The Pickens Dragons and Dragonettes participated in the opening day of the Pickens Holiday Classic basketball tournament on Thursday with mixed results, as the Dragonettes took care of the Etowah Eagles and the Dragons fell to the Our Lady of Mercy Bobcats.

The Dragonettes took care of business in their first game of the three-day tournament, riding strong performances from sophomore Sarah Smith and juniors Makayla Angel and Danielle Goss to a 49-41 victory over the Eagles.

Goss and Smith led the Dragonettes in scoring with sixteen points each. Both had outstanding rebounding efforts on the night as well, combining for a total of twenty rebounds.

Trying to duplicate the girl’s success, the Dragons came out ready to give the home crowd something to cheer about. Unfortunately, Our Lady of Mercy quickly showed that they would show Pickens no mercy on this night, and at halftime the Dragons found themselves down 35-24.

Pickens came out looking to right its wrongs from the first half of play, and halfway through the fourth quarter trailed the Bobcats by just six points. Our Lady of Mercy then went on an 8-2 run to end the game, leaving the Dragons with a tough 60-48 loss.

Senior Sam Crawford led the Dragons with seventeen points, while senior Wesley Easterwood lead the team in rebounding with seven.

Day two of the tournament pits the Dragonettes against the Centennial Lady Knights at 6:00 and the Dragons against the Banneker Trojans at 7:30.