By CURTIS ROCKWELL

Item Sports Editor

It wasn’t a good two days for local teams traveling to the Gulf Coast.

Both Pearl River Central and Picayune got swept on consecutive days in prep basketball action, as both Pearl River Central teams fell to Long Beach on Friday and Picayune dropped two games to Pass Christian in the Ocean Springs Classic on Saturday.

• In Long Beach on Friday, the PRC Blue Devils couldn’t shake off the effects of a two week holiday lay-off and started slowly en route to a 48-40 loss to the Bearcats.

The loss dropped PRC to 6-9 overall and 2-2 in Division 8-4A play and LBHS moved to 7-10 overall and 2-3 in league action. “We came out flat and didn’t play with any intensity and fell behind quick,” PRC head coach Austin Alexander said. “A long lay-off like that kind of takes you out of your daily routine and you get out of rhythm and that hurt us early.”

PRC made a late run to cut the deficit to two, but never could pull even.

Josh Nixon paced PRC with 16 points.

The PRC girls fell 54-41, dropping to 4-11 overall and 0-4 in league play while LBHS moved to 13-6 overall and 2-3 in league action. Shaneka Fowler led PRC with 12, and Kayla Drummond added 10 although she was ejected in the third quarter. PRC travels to Picayune Friday.

• In Ocean Springs on Saturday, the Lady Tide saw their four game win streak snapped in a 65-45 loss to Pass Christian. The Lady Tide is 4-10 overall, and the Lady Pirates are 13-2 overall. Monique Brown paced Picayune with 19 points and Janea Wills added 13 while melody McGill had eight.

“They do a very good job of executing their press and it gave us some trouble,” Picayune head coach Kristi Mitchell, whose team cut the deficit to eight at one point, said.

The Maroon Tide fell 73-50 to the Pirates, who are now 16-1 on the year. Picayune stands 7-7.

Reggie Bailey paced Picayune with 15 points and Vince Gable added 13.

“They are good at what they do, and we turned the ball over way too much,” Picayune head coach Tom Taylor said. “Our kids haven’t seen pressure like that this year.”

Picayune travels to Poplarville Tuesday.