By CURTIS ROCKWELL

Item Sports Editor

All six Pearl River County prep basketball teams will take part in the inaugural Pearl River Central Tip-Off Tournament this week.

The event is a five day, 18 game affair, featuring seven boys teams and six girls squads.

Action begins Monday with three games, and a trio of games will also be played Tuesday, Thursday and Friday with six games slated for Saturday.

The girls bracket will be an actual tournament, while on the boys side the teams will be pitted against one another in a semi-round robin format.

On Monday, the host PRC Blue Devils kick things off against Purvis at 4:30, followed by Picayune’s girls taking on Moss Point at 6 and Picayune’s boys opening their season against Bay High at 7:30.

Poplarville’s boys open their season on Tuesday at 4:30 against St. Martin, and after the Bay High and Purvis girls play the Blue Devils face St. Stanislaus.

Poplarville’s Lady Hornets opened their season in fine fashion on Saturday beating Class 6A power Meridian 61-58 in the Petal Classic Tournament.

Daquari Raine tallied a game high 21 points in the victory, while Bretta Hart came off the bench to score 12 and Jeronda Beason added 13 to the winning cause.

“It was a good, exciting win for us,” veteran Poplarville head coach Anette Smith said. “We have very high expectations coming into this season, so playing against good teams like this should help us down the road.”

The Lady Hornets next play Thursday in the PRC Tournament taking on the Picayune-Moss Point winner.

Both PRC squads opned the season on the road at Ocean Springs Saturday in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.

The Lady Devils fell 74-25. Bria Pitts scored seven for PRC.

The PRC boys dropped a close 48-46 decision, despite getting 11 points from Jordan Fairconatue and 10 points apiece from Andre Broadway and Andrew Rogers.

The PRC go on the road to Pascagoula Tuesday against Resurrection Catholic. The Lady Devils then come home to face off with the Bay High-Purvis winner on Friday night.

Picayune’s Lady Tide kicked off the season Saturday also in the Petal Classic, taking on Northeast Jones in Jason Kennedy’s first game at the helm.

The Lady Tide rolled to a 57-27 win, as Andrea Jackson led the way with 15 points, Kianna Magee tallied 11 and Sheronda Jackson 10 in the winning cause.

“We didn’t execute very well, but we played hard and that made the difference,” Kennedy said. “We’ve gotten off to a good start and we hope to keep that going this week.”