A pair of rare Friday games proved to be quite beneficial for homestanding Pearl River Community College.

PRCC picked up a pair of impressive South Division wins in juco basketball action over visiting Hinds with the Lady Wildcats taking a 58-39 win, while the Wildcats picked up a 70-59 decision.

The contests were originally scheduled for Thursday, but were moved to Friday due to inclement weather.

PRCC’s women improved to 11-3 overall and 6-2 in division play, while its men are now 11-5 and 4-4. HCC’s women remain winless at 0-17 and 0-8, while its men fell to 4-13 and 1-7.

In the women’s game, the visiting Lady Bulldogs never led, but managed to knot things up at 3-3 in the opening four minutes. With 6:46 left before the break, Laporshia Mitchell’s basket cut The River’s lead to 16-13, but that was as close as Hinds would get.

From that point, Pearl River closed out the half with a dominating 21-6 scoring run to take a lopsided 37-19 lead at the intermission.

The Lady Wildcats opened the second half with an 11-4 scoring surge for their biggest lead of the night, at 48-23, with 13:04 left, but the Lady Bulldogs wrapped the game with a 16-10 run only to suffer a 19-point defeat.

Deantra Darjean, a Prairie View A&M transfer who prepped at Yates High in Houston, Tex. (five assists, seven steals, four rebounds), and Shanta’ Echols of Sumrall High (10 rebounds) paced The River with 13 points each, while Taylor Brister, an East Central CC transfer from Prentiss, scored 10 (two treys).

Hinds had no double digit scorers.

Pearl River dominated the boards with 53 rebounds (26 offensive, 27 defensive), while Hinds had 37 (18 offensive, 19 defensive). PRCC committed 32 turnovers in the contest to HCC’s 31.

The men’s game went similarly to the women’s. Hinds never took the lead even though it managed to tie the score twice in the first half.

Ladarrius Drain slammed in a bucket with 24.7 left before the break to knot things up at 25-25, but Southeastern Louisiana signee DeAngelo Coleman of South Pike High banged in a trey with six seconds left to give the Wildcats a 28-25 edge at the intermission.

In the second half, the Bulldogs kept it relatively close, but Troy State (Ala.) signee Jeremy Hollimon of Gulfport High hit two threes and a two over a two-minute span to give the Wildcats their largest lead of the night at 44-32 with 13:09 left.

Hinds fought back with a 7-2 run to pull to within seven over the next four minutes, but The River answered with an 10-4 surge to rebuild its lead to double digits, at 56-43, with 5:32 remaining. The Bulldogs managed to outscore Pearl River 16-14 the rest of the way only to come up 12 points short.

Derrick Little led Hinds with 17 points.

Hollimon paced the Wildcats with a game-high 20 points (two treys, four rebounds), while Kaven Bernard out of Assumption High in Napoleonville, La., added 17 (five rebounds), Coleman 14 (10 assists, two treys, three steals), Bryant McGee of West Marion High nine (six rebounds).

PRCC swept Hinds in previous South Division meetings played Dec. 5 in Utica with the Lady Wildcats taking a 76-50 victory, while the Wildcats were 85-59 winners.

PRCC returns to action when it travels to South Division foe East Central Monday for 5:30 p.m. (women) and 7:30 p.m. (men) contests before arch-rival Mississippi Gulf Coast plays host in Perkinston Thursday for 6 p.m. (women) and 8 p.m. (men) games.