretch.

Now, on the heels of a 3-1 loss to Western Kentucky, MSU turns the page to the most im-portant part of the sea-son when Southeastern Conference play begins tonight.

The opponent for MSU (15-4) will be an expe-rienced Alabama (9-6) team that’s also looking to start SEC play on the right foot.

For MSU coach John Cohen, the transition from non-conference ac-tion to league play can be stark. It can also be an op-portunity for the Bulldogs to shake off their recent doldrums.

“They’ll be ready to play against a really good Alabama club,” said Co-hen. “Alabama is really experienced, they are an

older team with a ton of upperclassmen. It will be another Friday night in the SEC when it’s a close game and you have to find ways to manufacture runs to win a ball game.”

That has been an issue for the Bulldogs lately, as MSU has scored just 10 runs in its four losses. Those struggles were especially prevalent in the loss to WKU, when the Bulldogs were a com-bined 1-for-12 with run-ners in scoring position and stranded 11 runners on base.

“Every little mistake is magnified when you can’t score,” said Cohen. “We just need to come out and compete a little harder than we have been at the plate.”

Pitching hasn’t been a problem for MSU, as the Bulldogs have limited opponents to three runs or less in 14 of their 19

games this season.One player who has

factored into that has been starting pitcher Preston Brown (3-1, 1.93 earned run average). He will get the Friday night start against Alabama, and he will face senior lefthander Taylor Guil-beau (2-1, 2.67).

“Our pitching has been great,” said Rea. “We have total confidence in our guys on the bump. We have guys going up and putting up good numbers, giving us a chance every single ball game.”

First picth for the MSU-Alabama series opener is tonight at 6:30 p.m. Game 2 will follow on Saturday at 2 p.m. and the series finale is scheduled for Sunday at 1 p.m.

Follow Dispatch sports writer Brandon Walker on Twitter @BWonStateBeat

BasketballMen’s Major

College ScoresTOURNAMENTS

American Athletic ConferenceFirst Round

East Carolina 81, UCF 80, OTHouston 66, Tulane 60UConn 69, South Florida 43

Atlantic 10 ConferenceSecond Round

George Washington 73, Duquesne 55La Salle 76, UMass 69St. Bonaventure 60, Saint Joseph’s 49VCU 63, Fordham 57

Atlantic Coast ConferenceQuarterfinals

Duke 77, NC State 53North Carolina 70, Louisville 60Notre Dame 70, Miami 63Virginia 58, Florida St. 44

Big 12 ConferenceQuarterfinals

Baylor 80, West Virginia 70Iowa St. 69, Texas 67Kansas 64, TCU 59Oklahoma 64, Oklahoma St. 49

Big East ConferenceQuarterfinals

Georgetown 60, Creighton 55Providence 74, St. John’s 57Villanova 84, Marquette 49Xavier 67, Butler 61, OT

Big Sky ConferenceFirst Round

E. Washington 91, Idaho 83Montana 76, Weber St. 73, OTN. Arizona 63, N. Colorado 57Sacramento St. 70, Portland St. 60

Big Ten ConferenceSecond Round

Indiana 71, Northwestern 56Michigan 73, Illinois 55Ohio St. 79, Minnesota 73Penn St. 67, Iowa 58

Big West ConferenceFirst Round

Hawaii 79, Long Beach St. 72UC Davis 71, CS Northridge 67UC Irvine 63, UC Riverside 54UC Santa Barbara 54, Cal Poly 50

Conference USAQuarterfinals

Louisiana Tech 70, Rice 64Middle Tennessee 59, Old Dominion 52UAB 53, W. Kentucky 52UTEP 83, FIU 71

Mid-American ConferenceThird Round

Akron 53, Kent St. 51Toledo 78, E. Michigan 67

Mid-Eastern Athletic ConferenceQuarterfinals

Delaware St. 65, Howard 60Hampton 76, Md.-Eastern Shore 71

Mountain West ConferenceQuarterfinals

Boise St. 80, Air Force 68Colorado State 71, Fresno State 59San Diego St. 67, UNLV 64Wyoming 67, Utah St. 65

Pacific-12 ConferenceQuarterfinals

Arizona 73, California 51Oregon 93, Colorado 85UCLA 96, Southern Cal 70Utah 80, Stanford 56

Southeastern ConferenceSecond Round

Auburn 66, Texas A&M 59Florida 69, Alabama 61South Carolina 60, Mississippi 58Tennessee 67, Vanderbilt 61

Southland ConferenceSecond Round

Northwestern St. 96, McNeese St. 89Texas A&M-CC 61, New Orleans 58

Southwestern Athletic ConferenceQuarterfinals

Prairie View 62, Jackson St. 56Southern U. 64, Alabama A&M 60

Sun Belt ConferenceFirst Round

South Alabama 57, UALR 55Texas St. 68, Texas-Arlington 62

Western Athletic ConferenceFirst Round

CS Bakersfield 55, Utah Valley 40Seattle 49, Chicago St. 45UMKC 70, Texas-Pan American 61

Florida 69, Alabama 61 ALABAMA (18-14): Norris 3-7 0-0 8, Taylor 6-10 3-6 15, Randolph 2-7 11-11 15, Cooper 4-7 4-5 13, Obasohan 4-7 1-1 10, Kessens 0-2 0-0 0, Coleman 0-1 0-0 0, Mitchell 0-0 0-0 0, Slaughter 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 19-42 19-23 61. FLORIDA (16-16): Hill 1-1 0-2 2, Car-ter 4-10 1-1 11, Finney-Smith 7-14 5-7 23, Chiozza 2-3 2-3 7, Horford 2-3 0-0 4, Rob-inson 2-3 5-6 10, Murphy 2-4 3-4 7, Frazier II 1-10 2-3 5, C. Walker 0-1 0-0 0, Kurtz 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-49 18-26 69. Halftime—Florida 33-29. 3-Point Goals—Alabama 4-14 (Norris 2-5, Oba-sohan 1-2, Cooper 1-3, Slaughter 0-1, Kessens 0-1, Randolph 0-2), Florida 9-29 (Finney-Smith 4-9, Carter 2-6, Chiozza 1-1, Robinson 1-2, Frazier II 1-8, Horford 0-1, Murphy 0-2). Fouled Out—Cooper, Obasohan. Rebounds—Alabama 24

(Norris 7), Florida 35 (Finney-Smith 11). Assists—Alabama 9 (Randolph 4), Florida 11 (Chiozza 4). Total Fouls—Alabama 20, Florida 20. A—NA.

Auburn 66, T-A&M 59 AUBURN (14-19): Harrell 5-11 11-14 25, Bowers 4-6 2-6 10, Ross-Miller 1-4 5-7 8, Lang 2-6 0-0 5, Granger 2-4 1-2 5, Can-ada 1-6 4-4 7, Mason 2-9 0-3 5, Thompson 0-4 1-2 1, Waddell 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-50 24-38 66. TEXAS A&M (20-11): Green 2-2 1-2 6, Jones 2-7 1-2 5, Roberson 2-3 0-1 4, Caruso 2-10 5-6 11, Allen 2-6 4-6 9, Robinson 4-7 3-4 11, Miller 0-0 0-0 0, Tro-cha-Morelos 1-2 0-0 2, Fitzgerald 3-6 0-0 7, Space 2-4 0-0 4. Totals 20-47 14-21 59. Halftime—Texas A&M 33-23. 3-Point Goals—Auburn 8-25 (Harrell 4-6, Canada 1-3, Ross-Miller 1-3, Lang 1-4, Mason 1-5, Thompson 0-2, Granger 0-2), Texas A&M 5-19 (Caruso 2-5, Green 1-1, Fitzgerald 1-2, Allen 1-5, Robinson 0-1, Space 0-2, Jones 0-3). Fouled Out—Green, Lang. Rebounds—Auburn 35 (Bowers 8), Texas A&M 38 (Roberson 12). Assists—Auburn 12 (Ross-Miller 4), Texas A&M 10 (Caruso, Robinson 4). Total Fouls—Auburn 22, Tex-as A&M 27. Technical—Bowers. A—NA.

Tennessee 67, Vandy 61 TENNESSEE (16-15): Punter 3-9 2-3 9, Richardson 8-16 6-6 22, Hubbs III 6-13 1-2 16, Moore 0-6 0-0 0, Reese 2-4 1-2 6, Owens 0-1 0-0 0, Mostella 0-0 0-0 0, Car-michael III 1-1 0-0 2, Baulkman 4-9 2-2 12. Totals 24-59 12-15 67. VANDERBILT (19-13): Baldwin IV 6-11 2-2 16, Fisher-Davis 2-9 0-0 6, LaChance 5-10 0-0 11, Jones 7-11 4-7 18, Siakam 1-2 0-1 2, Mitchell 1-2 1-3 4, Kornet 0-4 2-2 2, Roberson 0-0 2-2 2. Totals 22-49 11-17 61. Halftime—Vanderbilt 38-32. 3-Point Goals—Tennessee 7-25 (Hubbs III 3-7, Baulkman 2-5, Reese 1-2, Punter 1-5, Moore 0-1, Richardson 0-5), Vanderbilt 6-26 (Baldwin IV 2-6, Fisher-Davis 2-9, Mitchell 1-2, LaChance 1-5, Kornet 0-4). Fouled Out—Baldwin IV. Rebounds—Ten-nessee 33 (Reese 7), Vanderbilt 33 (Jones 15). Assists—Tennessee 11 (Punter 4), Vanderbilt 14 (Baldwin IV 5). Total Fouls—Tennessee 17, Vanderbilt 15. A—NA.

