By CURTIS ROCKWELL

Item Sports Editor

CARRIERE — Poplarville remained unbeaten on the season in girls basketball and in the process handed rival Picayune its first loss of the year.

The Lady Hornets jumped out to a quick lead and used a balanced attack to roll past the Lady Tide 67-36 in the semifinals of the Pearl River Central Tip-Off Tournament.

The win pushes Poplarville to 2-0 and drops Picayune to 2-1. Poplarville will meet the winner of tonight’s Bay High-PRC game in the girls finals Saturday night at 6, while Picayune will face Purvis at Noon Saturday in the consolation round.

“It’s good to win, but we made a lot of mental mistakes and we need to play better,” Poplarville head coach Annette Smith said. “We had some girls come off the bench and play well and we had a lot of girls contribute in some way.”

The Lady Hornets used their defensive pressure to earn some easy baskets and jump out to an 8-0 lead. The Lady Hornets never trailed in the game and were up 19-11 after the first period.

“Their pressure got to us early, but we also shot ourselves in the foot,” Picayune head coach Jason Kennedy said. “We created some turnovers but couldn’t convert them into points because threw them away.”

Poplarville created 39 turnovers in the game, and slowly began to pull away from the Lady Tide in the second quarter outscoring Picayune 18-8 and taking a 37-19 lead at halftime.

Jeronda Beason and Policia Travis led a balanced Poplarville attack with 12 points apiece, while Gabbie Goins came off the bench to add 10 points, Demi Beason added 9 and Daquari Raine 8.

Andrea Jackson paced Picayune with a game high 18 points.

• In the final game of the night, St. Stanislaus’ Will Reed hit a 3-pointer with one second to play giving the Rockachaws a 42-39 win over Picayune in boy’s action.

Vince Gables scored 16 and Marcus Rawls added 15 for the Maroon Tide, which dropped to 0-2 on the season. SSC is 2-1.

Picayune plays Saturday at 4:30 against Purvis in the PRC event.

• Action continues tonight with three games beginning at 4:30.

At 6, Poplarville takes on Purvis in boys action.