One of the coldest nights in recent memory did little to stay the hot hand of a fired-up Georgiana offense as the Panthers rolled over rival McKenzie 85-37 in Tuesday’s in-county matchup.

The contest got off to an uncharacteristically slow start for both teams, with only five points scored between the two in the first four minutes of play.

However, Latrell Seales and Devin McMeans woke up the Panthers’ offense — and defense — with a pair of threes and momentum for the remainder of the first quarter.

And despite a strong start to the second quarter for the Tigers that forced a handful of turnovers for easy baskets to close the gap, the remainder of the night was all Georgiana as the Panthers went on a shooting frenzy to extend their single digit lead to insurmountable numbers.

Georgiana’s trademark up-tempo defense flustered an already struggling Tiger offense, and punished a number of poor passes mid-court and capitalized on the mistakes with several easy buckets.

The Panthers outscored the Tigers 34-11 in the second period alone, leading by as many as 32 points before the half.

Condie Pugh and Harper Vinson came out of the locker room in the second half and displayed remarkable effort to will their team back into the contest by finding lanes to the basket and punishing Georgiana’s lax defense, but late-game struggles at the rim made it difficult for the Tigers to take high-percentage shots.

The Panthers saw four players reach double digits Tuesday.

Jacquez Payton led all scorers with 23, Seals added 13, and Richard Boggan and Tarien Crittenden added 12 and 10, respectively, to the total.

Pugh led the Tigers with nine points.

Both Georgiana and McKenzie will hit the road early next week as the Tigers face J.F. Shields Monday and the Panthers are set to face Red Level Tuesday.