USC 60, Ole Miss 58 SOUTH CAROLINA (17-15): Thorn-well 4-12 1-4 10, Johnson 0-5 5-5 5, No-tice 3-13 6-6 15, Chatkevicius 2-8 3-4 7, Carrera 5-10 5-9 16, Stroman 2-4 0-0 4, McKie 1-2 0-0 3, Kacinas 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 17-56 20-28 60. MISSISSIPPI (20-12): Newby 1-2 2-3 4, Rhett 1-3 0-0 2, Saiz 2-7 0-0 4, Sum-mers 3-10 8-8 15, Moody 3-15 1-3 8, Smith 1-4 0-0 3, White 4-8 5-5 17, Perez 1-2 0-0 2, Coleby 0-2 3-4 3, Jones 0-0 0-0 0. To-tals 16-53 19-23 58. Halftime—South Carolina 27-24. 3-Point Goals—South Carolina 6-20 (No-tice 3-8, McKie 1-1, Carrera 1-3, Thornwell 1-5, Kacinas 0-1, Johnson 0-2), Mississip-pi 7-20 (White 4-6, Smith 1-1, Summers 1-4, Moody 1-7, Saiz 0-1, Perez 0-1). Fouled Out—Coleby. Rebounds—South Carolina 33 (Chatkevicius, Thornwell 7), Mississippi 44 (Rhett, Saiz 7). Assists—South Carolina 8 (Johnson 5), Mississippi 10 (Moody 3). Total Fouls—South Carolina 18, Mississippi 21. A—NA.

P. View 62, JSU 56 JACKSON ST. (11-21): Specks 1-8 0-0 3, Worsham 6-16 4-8 16, Brent 3-11 0-0 9, Robinson 0-1 0-0 0, Middleton 6-11 3-4 16, D. Taylor 5-10 0-0 10, Queary 1-1 0-0 2, Bernard 0-4 0-0 0, Bolden 0-0 0-2 0. Totals 22-62 7-14 56. PRAIRIE VIEW (15-17): Hagood 7-13 5-8 20, Brisco 3-9 0-0 7, York 3-7 2-2 8, Scott 5-11 6-6 19, Onwukamuche 3-3 0-0 6, Green 0-0 0-0 0, Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, Lo-max 0-0 0-0 0, Hamilton 1-3 0-0 2, Wilson 0-0 0-0 0, Dobbs 0-3 0-1 0. Totals 22-49 13-17 62. Halftime—Prairie View 35-26. 3-Point Goals—Jackson St. 5-19 (Brent 3-11, Middleton 1-2, Specks 1-4, Worsham 0-2), Prairie View 5-13 (Scott 3-6, Hagood 1-2, Brisco 1-4, York 0-1). Fouled Out—Specks. Rebounds—Jackson St. 47 (Wor-sham 17), Prairie View 28 (Onwukamuche 5). Assists—Jackson St. 14 (Specks 5), Prairie View 11 (Hagood 5). Total Fouls—Jackson St. 20, Prairie View 15. A—NA.

Top 25 FaredThursday

x-must win today’s game to advance1. Kentucky (31-0) did not play. Next: vs. Florida, Friday.2. Duke (29-3) beat N.C. State 77-53. Next: vs. No. 11 Notre Dame, Friday.3. Virginia (29-2) beat Florida State 58-44. Next: vs. No. 19 North Carolina, Friday.4. Villanova (30-2) beat Marquette 84-49. Next: vs. Providence, Friday.5. Arizona (29-3) beat California 73-51. Next: vs. UCLA, Friday.6. Wisconsin (28-3) did not play. Next: vs. Michigan, Friday.7. Gonzaga (32-2) did not play. Next: NCAA Tournament.8. Maryland (26-5) did not play. Next: vs.

Indiana, Friday.9. Kansas (25-7) beat TCU 64-59. Next: vs. No. 16 Baylor, Friday.10. Northern Iowa (30-3) did not play. Next: NCAA Tournament.11. Notre Dame (27-5) beat Miami 70-63. Next: vs. No. 2 Duke, Friday.12. Wichita State (28-4) did not play. Next: TBA.13. Iowa State (23-8) beat Texas 69-67. Next: vs. No. 15 Oklahoma, Friday.14. Louisville (24-8) lost to No. 19 North Carolina 70-60. Next: TBA.15. Oklahoma (22-9) beat Oklahoma State 64-49. Next: vs. No. 13 Iowa State, Friday.16. Baylor (24-8) beat No. 18 West Virginia 80-70. Next: vs. No. 9 Kansas, Friday.17. Utah (24-7) beat Stanford 80-56. Next: vs. Oregon, Friday.18. West Virginia (23-9) lost to No. 16 Bay-lor 80-70. Next: TBA.19. North Carolina (23-10) beat No. 14 Louisville 70-60. Next: vs. No. 3 Virginia, Friday.20. SMU (24-6) did not play. Next: vs. East Carolina, Friday.21. Arkansas (24-7) did not play. Next: vs. Tennessee, Friday.22. Butler (22-10) lost to Xavier 67-61. Next: TBA.23. Georgetown (21-9) beat Creighton 60-55. Next: vs. Xavier, Friday.24. Davidson (23-6) did not play. Next: vs. La Salle, Friday.25. Boise State (25-7) beat Air Force 80-68. Next: vs. Wyoming, Friday.

Women’s MajorCollege Scores

TOURNAMENTSColonial Athletic Association

First RoundDelaware 73, Northeastern 61Towson 79, Coll. of Charleston 70

Conference USAQuarterfinals

Middle Tennessee 77, Louisiana Tech 58Old Dominion 63, UTSA 49Southern Miss. 80, UAB 66W. Kentucky 70, Charlotte 67

Mid-American ConferenceThird Round

Buffalo 63, W. Michigan 60E. Michigan 95, Akron 66

Mid-Eastern Athletic ConferenceQuarterfinals

NC A&T 75, Bethune-Cookman 54Norfolk St. 67, Howard 55

Missouri Valley ConferenceFirst Round

Evansville 55, Illinois St. 51Loyola of Chicago 67, Bradley 55

Southland ConferenceFirst Round

Houston Baptist 70, McNeese St. 68Northwestern St. 63, Cent. Arkansas 49

Southwestern Athletic ConferenceQuarterfinals

Alabama St. 65, Grambling St. 62Prairie View 66, Alcorn St. 59

Top 25 FaredWednesday

1. UConn (32-1) did not play. Next: NCAA Tournament.2. Notre Dame (31-2) did not play. Next: NCAA Tournament.3. South Carolina (30-2) did not play. Next: NCAA Tournament.4. Maryland (30-2) did not play. Next: NCAA Tournament.5. Baylor (30-3) did not play. Next: NCAA Tournament.6. Tennessee (27-5) did not play. Next: TBA.7. Florida State (29-4) did not play. Next: TBA.8. Louisville (25-6) did not play. Next: TBA.9. Arizona State (27-5) did not play. Next: TBA.10. Oregon State (26-4) did not play. Next: TBA.11. Kentucky (23-9) did not play. Next: TBA.12. Mississippi State (26-6) did not play. Next: TBA.13. Princeton (30-0) did not play. Next: NCAA Tournament.14. Stanford (24-9) did not play. Next: NCAA Tournament.15. North Carolina (24-8) did not play. Next: TBA.16. Duke (21-10) did not play. Next: TBA.17. Chattanooga (29-3) did not play. Next: NCAA Tournament.18. Iowa (24-7) did not play. Next: TBA.19. George Washington (29-3) did not play. Next: NCAA Tournament.20. Florida Gulf Coast (29-2) beat Jack-sonville 62-42. Next: vs. Northern Ken-tucky, Sunday.21. Texas A&M (23-9) did not play. Next: TBA.22. Northwestern (23-8) did not play. Next: TBA.23. Ohio State (23-10) did not play. Next: TBA.24. Seton Hall (28-5) did not play. Next: TBA.25. California (24-9) did not play. Next: TBA.

SoftballContinued from Page 1B

started and ended some-thing for her team at the same time.

The sophomore catch-er’s first home run of the season lifted MSU to an 8-7 win over then-No. 8 Georgia in the final game of a Southeastern Confer-ence series Sunday at the MSU Softball Field.

Down 4-0, MSU ral-lied with two runs in the seventh and Bailey’s game-winner to avoid a three-game sweep and to also notch the team’s second win of the season against a ranked oppo-nent.

“It says so much to be down 4-0 and not pack the bags,” Bailey said. “A lot of teams would have packed up and gone home, espe-cially young teams. How-ever, we are not like most teams. After the two loss-es to start the weekend, we really needed some-

thing good to happen. All of a sudden we got some things going and the con-fidence was back at a real-ly high level.”

MSU (18-5, 1-2 SEC) will carry that confidence into its second straight weekend series against a ranked opponent. No. 19 Texas A&M (20-5, 2-1 SEC) comes to Starkville for a three-game SEC se-ries this weekend, begin-ning today at 5:30 p.m.

“After being rained out twice this week, are real-ly anxious to play again,” Bailey said. “We are play-ing at home and we know our fans will come out and support us. Texas A&M is another really good oppo-nent. We approach each series like it’s a regional weekend. We are going to do our best to win two or three games.”

