Both the boys and girls teams at Pearl River Central High dropped their Region 6-5A openers last week on the road at Natchez.

 

On Friday, the local squads will attempt to bounce back as they head to the Vancleave Tournament.

 

The Lady Devils open the event at 3 p.m., against East Central. The Blue Devils follow suit immediately afterwards, also facing East Central at 4:30.

 

St. Patrick meets the host school in a pair of games following those two contests. On Saturday, the third place games take place first beginning at 3 and those will be followed by the championship contests in both the boys and girls brackets.

 

The Natchez boys remained unbeaten with a 64-39 romp over PRC Friday.

 

De’Arius Griffin had a game-high 24 points for the Bulldogs, and Daryl Jones added 14 points while Gary Woods tallied 13.

 

Alex Travis and Seth McCoy each tallied nine points apiece to pace PRC. The Blue Devils enter the VHS Tourney 4-8 overall after falling in the district opener.

 

NHS assistant coach David Haywood said he talked to his players about starting their divisional season off right, and he believes they’ve accomplished that with Friday’s win.

 

“I told them to go out and play the best game we have played this year, and I think we did that,” Haywood said.

 

PRC’s Terek Whitehead threw down a dunk in the opening period to keep the Blue Devils close. But the Bulldogs were up 11-9 after one before steadily increasing their lead in the second stanza to 29-19 at halftime. PRC never got any closer in the second half.

 

Natchez is 10-0, today in the Coca-Cola Tournament in Hattiesburg,

 

• The Lady Devils fell 67-30, dropping to 1-9 overall and 0-1 in league play.

 

The Lady Bulldogs, like their male counterparts, are also 10-0 Overall.

 

Rashonae Rice led Natchez with 16 points, and Zyaire Ewing followed with 15 points, all of which were scored in the first half of the game.

 

NHS got off to a quick start and never looked back in taking total control early.

 

The Lady Bulldogs were up 44-5 at halftime.

 

The Lady Devils were coming off a loss to Poplarville, a game in which Brandi Lee scored 11 points for PRC. Lee also had a team high nine points in a loss to unbeaten Hancock as well.