By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

KILN —This week’s “Baria Law Firm Game Ball of the Week” goes to Hancock’s Talana Bond as presented by SouthMiss6 Sports.

Every week throughout the end of the school year, we will honor student/athletes across the “Southern Six” with our “Game Ball of the Week” sponsored by David Baria, Attorney-Mediator.

Bond, a senior standout point guard, has helped her Lady Hawks get off to a solid 20-2 start this season in her final campaign at Hancock High. This marks the third straight season Bond has helped Hancock to a 20-win season.

She has been a steady force for the Lady Hawks for each of the past several seasons feeding the ball to former Hancock standout Brooklyn Cuevas while developing her scoring role in the line-up.

At the Biloxi Sports Arena on Saturday, Hancock gained a measure of revenge from one of their rare losses over the past couple of years as it thumped defending Class 6A state champion Neshoba Central 57-35 in the final game of the day at the “Lady Indian Super Saturday Showdown” in Biloxi.

Hancock’s big win was a re-match of the Class 6A overall semifinal match-up from the Big House in Jackson last year when Neshoba Central knocked off the Lady Hawks 48-30 in the Final Four at The Mississippi Coliseum in a match-up of two 30-1 squads.

Bond hit a 3-pointer in the first quarter and Bond and ended up with 10 points in the winning effort for HHS.

The night before, the Lady Hawks took sole possession of the top spot in Region 4-6A with a 48-32 win over West Harrison. Bond drained a trio of 3-pointers in the win and paced HHS with 13 points.

Recently, Bond poured in a game-high 23 points for Hancock as the Lady Hawks thumped Long Beach 51-17 in league play.

Earlier this season bond was named as Most Valuable Player in the fifth game of the “Gulf Coast Girls Hoopsfest” at St. Martin as the Lady Hawks knocked off Florida powerhouse Booker T. Washington out of Pensacola 30-27.

The Lady Hawks are the defending Region 4-6A champs and are off to a perfect 6-0 start in league play so far this season as they head to Picayune Friday night.

The Reese’s company has long been a big supporter of current and former high school student/athletes all over the Southeast.

For over a decade now, Reese’s® Peanut Butter Cups has been the title sponsor of The Senior Bowl played annually in Mobile, Ala.

In addition to its new partnership with the Senior Bowl, the Reese’s® brand is also the official candy partner of the NCAA® and the title sponsor of the National Association of Basketball Coaches’ Reese’s® College All-Star Game, which features the top Division I senior basketball student-athletes from around the country and is played the weekend of the NCAA Men’s Final Four®.

“The Reese’s brand is excited to continue our partnership with the Senior Bowl,” said Drew Iddings, Director, Promotions and Planning, The Hershey Company.  “We are confident that this partnership will continue to solidify the Reese’s brand’s leadership in collegiate athletics as well as honor senior student-athletes who achieved success on and off the field during their athletic careers.”

The 2025 Reese’s Senior Bowl will take place on Saturday, February 1, 2025 at 1:30 PM CT at Hancock Whitney Stadium in Mobile, Alabama. The game and practices will be televised on the NFL Network. 

The Reese’s Senior Bowl is widely regarded as the preeminent college football all-star game and the first stage in the NFL Draft process. The longest continual-running all-star game has taken place in Mobile, Alabama the past 75 years.  More than 900 NFL personnel, including key decision-makers from all 32 teams, and over 1100 media members from around the country were credentialed this year. This past April, the game produced 110 total picks, representing 43 percent of the entire NFL draft.