MSU had a couple of threats early but failed

to score off Georgia ace Chelsea Wilkinson in a 6-1 defeat Friday night. However, the Bulldogs took notes and left the sta-dium with confidence.

“We knew we were re-ally close,” Bailey said. “We had some good at-bats and left some run-ners on base. I think we really had confidence go-ing into Sunday, because we knew we would face her again.”

In the final game of the series, MSU touched Wilkinson for 12 hits and eight runs. The Bulldogs have now collected 10 or more hits in nine games this season.

“Really, it’s everybody on the team,” Bailey said. “Once we got a couple of hits to fall, everybody started believing. “

Follow Dispatch Sports Writer Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott.

RebelsContinued from Page 1C

But Johnson drew contact from LaDar-ius White with 0.7 seconds left and went to the line for three free throws that he calmly made to give South Carolina a wild 60-58 victory Thursday night in the Southeastern Conference tournament.

Martin never had a doubt something could happen. Johnson certainly didn’t flinch with the ball in his hands.

“My job was just to get the ball off,” said Johnson, who went 5 for 5 for his only points in the game. “I saw that it was about 1.3 seconds on the clock and I saw him coming in hard and I just jumped up and he fouled me. ...

“That was my job. Just ice the free throws and we won the game.”

White didn’t think it was a foul, but said when he heard the whistle that his thought was “fail. That’s it. Failure.”

Stefan Moody’s desperation shot that followed wasn’t close and came too late for the No. 6 seed Rebels, whose postseason chances took a hit.

The 11th-seeded Gamecocks (17-15) advanced to face No. 3 seed Georgia in Friday’s quarterfinal.

“So, so proud of the guys that wear the garnet and black,” Martin said. “Just their fight, their resolve, their unwillingness to give in regardless of the situations that the game presented to us.”

Michael Carrera scored 16 points, Duane Notice added 15 and Sindarius Thornwell 10 for South Carolina, which won on a ragged night in which both teams shot 30 percent.

In fact, free throws were more the sto-ry than baskets on each bench.

That was just fine for the Gamecocks, who made three more from the line (20) than the field (17) and kept their season alive with their third straight win.

White led Mississippi (20-12) with 17 points while Summers added 15.

n Florida 69, Alabama 61: If noth-ing else, Dorian Finney-Smith helped extend Florida’s roller-coaster season an-other day.

Granted, the odds work against it last-ing beyond Friday’s huge Southeastern Conference tournament quarterfinal challenge against top-ranked and unbeat-en Kentucky. But the Gators at least get a third shot at the Wildcats thanks to their junior forward’s all-around play.

Finney-Smith had 23 points and 11 re-bounds and Florida overcame a slow start to make nine 3-pointers and beat Alabama 69-61 on Thursday. Finney-Smith made 4 of 9 from long range to help them shake off an eight-point first half deficit and eventually build a double-digit lead in the second half.

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The DispaTch • www.cdispatch.com FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2015 5B

Comics & PuzzlesDear AbbyDILBERT

ZITS

GARFIELD

CANDORVILLE

BABY BLUES

BEETLE BAILEY

MALLARD FILMORE

FOR SOLUTION SEE THECROSSWORD PUZZLE

IN CLASSIFIEDS

FAMILY CIRCUS

TODAY’S BIRTHDAY (March 13). The next three months are a makeover for your life. You’ll fix the both-ersome parts and celebrate three distinct wins. In June, a quest will take you to gorgeous locations where you’ll connect with interesting people. July brings a disruption to your plans, and the result you get in August will make it all worth-while. Capricorn and Scorpio people adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 40, 33, 1, 14 and 18.

ARIES (March 21-April 19). Integrate your talents instead of choosing between them. Anyone who tries to limit your activities isn’t being a friend right now, because you have the ability to do several things at once.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20). There is no success with-out failure. No one feels good without the contrast of feeling bad. If you keep your attitude

on track with the positive, the contrasts in this day will only make you stronger.

GEMINI (May 21-June 21). You build your reputation with each action you take. Little by little, day by day, your legacy is coming together. Tonight, someone new to your situation will give you a fresh point of view.

CANCER (June 22-July 22). You don’t want to “cry wolf,” and yet, in order to truly understand the strength of your support system, you have to put it to the test. Implement some version of a fire alarm.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). Follow an orderly process, and you’ll be lucky. It will require more preparation than you think. In fact, most of the day will be spent in preparation for something that will unfold in less than an hour.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). Heed the physical manifesta-tion of hesitancy: a tightness

in the throat and chest and/or a heaviness in the arms. While your ambition tries to push you forward, your intuition may hold you back.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). We all think things that should not be said out loud, but some people haven’t developed the social filter necessary to keep conversation polite. Luckily, your friends have you to keep them in check.

SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). You love your family today, and you’ll treat most people you meet like they are a part of it. Domestic projects will be lucky, as will anything to do with feeding your people.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). What’s in your mind cannot be observed by anyone else, and today that’s a good thing, because you’re working on what truly belongs to you. Don’t share it. The world isn’t ready for it yet.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Wishes are not goals, but if you add a timeline, they will be. Tonight features an unexplainable spiritual bond. In the upcoming weeks, you’ll become more and more convinced that you belong together.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). Your enthusiasm is catching. Your joy needs no qualifiers. It will open people up and make them feel like unleashing their own natural exuberance.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). You’ll get better results when you ease up on yourself. Approve of yourself with that same generous approval you so readily give to others. Tonight will bring the end of a struggle.

Horoscopes

DEAR ABBY: My husband and I were

close friends with another couple, seeing them once or twice a week. Then we had to move away from our hometown because of a job opportunity. We tried to stay in touch, but predictably were not as close as when we were neighbors.

A few months ago, we were able to move back home, and we have been trying to revive the friendship. We have invited them to dinner three times only to be told: “We have commitments

this week, and next week is cra-zy at work. Let’s try to get togeth-er next month when things calm down.” But there was no follow-up.

They do travel a lot, have small children and de-manding jobs, so it’s hard to know if the delays are real or if they aren’t interested in being friends any longer. How

much do we try before feeling we’re annoying them and giving up? — BACK HOME IN OHIO

DEAR BACK HOME: Do as your friends suggested and give them a call in a month or

six weeks. If they are still un-available, say, “OK. Then the ball is in your court,” and see if they follow up. And if they don’t, then realize it’s time to give up. When you moved away, they moved on.

DEAR ABBY: As a Valen-tine surprise, my boyfriend of two years presented me with a donation he had made in my name to his favorite charity. I thought it was impersonal and it hurt my feelings. Am I wrong to think he really doesn’t care much for me? — ROSE-LESS IN NORTH CAROLINA

DEAR ROSE-LESS: Let me put it this way, your boyfriend isn’t very good when it comes to gift selection. Many men aren’t. But more important than candy or flowers is how he treats you the other 364 days of the year, and that’s how you should judge him.

Dear Abby

YoungContinued from Page 1B

“At practice, the coaches al-ways tell me to look up and have vision of the court and to always look up when I dribble. When I got the ball, I looked up and scanned the floor and saw him running down and just threw it ahead to him, and he had a lane to the goal.”

Young hopes to find plen-ty of other lanes to the goal at 4 p.m. today when Aberdeen (25-6) takes on two-time reign-ing Class 3A champion Velma Jackson in the Mississippi High School Activities Association Class 3A championship at Mis-sissippi Coliseum.

Don’t be fooled by Young’s court vision, though, because he isn’t only a passer. He showed a balanced floor game against Forest, hitting 5 of 8 shots from the field, including 2 of 4 from 3-point range. His big-gest field goal might have come

in the fourth quarter with Aber-deen leading 43-40. With For-est’s defensive intensity rising, Young beat his defender off the dribble into the lane and scored with 4 minutes, 20 seconds re-maining to kick the Bulldogs’ lead to five points.Strong under pressure

Aberdeen High coach Ja-worski Rankin said Young has handled the pressure of leading a team. He said Young has the speed and quickness to pen-etrate and draw defenses so he can lay the ball off to team-mates for easy layups. Rankin also said Young has the shoot-ing ability to keep defenses hon-est, which enables Aberdeen to exploit one-on-one matchups with scorers like Carouthers. He said Young has improved “tremendously” since the be-ginning of the season.

“His confidence is growing,” Rankin said. “You take a kid that never played last year and he is leading us to a state cham-pionship game. That is from the hard work he put in every day. He takes coaching. We get on him pretty bad. I know I get on him pretty bad, but he keeps re-sponding. That is a reflection of his maturity and growth.”

Young said it wasn’t hard taking over at point guard, but he acknowledged there was a lot of pressure and that there were times during the season he felt it affect him. He said Rankin and his coaches told him to calm down and to play his game and get the basketball to the team’s scorers.

“Early in the season, a lit-tle bit (of the pressure) hit me when we played great teams,” Young said. “I got used to the pressure as the season went

on. I played point guard when I was little, so I just had to go out there and play.”

Young credits former Mis-sissippi State guard Phil Turn-er, who is an assistant coach at Aberdeen High, for working with him last summer and pres-suring him to help prepare him for this season.Scoring threat

Carouthers, the team’s lead-ing scorer, had a game-high 25 points against Forest, while Young and Trent Davis (13 re-bounds) had 12 points. Young also had two assists and two steals in playing all 32 min-utes. He had five turnovers, but he didn’t allow any of the giveaways, including some that came against pressure defense, to deter him from his mission of leading the team to the state title game.

