Poplarville put the homecourt advantage to good use on the opening day of the Pearl River County Tournament.

Both the Lady Hornets and Hornets dispatched Pearl River Central to advance to the championship games on Thursday night.

The Poplarvillle girls moved to 5-1 on the season with a 80-39 win over the Lady Devils. PRC fell to 2-3 with the loss.

In boy’s action, the Hornets knocked off the Blue Devils 76-62 in Austin Alexander’s return to Poplarville.

In the girls game, Poplarville broke open what was a pretty close game with an outstanding second half to take the win.

PRC led much of the first half, only to see the Lady Hornet mount a 10-0 run late in the second stanza to take the halftime lead at 33-30.

The lady Hornets began to pull away in the second half, outscoring PRC 15-5 in the third period thanks to some nifty inside play by center Daquari Raine.

Raine and PRC post player Kayla Drummond battled throughout the first half, as Drummond had 18 points in the opening half and Raine 14.

Raine paced Poplarville with 20 points, while Policia Travis tallied a game high 21 and both Demi Beason and Jeronda Beason added nine to the winning cause.

Drummond led PRC with 21.

• In the boys game, Poplarvillle got its running game going behind Lavelle Henry and picked up the pace on PRC in the win.

Henry tallied 28 points in the win, while Lattimore Pittman added 11 for the Hornets.

PRC’s Josh Nixon had a game high 30 for the Blue Devils, coached by former Poplarville assistant Alexander. The Hornets are 2-4, and the Blue Devils are 2-3 on the year.

Both Poplarville teams will take on hancock in the championship games of the tournament Thursday night, while both PRC teams will meet Picayune in the consolation games earlier in the day.