PRC becomes regular season champions; teams prepare for district tournament

Published 7:00 am Tuesday, February 13, 2018

All three high schools in Pearl River County played their final home game of the regular season Friday night.

In Poplarville, the Lady Hornets fell 49-34 against Forrest County Agricultural. After the first quarter, Poplarville trailed 17-11 and after the second, the Lady Hornets faced an eight-point deficit, 24-16.

In the third quarter, the Lady Aggies outscored Poplarville 18-6 and even though the Lady Hornets scored 12 points in the last quarter, there just weren’t enough baskets for a Poplarville comeback.

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In the second game of the night, the Hornets lost 57-53.

With the regular season coming to an end, the Hornets and the Lady Hornets will look to secure a spot in the Class 4A state playoffs during this week’s region tournament.

The Region 7-4A tournament will begin today and all games will take place at Lawrence County High School.

The Lady Hornets will face Forrest County Agricultural at 4 p.m., while the boys team will face Greene County at 8:30 p.m.

— At Kelly Wise Memorial Gymnasium, both the girls and boys basketball teams finished the regular season with wins against Hancock County.

For the Lady Maroon Tide, the team outscored Hancock County 23-7 in the second half and earned its 11th victory of the season, 44-29. Meanwhile, the Maroon Tide, led by Head Coach Kelton Thompson, won 66-36.

—Pearl River Central High School hosted North Pike in the team’s last district matchup of the regular season.

The night began with the Lady Devils holding a 19-9 lead at the end of the second quarter but North Pike outscored PRC 25-13 in the second half and earned a 34-32 victory.

For the Lady Devils, Brooklyn Howe scored 12 points, Harlee Davis had eight and Lindsey McCurdy finished with five.

Friday night, Pearl River Central’s Blue Devils earned the number one seed in Region 7-5A District play by defeating North Pike 65-39.

PRC built a 36-16 lead by the end of the first half of play and even though North Pike outscored the Blue Devils by three points in the third, 21 points by PRC in the last quarter helped the team earn the night’s victory.

For the Blue Devils, A.J. Banks led the way with 21 points, nine rebounds and five assists and steals each. The other top two scorers for the team were Willie Reece and Jason Long, who had 15 points each.

The Region 7-5A district tournament will begin today and the games will take place at Hattiesburg High School.

The first game will be a matchup between the Lady Maroon Tide and North Pike, the game will start at 4 p.m., followed by a rematch between PRC and North Pike at 5:30 p.m.

Afterwards, the Lady Devils will take the court to face Hattiesburg at 7 p.m.

The night will end with Picayune facing the Tigers at 8:30 p.m.