Today, Young said he will try to see the court and to distrib-ute the ball in a similar fashion to keep Aberdeen clicking. If needed, he said he will do his part shooting, too, to stretch the defense and to help the Bull-dogs realize the goal they set at the beginning of the season.

Young said he will do all of those things with his head up so he knows where he is going and where all of his teammates are on the court at all times.

“It makes me feel good to see how much I have improved,” Young said. “I have improved a lot because at first (I wasn’t keeping my head up and seeing the floor). I was doing it, but I wasn’t doing it excellent. Now I see the point of it and now I am doing it every time.”

Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor


Total amount enclosed $ _______ Check ______ Cash ______Please make checks payable to the American Cancer Society.

For more information contact Mevela Andrews at 241-7180 or 242-0459

Luminaria Order FormMinimum Contribution: $10.00 per Luminaria

Your Name Please mail this formAddress and donation to:City American Cancer SocietyState/Zip c/o Mevela AndrewsPhone 233 Burgundy Drive Columbus, MS 39702

In Memory Of In Honor Of Name of Person Being Honored

The Lowndes County American Cancer SocietyRelay For Life will take place on Saturday, April 25, 2015 from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Columbus Soccer Complex.

At 7 p.m. there will be a special luminaria ceremony. It is aspecial way to remember our friends and loved ones who have been lost to cancer and celebrate the lives of those

who have won their battle or are still fighting.

You can support this effort by ordering a luminaria bag in memory or honor of your friends or loved

ones. Simply fill out the order form below, enclose $10 for each name and mail it to the address listed

on the form. The night of Relay the track will be lined with these bags. We invite you to come to Relay and

be a part of this special ceremony.

Send in your church event!

email [email protected]

Subject: Religious brief

Women’s supportThe Frank P. Phillips YMCA

invites women to join us for encouragement, support, and fellowship at Unshackled: Women’s Support Group, each Friday from 7-9 p.m. in the YMCA art room.

Radio programPat Douglas invites the

public to tune in to WTWG radio, 1050 AM for Yes Lord Ministries, Sundays 9:15-9:45 a.m.

Prayer ministryNew Beginning Everlasting

Outreach Ministry invites the public to call in with their prayer requests at 662-327-9843.

Praise and worship service

Sulphur Springs MB Church will have a praise and worship service the last Friday of each month at 7 p.m. For informa-tion, call Pastor Henry Mosley at 662-328-1035.

Annual state confer-ence

The 21st annual state conference-MS Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship, Inc will be held March 11-13, at 7 p.m. nightly. Speakers are Rev. Dwayne K. Pickett Sr, Rev. Linda K. Willis and Rev. Victor S. Couzens Sr.

Spring revivalNew Hope MB Church

in Woodland will have their annual spring revival, March 11-13 at 7 p.m. nightly. Rev. Christopher A. Mays of Sand Creek Chapel in Starkville will be the guest evangelist. For in-formation, call 662-456-4120 or 662-386-4621.

Men’s conferenceNow Faith Center will hold

a men’s conference with speakers from various church-es in the GTA, March 13-14, at 6 p.m. nightly. For information, contact Rev. Aaron Pulsifer at 662-435-9619.

Founders dayThe Zeta Amicae Auxiliary

of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc. will have their annual founders day at Mt. Zion MB Church, March 14 at 1 p.m. Speakers are Melodie Cunningham, CeCilia Mattews and Meretha Gardner.

AnniversaryThe Mississippi Traveling

Star’s celebrate their 72 an-niversary, March 14 at 7 p.m. at Third Baptist in Starkville, March 15 at 2:30 p.m. at Brownridge MB Church and 7 p.m. at Pine Grove Church in Bluff Lake.

Pastor appreciationShiloh Full Gospel Baptist

Church host their 25th appre-ciation program for Bishop Freddie and First Lady Willie Mae Edwards, March 15 at 3 p.m. For information, call 662-327-9575 or 662-574-6436.

Pastor anniversaryFourth Street MB Church

celebrates Rev. Rice 20th anniversary, March 15 at 3 p.m. Rev. Larnzy Carpenter of First Baptist Longview Church in Starkville will be the guest speaker.

Men and women’s dayEl Bethel MB Church host

their men and women’s day, March 15 at 3 p.m. Rev. Fred-erick Carter of New Hope MB Church of Woodland.

Usher board programBible Way Progressive

Church of God in Christ will have their annual usher board program, March 15 at 2 p.m. Rev. Bobby Sanders of Zion Hill MB Church will be the guest minister.

HomecomingReform Free Will Baptist

Church will have their home-coming, March 15 at 1 p.m.

The Songs Of Faith will be the guest entertainment. For infor-mation, call (205) -399-7224.

Spring revivalPleasant Grove Robinson

MB Church, Starkville holds their spring revival, March 18-20 at 7 p.m. nightly. Rev. Willie Manning, associate pastor of Peter Rock Church in Starkville will be the guest speaker.

Youth revivalThe youth ministry of Shi-

loh Full Gospel Baptist Church host their youth revival, March 18 at 7 p.m. Prophetess Cycelia Matthews of Kingdom Vision International Church will be the guest speaker. For in-formation, call 662-327-9575 or 662-574-6436.

Ministers meetingThe Northeast State

Baptist Convention Ministers Division will meet March 21 at 10 a.m. at Piney Grove MB Church. Breakfast will be served.

Capstone QuartetThe Capstone Quartet will

perform March 22 at 6 p.m. at St. Stephen United Methodist Church. For information, call Jimmy at 662-242-0623 or James at 662-549-9281.

Male chorus dayProvidence male choir will

be observe their 34th annual male chorus day, March 22 at 3 p.m.

Spring revivalFriendship MB Church

holds their spring revival, March 25-27 at 7 p.m. nightly. Rev. Jamal Wilson, associate minister will be the speaker.

Usher ministry union session

Reform Chapel MB Church in Ackerman host the usher ministry union session, March 27 at 6 p.m. Rev. Daisy V. Totton, associate pastor of Pleasant Grove Robinson MB Church in Starkville will be the guest minister.

RELIGIOUS BRIEFS

BY NICOLE WINFIELDThe Associated Press

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis marks his second anniversary Fri-day riding a wave of pop-ularity that has reinvigo-rated the Catholic Church in ways not seen since the days of St. John Paul II. He’s also entering a chal-lenging third year, facing dissent from within on everything from financial reform to family issues.

Is the honeymoon over?

According to the Pew Research Center, not by a long shot, at least as far as ordinary faithful are concerned: Nine out of 10 U.S. Catholics have a favorable view of Francis, including six in 10 who have a “very favorable” view. Those are rankings not seen since John Paul’s rock star days. And they trump the favorability ratings for Pope Benedict

XVI even a m o n g more or-t h o d o x , church-go -ing Catho-lics.

“ T w o years after his election, Francis has made the face of the papacy irrevers-ible,” Italian Vatican an-alyst Marco Politi wrote recently. “Returning to a doctrinaire, absolute monarch, icon-pope will never be possible, without a dramatic loss in contact with contemporary soci-

ety, believers and nonbe-lievers alike.”

Yet opposition abounds, most vocally among commentators but also some cardinals and bishops: Traditional-ist Catholics have been joined by more main-stream conservatives who cringe at his mer-cy-over-morals priorities and apparent willingness to entertain pastoral ap-proaches that might not follow Rome’s rulebook.

And two years on, he’s still an impossible-to-la-bel pontiff, a social jus-tice-minded Jesuit who

firmly upholds church doctrine on abortion, but willingly counsels trans-gender couples. He calls

himself a faithful son of the church but dismisses theologians as obstacles to evangelization.

Pope finds popularity and dissent at 2-year mark


CHICAGO — The Rev. Willie Barrow, a front-line civil rights fighter for decades and a mentor to younger generations of activists, died Thursday in Chicago. She was 90.

Barrow was a field orga-nizer for the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., marched on Washington and Sel-ma in the ‘60s and more recently focused concern on Chicago’s gun violence

and changes to the Voting Rights Act.

B a r r o w had been hospitalized for treat-ment of a blood clot in her lung and died ear-ly Thursday, said fellow activist the Rev. Michael Pfleger.

“She’s one of those icons in the movement we’ve

been able to hold onto for a long time, to learn from, to be loved by, to be chal-lenged by,” Pfleger said.

Barrow helped orga-nize sit-ins and boycotts in the South with civil rights icons including King, Rosa Parks and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy.

Alongside the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Barrow co-founded the Chica-go chapter of Operation Breadbasket, which would

become Operation PUSH.Around Chicago, she

was known to many as “godmother” or “mother” for the care she took to advise and inform younger activists.

Known as the “little warrior,” her short height belied a fiery, charismatic, tell-it-like-it-is attitude un-checked by either concern for political correctness or the stature of whomever she was addressing.

