The Pearl River Central Blue Devils took on the Lamar Christian Lions basketball team on Jan. 27 and won 52-40.

The dominant win came after a tough district loss to the Picayune Maroon Tide on Jan. 24.

PRC’s game against Lamar Christian was the first of two games in two days with the Blue Devils then beating the Lumberton Panthers 56-38 on Jan. 28.

“I thought offensively we did do a lot of good things in terms of execution and making our reads, for the most part we did a good job,” Head Coach Scott Stephens said.

Neither game was a district matchup, meaning no matter the results the Blue Devils’ seeding within the district wasn’t affected.

Seeding is important because at the end of the season there is a district tournament that includes all teams within the district.

Only two teams get to move on from the tournament to the playoffs and seeding determines whether the tournament game will be played at home or away.  Having the home crowd to back a team can make a huge difference, but PRC is currently 0-4 in district play with just two district games remaining on the schedule.

“You always want to play your best basketball heading into the tournament. It’s an opportunity to have two district opponents heading into the tournament and hope that propels us into the final week of the season,” Stephens said.

The number two seed is out of reach for the Blue Devils, but there is a possibility of the Blue Devils moving up into the number three seed depending on their performances and how Long Beach finishes the season.

However, there is still a lot of basketball to be played before the district tournament begins.

PRC completed the season sweep of Lumberton having beaten the Panthers three times this season, all by double digits.

Now the Blue Devils will prepare for an important district showdown with the Hattiesburg Tigers set for Jan. 31. The Tigers are the current number one seed in the district and a win on Friday could see PRC earn its first district victory of the season. According to maxpreps.com, the Tigers are the seventh best team in the state of Mississippi, so PRC will need to come out in full force to defeat them.

“The message is to put two halves together, play hard, execute and see where that puts us. I think we’re capable of getting the job done, we just have to go out and do it,” Stephens said.

The game against the Tigers is set to begin at 7:30 p.m.