By CURTIS ROCKWELL

Item Sports Editor

BAY ST. LOUIS – Pearl River Central’s girls managed just one win in regular season play in Division 8-4A play.

The Lady Blue Devils, however, equaled that win total in the opening round of the league tourney Tuesday night.

Kayla Drummond poured in a game high 26 points, including the game winning free throws with five seconds to play as PRC, the seventh and final seed, shocked Long Beach 47-45 at the Tigerdome.

“There is an old chinese proverb that says a journey begins with one small step,” PRC first year head coach Kevin Harris, whose team had lost to LBHS twice this season including by 24 points 12 days ago, said. “It’s O.K to get beat if you learn lessons from it. We came through on both ends of the court when we needed to.”

The win not only moves PRC into the semifinals against Poplarville at 5:30 Thursday, but assures the Lady Devils of their first South State playoff berth in over 40 years.

PRC led throughout most of the game, with the biggest lead in the first half coming on Drummond’s 3-pointer with 1:10 to play in the first quarter that put PRC up 16-10.

The Lady Devils led 25-21 at halftime, and Long Beach slowly climbed back in to tie things up at 41-41 with three minutes to play.

Drummond and Shaneka Fowler then hit a pair of free throws apiece to put PRC ahead 45-41 with just over two minutes left.

With that same lead, though, Long Beach forced a pair of PRC turnovers and converted two baskets to tie the game up with 14 seconds to play.

But Drummond was fouled on a driving attempt at the basket on the ensuing possession, and calmly sank both free throws to win the game.

Fowler added 10 to the winning cause, while Megan Calcote pulled down a game high nine rebounds.

Chrissy Slade led Long Beach with 16 points. The Lady Bearcats had won eight of their previous nine games, including two wins over PRC, prior to Tuesday’s game.