Rev. Willie Barrow, front-line civil rights fighter, dies

Nine out of 10 U.S. Catholics have a favorable view of Francis

Francis

Barrow

The Dispatch • www.cdispatch.com FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2015 7B

CLASSIFIEDS Phone: 662.328.2424 • Fax: [email protected]/classifieds

P.O. Box 511 • 516 Main StreetColumbus, MS 39701

0 Legals1000 Service1030 Air Conditioning & Heating1060 Appliance Repair1070 Asphalt & Paving1090 Automotive Services1120 Building & Remodeling1150 Carpeting/Flooring1180 Childcare1210 Chimney Cleaning1240 Contractors1250 Computer Services1270 Electrical1300 Excavating1320 Fitness Training1330 Furniture Repair & Refinishing1360 General Services1380 Housecleaning1390 Insulation1400 Insurance1410 Interior Decorators1440 Jewelry/Watch Repair1470 Lawn Care/Landscaping1500 Locksmiths1530 Machinery Repair1560 Mobile Home Services1590 Moving & Storage1620 Painting & Papering1650 Pest Control1680 Plumbing1710 Printing1740 Roofing & Guttering1770 Saws & Lawn Mowers

1780 Sitting with Elderly/Sick1790 Stump Removal1800 Swimming Pools1830 Tax Service1860 Tree Service1890 Upholstery1910 Welding

2000 Announcements2050 Card of Thanks2100 Fraternal & Lodge2150 Good Things To Eat2200 In Memorial2250 Instruction & School2300 Lost & Found2350 Personals2400 Special Notices2600 Travel/Entertainment

3000 Employment3050 Clerical & Office3100 Data Processing/ Computer3150 Domestic Help3170 Engineering3200 General Help Wanted3250 Management Positions3300 Medical/Dental3350 Opportunity Information3400 Part-Time3450 Positions Wanted3500 Professional3550 Restaurant/Hotel3600 Sales/Marketing3650Trades3700Truck Driving

4000 Merchandise4030 Air Conditioners4060 Antiques4090 Appliances4120 Auctions4150 Baby Articles4180 Bargain Column4210 Bicycles4240 Building Materials4250 Burial Plots4270 Business Furniture & Equipment4300 Camera Equipment4330 Clothing4360 Coins & Jewelry4390 Computer Equipment4420 Farm Equipment & Supplies4450 Firewood4460 Flea Markets4480 Furniture4510 Garage Sales4540 General Merchandise4570 Household Goods4630 Lawn & Garden4660 Merchandise Rentals4690 Musical Instruments4700 Satellites4720 Sporting Goods4750 Stereos & TV’s4780 Wanted To Buy

5000 Pets & Livestock5100 Free Pets5150 Pets5200 Horses/Cattle/Livestock5250 Pet Boarding/Grooming5300 Supplies/Accessories5350 Veterinarians5400 Wanted To Buy

6000 Financial6050 Business Opportunity6100 Business Opportunity Wanted6120 Check Cashing6150 Insurance6200 Loans6250 Mortgages6300 Stocks & Bonds6350 Business for Sale

7000 Rentals7050 Apartments7100 Commercial Property7150 Houses7180 Hunting Land7190 Land for Rent/Lease7200 Mobile Homes7250 Mobile Home Spaces 7300 Office Spaces7350 Resort Rentals7400 River Property7450 Rooms7500 Storage & Garages7520 Vacation Rentals7550 Wanted to Rent7600 Waterfront Property

8000 Real Estate8050 Commercial Property8100 Farms & Timberland8150 Houses - Northside8200 Houses - East8250 Houses - New Hope8300 Houses - South8350 Houses - West8450 Houses - Caledonia8500 Houses - Other8520 Hunting Land8550 Investment Property8600 Lots & Acreage8650 Mobile Homes8700 Mobile Home Spaces8750 Resort Property8800 River Property8850 Wanted to Buy8900 Waterfront Property

9000 Transportation9050 Auto Accessories/Parts 9100 Auto Rentals & Leasing9150 Autos for Sale9200 Aviation9250 Boats & Marine9300 Camper/R.V.’s9350 Golf Carts9400 Motorcycles/ATVs9450 Trailers/Heavy Equipment9500 Trucks, Vans & Buses9550 Wanted to Buy

INDEX

DEADLINES (Deadlines subject to change.)

For Placing/Canceling Classified Line Ads:Sunday Paper Deadline is Thursday 3:00 P.M.Monday Paper Deadline is Friday 12:00 P.M.Tuesday Paper Deadline is Monday 12:00 P.M.Wednesday Paper Deadline is Tuesday 12:00 P.M.Thursday Paper Deadline is Wednesday 12:00 P.M.Friday Paper Deadline is Thursday 12:00 P.M.LEGAL NOTICES must be submitted 3 business days prior to first publication date

• Please read your ad on the first day of publication. We accept responsibility only for the first incorrect insertion.

• The Publisher assumes no financial responsibility for errors nor for omission of copy. Liability shall not exceed the cost of that portion of space occupied by such error.

• All questions regarding classified ads currently running should be directed to the Classified Department.

• All ads are subject to the approval of this paper. The Commercial Dispatch reserves the right to reject, revise, classify or cancel any advertising at any time.

REGULAR RATES4 Lines/6 Days ................... $19.204 Lines/12 Days ................. $31.204 Lines/26 Days ................. $46.80

Rate applies to commercial operations and merchandise over $1,000.

Call 328-2424 for rates onadditional lines.

SUPER SAVER RATES6 Days ...................................... $12.0012 Days .................................... $18.00Over 6 lines is $1 per additional line.

Six lines or less, consecutive days.Rate applies to private party ads of non-commer-cial nature for merchandise under $1,000. Must

include price in ad. 1 ITEM PER AD. No pets, firewood, etc.

GARAGE SALE RATES4 Lines/1 Day..................$9.204 Lines/3 Days..............$18.00

Price includes 2 FREE Garage Sale signs. RAIN GUARANTEE: If it

rains the day of your sale, we will re-run you ad the next week FREE! You must call to request free re-run.

Advertisements must be paid for in advance.

You may cancel at any time during regular business hoursand receive a refund for days not published.

FREE SERVICESBargain Column Ad must fit in 4 lines (approximately 20 characters per line) and will run for 3 days. For items $100 or less ONLY. More than one item may be in same ad, but prices may not total over $100, no relists.

Free Pets Up to 4 lines, runs for 6 days.

Lost & Found Up to 6 lines, ad will run for 6 days.

These ads are taken by fax, e-mail or in person at our office. Ads will not be take by telephone.

General Help Wanted 3200

Musical Instruments 4690

Rings &Strings

It’s what we do...

FINE JEWELRY & MUSIC STORE

2116 Hwy. 45 N. • Columbus, MS(662) 329-0190

Apts For Rent: Northside 7010

625 31st Ave. N. - Columbus, MS(662) 329-2544

www.falconlairapts.com

1/2 Off First Month’s RentMove In Same Day Specials!Military Discounts Available

Legal Notices 0010

Advertisement for YouthTobacco Prevention Re-quest for Proposals

The Mississippi StateDepartment of HealthOffice of Tobacco Con-trol is seeking propos-als from organizationswith the capacity to de-velop and implementstatewide youth to-bacco prevention pro-grams. Eligible entitiesare those with a demon-strated history of creat-ing and implementingsuccessful programs,as defined in the offi-cial request for propos-als. For more informa-tion or a copy of the re-quest, please call (601)991-6050 or contactthe Mississippi StateDepartment of Health,Office of Tobacco Con-trol, 805 S. WheatleyStreet, Suite 400-A,Ridgeland, Mississippi39157. The RFP canalso be found atwww.healthyms.com/RFP. The submissiondeadline is March 31,2015.

COLUMBUS +/- 38.6acres timberland onNashville Ferry Road forsale by sealed bid on3/27/15. Great hunt-ing, timber investmentor residential tract. CallMidsouth Forestry Ser-vices, Inc. for info 205-364-7145.

STATE OF MISSISSIPPI

Office of the Governor

Writ of Election

TO THE STATE BOARDOF ELECTION COMMIS-SIONERS AND THECOMMISSIONERS OFELECTION OF THE SEV-ERAL COUNTIES OFMISSISSIPPI'S FIRSTCONGRESSIONAL DIS-TRICT:

A vacancy exists in theUnited States House ofRepresentatives fromMississippi's First Con-gressional District dueto the death of Con-gressman AlanNunnelee on February6, 2015.

Therefore, pursuant toArticle 1, Section 2 ofthe United States Con-stitution and Miss.Code Ann. 23-15-853, I,Phil Bryant, Governor ofthe State of Missis-sippi, do hereby issuethis Writ of Election,and hereby declare thatthe special election tofill the vacancy in theFirst Congressional Dis-trict shall be held onMay 12, 2015.

This special electionshall be held and no-tice thereof shall be giv-en in a manner consist-ent with the laws of theState of Mississippiconcerning special elec-tions. Pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. 23-15-853and 1-3-67, the qualify-ing deadline shall be5:00 p.m. on March 27,2015. Candidates shallqualify for the electionby filing petitions withthe Secretary of Statepursuant to Miss. CodeAnn. 23-15-853.

If no candidate re-ceives a majority of thevotes cast in the spe-cial election, then a run-off election shall beheld on June 2, 2015,in accordance withMiss. Code Ann. 23-15-833. All relevant lawsand regulations not inconflict with the termsof this Writ and Elec-tion shall apply to thisspecial election.

The State Board of Elec-tion Commissioners,the Election Commis-sioners of each Countyin the First Congression-al District, shall governthemselves consistentwith, and according to,this writ.

IN WITNESS THEREOF, Ihave hereunto set myhand and caused thisGreat Seal of the Stateof Mississippi to be af-fixed.

DONE at the capital, inthe city of Jackson, thisthe 24th day of Febru-ary, in the year of ourLord, two thousand fif-teen, and of the Inde-pendence of the UnitedStates of America, thetwo hundred and thirty-ninth.

/s/Phil BryantPHIL BRYANTGovernor

(seal)

BY THE GOVERNOR/s/ C. Delbert Hose-mann, Jr.C. DELBERT HOSE-MANN JR.SECRETARY OF STATE

Publish: 3/13/2015

Legal Notices 0010

STATE OF MISSISSIPPI

Office of the Governor

Writ of Election

TO THE STATE BOARDOF ELECTION COMMIS-SIONERS AND THECOMMISSIONERS OFELECTION OF THE SEV-ERAL COUNTIES OFMISSISSIPPI'S FIRSTCONGRESSIONAL DIS-TRICT:

A vacancy exists in theUnited States House ofRepresentatives fromMississippi's First Con-gressional District dueto the death of Con-gressman AlanNunnelee on February6, 2015.

Therefore, pursuant toArticle 1, Section 2 ofthe United States Con-stitution and Miss.Code Ann. 23-15-853, I,Phil Bryant, Governor ofthe State of Missis-sippi, do hereby issuethis Writ of Election,and hereby declare thatthe special election tofill the vacancy in theFirst Congressional Dis-trict shall be held onMay 12, 2015.

This special electionshall be held and no-tice thereof shall be giv-en in a manner consist-ent with the laws of theState of Mississippiconcerning special elec-tions. Pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. 23-15-853and 1-3-67, the qualify-ing deadline shall be5:00 p.m. on March 27,2015. Candidates shallqualify for the electionby filing petitions withthe Secretary of Statepursuant to Miss. CodeAnn. 23-15-853.

If no candidate re-ceives a majority of thevotes cast in the spe-cial election, then a run-off election shall beheld on June 2, 2015,in accordance withMiss. Code Ann. 23-15-833. All relevant lawsand regulations not inconflict with the termsof this Writ and Elec-tion shall apply to thisspecial election.

The State Board of Elec-tion Commissioners,the Election Commis-sioners of each Countyin the First Congression-al District, shall governthemselves consistentwith, and according to,this writ.

IN WITNESS THEREOF, Ihave hereunto set myhand and caused thisGreat Seal of the Stateof Mississippi to be af-fixed.

DONE at the capital, inthe city of Jackson, thisthe 24th day of Febru-ary, in the year of ourLord, two thousand fif-teen, and of the Inde-pendence of the UnitedStates of America, thetwo hundred and thirty-ninth.

/s/Phil BryantPHIL BRYANTGovernor

(seal)

BY THE GOVERNOR/s/ C. Delbert Hose-mann, Jr.C. DELBERT HOSE-MANN JR.SECRETARY OF STATE

Publish: 3/13/2015

Appliance Repair 1060

Mid South ApplianceRepair

licensed-bonded-insured

STEVE: 662-549-3467ALL WORK

GUARANTEED

Building & Remodeling 1120

Tony DoyleCabinets &

Construction

Cabinets, Building &Remodeling, Framing,Trim Work, Concrete,

Roofing, Painting.No job too small!

Free Bids662-769-0680662-386-7569

TODD PARKSConstruction

New Construction, Re-modeling, Repairs, Con-crete. Free est. Call oremail 662-889-8662 [email protected]

Tom Hatcher, LLCCustom Construction,Restoration, Remodel-ing, Repair, Insurance

claims. 662-364-1769.Licensed & Bonded

General Services 1360

Huck Embroidery is easyto do so will you teachme how to finish asmall project? Colum-bus MS 435.313.5128

RETAINER WALL, drive-way, foundation, con-crete/riff raft drainagework, remodeling, base-ment foundation, re-pairs, small dump truckhauling (5-6 yd) load &demolition/lot cleaning.Burr Masonry 242-0259

Lawn Care / Landscaping 1470

C & T LAWNSERVICE

For all your lawnservices.

Call 769-0680 or386-7569 for free

estimate.Mowing, Blowing,

Weed-eating,Pressure Washing,

Tree Trimming.JESSE & BEVERLY'SLAWN SERVICE. Springcleanup, firewood, land-scaping, tree cutting.356-6525.

TERRA CARELandscaping L.L.C.

Phone: 662-549-1878Home: 662-327-5552Landscaping, PropertyClean Up, Plant Care,

Bush Hogging,Herbicide Spraying

Tree Services 1860

A&T Tree ServiceBucket truck & stump

removal. Free est.Serving Columbussince 1987. Senior

citizen disc. Call Alvin @242-0324/241-4447

"We'll go out on a limbfor you!"

J&A TREE REMOVALWork from a buckettruck. Insured/bonded.Call Jimmy for afree estimate662-386-6286

J.R. BourlandTree & Stump

Removal. Trimmingw/bucket truck

Licensed & BondedFirewood 4 sale LWB$100. 662-574-1621

Instruction & School 2250

Ballroom or Latin danceinstructions provided foradult couples in Colum-bus MS.435.313.5128.

Teach us Ballroom andLatin dance! We are anadult, mature couple,eager to learn in Colum-bus MS!435.313.5128.

THE LEARNING Centerat Mississippi State Uni-versity is offering anACT Preparation Work-shop Saturday, March28, 2015 from 8:00a.m. until 3:30 p.m. inAllen Hall 246. Therewill be four areas ofconcentration: English,Math, Reading, and Sci-ence Reasoning. Thecost is $75 and parti-cipants will receive abook, Barron’s 2nd Edi-tion, ACT 36: Aiming forthe Perfect Score. Re-gistration deadline isMarch, 27, 2015. Theworkshop is open to allarea high school andcollege students whoplan to take the ACT.For further informationor to register, pleasecall The Learning Cen-ter at 662-325-2957 orgo towww.tlc.msstate.eduSeating is limited.(Disclaimer: Test re-views and workshopscan be a major help inpreparing for the ACT,but are in no way aguarantee for success.)

Lost & Found 2300

LOST PITBULL: brownw/white. $25 reward.Distinct scar on head.Named socks. Lost onHarrison Rd Thurs aft.574-0455/889-2122.

General Help Wanted 3200

THE DISPATCH is seek-ing a full-time press-man for our downtownColumbus location. Ap-plicants should have ex-perience working withheavy machinery, agood eye for detail andan aim for excellence.Flexible schedule andthe ability to climb lad-ders and routinely lift50+ pounds required.Email resumes [email protected] ordrop them at our officeat 516 Main Street. Nophone calls please.

LOCAL DAYCARE seek-ing person to help man-age small daycare cen-ter. Must have at least2 years exp. working ina daycare. Please sendresume with creden-tials to Box 550, c/oThe Commercial Dis-patch, P.O. Box 511,Columbus, MS 39703.

Medical / Dental 3300

INNOVATIVE OFFICEseeking Experienced Op-tician/Optical Assistant.Sales experience re-quired. Interviews willbegin Mar 9-13. Emailresume including con-tact phone number [email protected].

PHLEBOTOMY w/EKGTraining/Certification

March 28th,9am-6pmFee $425

Ph: 877-741-1996www.medical2.com

Part-Time 3400

PART TIME in storesales position. Mon-Sat,No nights. Must workwell with customers.Please send resume toBox 551, c/o The Com-mercial Dispatch, P.O.Box 511, Columbus, MS39703

Positions Wanted 3450

CAREGIVER W/ 15 yrsexp. Knowledge w/Child & Elderly care. Expw/ housekeeping, nutri-tional meal prep, er-rands for appts. & shop-ping. 662-549-2458

Professional 3500

UNITED WAY ofLowndes County isseeking a person to fillthe COMMUNITYVOLUNTEER CENTERDIRECTOR position.Please visithttp://www.uwlc-ms.org/job-opening formore application in-structions, or call 662-328-0943.

Sales / Marketing 3600

AGGRESSIVE SELFstarter for auto sales,car sales experiencepreferred. Hourly wageguarantee plus commis-sion. Call 662-574-4221.

Truck Driving 3700

LOCAL CONSTRUCTIONcompany seeks lowboydriver. Class A CDL.Fax: 662-329-3291.Email: [email protected]. Websiteapplication: http://phillipscontracting.com/ppc/careers.phpEEO employer.

MONROE TUFLINE MFG.is now taking applica-tions for a short andlong-haul truck driver.CDL license required.Qualified applicantsplease call 662-328-8347 for details.

Truck Driving 3700

ROUTE DRIVER/salesperson wanted for icedistribution company.Must have a neat &clean appearance &deal well with the pub-lic. Class A license. Ap-ply in person at FairwayIce 802 Moss St.Columbus, MS 39701.

Appliances 4090

WITHYOUNG APPLIANCE!

Top quality used appli-ances! Whirlpool, Fri-gidaire, Kenmore, Kit-chen-Aid, & more. All

come with 30 daywarranty. We also do

appliance repairs!662-549-5860

or 662-364-7779

Bargain Column 4180

4 NEW girl bikes. 1- 12"Huffy Disney Princess.1- 14" Ariel Disney Prin-cess. 2- 16" Next LittleGem brand. $35 each.662-328-0094

BABY BED & mattress:$60. Travel crib: $15.High chair: $10.Stroller: $5. Boosterseat: $5. 662-646-1475.

G. E. Super capacityclothes dryer. $100.662-386-1859.

MAYTAG DRYER forsale. $125. 662-327-5677.

OAK CHINA Cabinet: 2glass shelves. Mirror inback w/light. 3 glassdoors on top w/ 3 oakdoors on bottom. $100.77" wide. 328-0094

RAINBOW VACUUMcleaner $100. Call 244-5861.

3 KY wildcats caps,new, $10 each. An-tique crochet set $10.23" machete w/sheath$15 New. Call 244-5861.

WHIRLPOOL DRYER.Large capacity. $100.662-386-1859.

Burial Plots 4250

4 BURIAL plots in Me-morial Gardens. Lot#15, Block A, Section1, in "Garden of Chris-tas," $3000 call 662-328-4777.

Flea Markets 4460

CHURCH YOUTH FleaMarket from 6:30am-noon on Sat. 3/21 inparking lot at East EndBaptist Church at 380Hwy 50 West. 662-328-5915.

Furniture 4480

4 PIECE bedrm. setw/qn bed, lg. chest ofdrawers w/mirror, me-dia console & night-stand: $800 obo. 4 pc.leather & suede livingroom set w/couch &love seat, matchingchair & coffee table:$500 obo. Media con-sole: $200. Iron frameday bed and brand newmattress: $250. 4 pcpatio set, incl. couch, 2chairs, & table, w/cush-ions: $500. Contact662-251-5060.

5PC MARBLE Dining Rmtable. Like New. $150.OBO. 662-549-1773.

WANTED TO buy:Bunkbeds, no mat-tresses. Call 251-1368.

Furniture 4480

LIVING ROOM set:$2500. Black/silverleather 3 piece livingroom set, 4 round blackglass tables. 662-352-3876.

QUEEN SIZE bedroomSuite. Mattress (almostnew), rails, head & footboards, dresser/mirror,chest & night stand:$700. Zenith 60" flatscreen w/speakers &wall bracket: $800.678-709-7939.

Garage Sales: East 4510

150 YORKVILLE Rd E,Sat 3/14 6am-12pm:antiques, silver, vintage,collectibles, tv's,wooden blinds, pres-sure washer, gymequip., grill, paint, de-cor pillows, antq. cam-era lenses, collectiblemagazines, light fix-tures, glassware, tow-els, linens, designerclothes, pet beds &items, water ski tube,in/outdoor h-hold items.

Garage Sales: North 4520

825 CANNON Trace. Fri3/13 6am-3pm. Refri-gerator for sale.

INSIDE MOVING SALE!Everything must go!Furn., linens, kitch.items, collectibles,more. 717 5th Ave. N,7am Sat. 3/14.

INSIDE MOVING SALE:All household items forsale. Sat. 3/14 at 7am.717 5th Ave N.

Pets 5150

BEAUTIFUL, CFA re-gistered, 6 week old,flat face Persian kittens.3 male, 1 female.$600. 662-458-3490.

For Sale: Siberian Huskypuppies. CKC re-gistered. Call or text662-305-5584

Business Opportunity 6050

Restaurant space forlease @ Elm Lake GolfCourse. Fully equippedfor your own business.$300/mo plus butane.662-329-8964.

Apts For Rent: Northside 7010

1 & 2BR. Starting @$600 or $500 w/milit-ary disc. Short termleases avail. Locatednext to Hospital. FoxRun Apts. 549-1732.

3BR/2.5BA condow/1,622 sq. ft, 2 story,2 car garage, poolhouse privileges, fencedin patio, Caledoniaschool district. $900/mo. plus deposit, 662-328-4171.

1 & 2BR. Starting @$600 or $500 w/milit-ary disc. Short termleases avail. Locatednext to Hospital. FoxRun Apts. 549-1732.

1, 2, 3 BEDROOM apart-ments & townhouses.Call for more info. 662-549-1953.

2BR/1BA apts. in North& East Columbus.CH&A, all elec, water &sewer furn, convenientto shopping. $350/mo.$150 dep. 352-4776.

Northwood Town-houses 2BR, 1.5BA,CH/A, stove, fridge,DW, WD hookups, &private patios. Call

Robinson Real Estate328-1123

Apts For Rent: East 7020

1, 2, 3 BEDROOMS &townhouses. Call formore info. 662-549-1953

Apts For Rent: East 7020

1BR APARTMENT forrent. Completely fur-nished. Also includestelevision, utilities,satellite, internet/wire-less connection, wash-ers and dryers onpremises. Located fivemiles east of Dutch Vil-lage off Highway 50.Country setting. Nosmoking. $650 permonth. Lease required,deposit or good refer-ences. 662-251-1829or 662-328-2785.

TRINITY PLACE Retire-ment Community, inColumbus, now has stu-dio, 1 bedroom, & 2bedroom apartmentsavailable. We offer noonmeal 6 days each week,scheduled transporta-tion, variety of activities,optional housekeeping,& many other amenit-ies. Rent assistance tothose that qualify. CallMichelle for a tourtoday, 327-6716 & youcan enjoy the Trinity wayof life.

Apts For Rent: South 7040

1BR/1BA. 6 blocksfrom Main St, 6 blocksfrom MUW. Hardwoodfloors, dishwasher,W/D. Starts at $400/mo. Call 662-251-6463

Apts For Rent: West 7050

Apts For Rent: Other 7080

DOWNTOWN: 2BR/1BACH&A, remodeled, 1story, W/D, historic dis-trict, 1 block from down-town, $550/mo. with$550 dep. NO PETS.Call 662-574-8789.

SEVERAL 1, 2 and 3bedroom units avail-able. Various locations.Call Long & Long @328-0770.

Apts For Rent: Other 7080

Chateaux Holly HillsApartments102 Newbell Rd

Columbus

Mon-Fri 8-5328-8254

• Central Heat & Air Conditioning• Close to CAFB• Onsite Laundry Facility• All Electric/Fully Equipped Kitchen• Lighted Tennis Court• Swimming Pool

Where Coming Home is the Best Part of

the Day

Commercial Property For Rent 7100

BUSINESS SPACE avail-able. 114 Alabama St.Suite B. Move in readywith ample parking.662-352-9903.

Commercial Property For Rent 7100

OFFICE SPACES forlease. 200-2,000 sq. ft.Utilities & internet in-cluded, starting at$285. Fairlane Center,118 S. McCrary. 662-364-1030 or 386-7694.

Houses For Rent: Northside 7110

508 19TH Street North-4BR/2BA, central heat& air, single carport.Newly remodeled.$850/mth. HUD accep-ted. Only applicantsw/excellent referencesneed apply. Call Long &Long @ 328-0770.

NICE STUDIO apart-ment for 1 person orcouple. $775 rent, fur-nished, includes water,elec, tv, & cable.Jess Lyons Rd. acrossfrom golf course. Nosmoking, small petsonly. 662-242-0105.

COLONIAL TOWN-HOUSES. 2 & 3 bed-room w/ 2-3 bath town-houses. $575/$700.662-549-9555. Ask forGlenn or lv. message.

North Columbus newlyrenovated house withapproximately 1500square feet on an over-sized wooded lot in de-sirable Cady Hills areawith more expensive lar-ger houses. Three bed-rooms, two baths, openliving and eating areas,hardwood floors, gran-ite counter tops, newbath fixtures, walk-inclosets in each bed-room, new light fixtures,new internal doors, andnew paint throughout.Washer, dryer, doubleoven, dishwasher andrefrigerator included.$1250/mo 662-889-2731.

The Dispatch • www.cdispatch.com8B FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2015

Sudoku YESTERDAY’S ANSWER

Sudoku is a number-placing puzzle based on a 9x9 grid with several given numbers. The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty spaces so that each row, each column and each 3x3 box contains the same number only once. The difficulty level increases from Monday to Sunday.

What goes up, must come downWHATZIT ANSWER

ACROSS1 Castle part6 “The Stranger” writer11 Quite impressed12 Dizzying designs13 McCain’s running mate14 Less well done15 Macramé bit17 Racket18 Big gulp20 Solemn promise22 Grenade part23 Ma, for one26 Brat’s opposite28 Met performer29 Met performer31 NFL Hall of Famer Marchetti32 Opera set in Egypt33 With skill34 Blubbered36 River of Arizona38 Watchful40 Taboo acts43 Greenish songbird44 Finish45 School paper46 Piquant

DOWN1 Service reward2 “Put — happy

face”3 Pink slip4 Basketball star Patrick5 Gambling mecca6 Intimidate7 John or Paul8 Halftime enter-tainers9 Bear in the sky10 Goblet part16 Foot feature18 Health resorts19 Skid Row resident

21 Met performer23 Not nude24 Potting need25 Hector’s home27 Sudan neighbor30 Pester33 Unescorted34 Surfer’s ride35 Yale students37 Don Juan’s mother39 Stocking stuffer41 Unconscious42 Mole, e.g.

Five Questions 1 Roaring Forties 2 Henry Wad-sworth Long-fellow 3 Pig’s 4 The Cotton Plant 5 Pac-Man

Autos For Sale 9150

NEED A CAR?Guaranteed Credit Approval!

No Turn Downs!We offer late model vehicles with warranty.Call us, we will take application by phone.

We help rebuild your credit!

Tousley Motors662-329-4221 • 4782 Hwy. 45 N., Columbus

by Shell Station at Hwy. 373 intersectionwww.tousleymotors.net

What do you need to plant the seeds for a successful business — of ce space, equipment,

transportation, employees, CUSTOMERS?

You can nd it all in The Dispatch Classi eds!

Call to place your ad today.

from the ground up!

Growyour business

662-328-2424 • cdispatch.com/classi eds

Houses For Rent: East 7120

4BR/2BA. Brick. CH&A.Fenced back yard.$800/mo + $800 dep.Call 662-386-7694 or662-364-1030

Houses For Rent: Starkville 7170

STARKVILLE HOUSE forsale in Green Oaks sub-division. 1157 sq. ft.3BR/1.5BA, completelyrenovated. $123K. Call341-0374.

Houses For Rent: Other 7180

NEW COTTAGE:1BR/1BA, all appl, wa-ter, trash, yard maint.incl. in lease. NearStarkville, Columbus, &West Point. Perfect for1 person or couple. NOpets. $500/mo. $300dep. 1 yr lease reqd. Ap-plication/ref. reqd. 494-5419/242-2923.

Mobile Homes 7250

3BR/2BA single wide.$525/month with$400/deposit.3BR/2BA double wide$575/month with$400/deposit.No pets allowed. 12month lease required.Located in Caledoniaschool district. Musthave previous rentalreferences. Call 434-6000.

Office Spaces For Rent 7300

OFFICE SPACE for leaseat 814 2nd Ave. N. 662-574-3970.

OFFICE SPACE for rentat 300 Chubby Dr. Con-tact 662-549-1953 formore information.

Rooms For Rent 7450

ROOM FOR RENT: Sharehouse with owner. Largeroom in 3BR home. Allutilities incl, privatebathroom, full access tokitchen, cable tv, inter-net, washer/dryer. Goodneighborhood.$400/mo. Call 328-3147 or 549-1256.

Storage & Garages 7500

12X24 STORAGE build-ing. $1675. Alreadywired, exc. shape. 662-352-1261.

SHIPPING CONTAINER:8x8x20 Connex brandshipping containerw/shelves. $1600. Loc-ated in Artesia. 205-468-3220.

INEXPENSIVEMINI-STORAGE. From

5'x10' to 20'x20'. Twowell-lit locations in

Columbus: Near Wal-mart on Hwy 45 & nearTaco Bell on Hwy 182.Call 662-327-4236 for

more information.

Storage & Garages 7500

FRIENDLY CITYMini-Warehouses

2 Convenient LocationsBest RatesIn Town!

friendlycitymini.com

662-327-4236

Commercial Property 8050

BUILDING & LAND forsale w/est. barber &style business a plus.30 years in business,major intersection, 45North exposure.$139,000. Call 205-468-2029 or 662-327-2284.

THRIVING STORE forsale or lease located at1202 4th St. S. Con-tact Hilbert Williams atCrye Leike PropertiesUnlimited at 328-1150or 425-8317.

Houses For Sale: Northside 8150

BEST PRICE ON THELAKE on this spacious2400 square ft.3BR/2BA home. Lots oflake frontage, gazebo,boat dock and more.Pennington Lake at itsbest. Move-in ready andpriced to sell at$225,000.00. Call Long& Long @ 662-328-0770 or 662-574-3903.

House For Sale: 3BR/2BA - Open familyroom, master bedroomon main floor. Fenced inback yard. Bonus room.Roof, water heater, mi-crowave, oven, dish-washer are all new.Many upgrades. Loc-ated on a cul-de-sac inthe Timber Cove neigh-borhood 7 miles fromthe Air Force Base. Only139,000! Contact Willat 662-574-8360

Houses For Sale: New Hope 8250

3BR/2BA w/1676 sq.ft. on corner lot. Loc-ated in Drake Hillssubdivision. $147K Call662-549-5169 after7pm.

Houses For Sale: Caledonia 8450

Open House 3/22/15,2-4pm. This beautifulthree bedroom, 1754square foot, brick homeis a must see. It is loc-ated at 6393 Wolfe Rd.In Columbus on a spa-cious 1.3 acres. A lovelyin-ground pool and pri-vacy fence makes thebackyard a perfect athome resort. The spa-like atmosphere contin-ues in the amazing mas-ter featuring a luxuriousjacuzzi bath. Thischarming home is in ex-cellent condition andhas a new metal roof.Owners are motivated tosell because of a job re-location. Call BrandonShaw 205-712-3273.

Houses For Sale: Other 8500

HOUSE, BARN, 100 +-acres. Crawford, MS.$225,000. (205)790-7441.

Lots & Acreage 8600

28.5 ACRES in N.H.w/25 yr. old pines.$3500/ac. Will divideinto 10 ac. plots. 9156th St. S. $3000. Own-er financing avail. 386-6619.

Are You Ready to Sell?Pioneer Auction

& Realty LLC662-562-6767

Pioneer-Auctions.com

FOR SALE: 13.5 acres.Located on North Cald-well Rd. & Williams Rd.Asking $5000/acre.327-7678(day) or 329-5047(night).

LOWNDES COUNTY:160 acres, 3 lakes,pasture land, timberland, excellent hunting.For more info call 205-695-2248 or 205-609-0264.

READY TO GO: 100acres w/green fields &shooting houses. 1.5mi. SW of Crawford, MSon Fairport Rd.$2500/acre. Serious in-quiries only. ContactRandy Luker at 386-8470.

RIVERFRONTPROPERTYCamp Pratt

Call 574-3056Ray McIntyre

Blythewood Realty

WINTER SPECIAL. 2½acre lots. Good/badcredit. $995 down.$197/mo. Eaton Land.662-726-9648

Mobile Homes 8650

I PAY TOP DOLLAR FORUSED MOBILE HOMESCALL 662-296-5923.

Mobile Homes 8650

ENJOY HOME Owner-ship Today! Own yourown new 2014 3 bed-room/2bath 16X80Clayton Energy Effi-cient Mobile Home inonly 10 years!! Homesare set up on residen-tial lot, 2 decks/under-pinning included. Con-venient financing, Call662.329.9110 or comeby The Grove MobileHome Community of-fice located at 510Lehmberg Rd., Colum-bus, MS for more info.

WINTER SPECIALPRICE REDUCTION:Spacious 3BR/2BAdouble wide for saleonly. Lg covered sideporch built in. Lg mas-ter bath with gardentub. Spacious livingroom with fireplace.Lots of cabinet space inkitchen. Set up on lotand ready to move in.Call the Grove MobileHome Community at662-329-9110 for moreinfo on home and avail-able financing.

Resort Property 8750

2 Bedroom, 2 Bathat Sandpiper Cove

A great low rise complex

that stretches from Hwy

98 to the Gulf. It is a great

place for vacations with

the family. 1,100 feet of

beautiful gulf frontage.

Also fronts the Destin

Harbor with a marina, ca-

nal, and boat ramp. It has

5 pools (two are heated).

Lighted tennis courts.

Nine hole par 3 golf

course. Several pavilions.

A beach snack bar and a

fine dining restaurant. It

is convenient to shopping

and entertainment.

Call Russell Wamble, Premier Property

Group

850-496-7518

AFFORDABLE DESTIN FLORIDA CONDO!

Wanted To Buy 8850

WANTED TO buy: usedor repo 2BR/1BA manu-factured home in goodshape, good price, call662-494-5419.

Wanted To Buy 8850

WANTED!! I have two cli-ents looking to pur-chase in North or Up-per north Columbus,Hilly wooded areas pre-ferred, between 1700 to2500 sq. ft. master onbottom floor. ContactKendra Bell with Crye-Leike 662-386-9750 or328-1150.

Waterfront Property 8900

FINE INVESTMENT!Exceptional 5 unit"LODGE at the LAKE."Rent pays mortgage!360' lakefront allowseight more waterfrontcottages. $343,000.662-418-2790.

Auto Access Parts 9050

1992 DODGE Dynastyvarious parts for sale.$150. OBO. 662-549-1773.

Autos For Sale 9150

1992 FORD Rangerpickup, 140K miles, V-6, auto, good tires,good AC, $2200. Call662-356-6413/251-5003.

2000 MERCURY Mys-tique. As is, needs re-pairs. $750 obo. 662-352-1261.

2009 FORD Taurus.Good condition, goodtires. Black in color.$5400 obo. Call 361-1368.

2010 Dodge Challenger:V6/2DR, Silver, Miles:97,289, $16,000 OBO.CONTACT ALISA@434-6052 or Email: [email protected].

Boats & Marine 9250

SEA RAY 185 Ski Boat.2000 Model. V8 engine,Wakeboard Tower, &new sound system.$10,500. Call 662-769-9697

Campers & RVs 9300

RV CAMPER & mobilehome lots. Full hookupw/sewer. 2 locationsW&N from $80/wk -$265/mo. 662-251-1149 or 601-940-1397

Campers & RVs 9300

Due to the weather weare extending our

Open HouseSpring Sale! Don't

miss these bargains!Over 100 RVs to se-

lect from. Greattrades, financing, &

service. NorthMississippi's oldest

RV dealer since 1974.Johnny Bishop RV,8971 Hwy 45 N,

Columbus.662-434-6501 or1-800-569-9847

johnnybishoprv.com

Motorcycles & ATVs 9400

2005 Sportster 1200custom, 13,000 miles,many after market partsand comes with soloseat, 2 person seat andquick attach windshield$5,900Liz or Jacob Tolivar(662)242-6648Columbus, MS

Documents

stablished olumbus ississippi d | m Study reveals …...In this photo taken Feb. 12, Milce Cankovic Kadijevic and her dog Bak, who is in a wheelchair, walk in the park in Belgrade,