The Pascagoula Panthers continued their quest for a Class 6A state basketball championship with a dominating 61-39 victory over West Harrison on Friday night on the campus of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Perkinston.
The Panthers (29-1) will take on Ridgeland on Wednesday, Feb. 28, at the Coliseum in Jackson. Ridgeland advanced to the semifinal game by defeating Centerville 64-50 Friday night. A Pascagoula victory over Ridgeland could set up a rematch with Terry, the team that eliminated the Panthers from the playoffs last year.
Terry edged Picayune 49-47 Friday night in Perkinston. Picayune had the last possession with a chance to win or tie the game, but its shot at the buzzer was off-target.
Terry will play Olive Branch on Wednesday at 7 p.m. in Jackson. Olive Branch beat Vicksburg 71-56 to advance.
The Panthers’ suffocating defense, athleticism, and quickness were too much for the Hurricanes (18-12) to handle. Pascagoula raced out to a 14-0 lead before West Harrison scored its first basket with 3:16 remaining in the first quarter. Then the game got ragged as both teams committed numerous turnovers.
Pascagoula’s relentless pace sometimes becomes a two-edged sword and results in poor play, and Panthers coach Lorenzo Wright was not happy with that.
When asked for his thoughts on his team’s performance, he smiled and said, “You really want my thoughts.”
Then he continued.
“I thought we played really well at the beginning and we finished well at the end,” he said. “Everything else in between was uncharacteristic of who we have been all season. A lot of credit goes to West Harrison. The zone kind of hurt us, kind of confused us a little bit and we didn’t take care of the ball.
“We were a little bit too aggressive. It’s the worst we’ve been defensively all year. We gambled a lot. We didn’t rotate correctly on defense.”
After the 14-0 run, the Panthers got too hectic and turnovers and missed shots resulted, allowing West Harrison to stay in the game. The quarter ended with PHS up 19-7.
The teams traded baskets in the second quarter and Pascagoula kept the 12-point lead at halftime, 30-18, but they didn’t look in control. Panthers center Markuese Grady got into foul trouble in the half and was replaced by Tylan Wilson.
“Tylan bailed us out and that was huge,” Wright said. “Tylan gave us a spark off the bench. Gave us 13. Played great.”
Panthers leading scorer Dorian McMillian didn’t take many shots in the first half but didn’t need to thanks to the play of Wilson and his teammates. But McMillian’s defensive pressure was a key factor in many of the steals and baskets the Panthers made in the half. He only had five points in the half and finished with 17 for the game.
West Harrison couldn’t compete with the Panthers’ quickness and athleticism, but they continued to scrap and reduced the deficit to six points, 32-26, at the five-minute mark of the third quarter. PHS pushed the lead back to 12 points, 46-34, by the end of the quarter.
The fourth quarter was all Pascagoula as it outscored West Harrison 15-3. The Hurricanes’ only basket of the quarter was a 3-pointer with under a minute to play.
McMillian didn’t make a 3-point shot in the game, but he did have two of the biggest highlights.
The first came in the second quarter. Kelan Rich stole the ball and raced up court. He glanced to his right and could see McMillian trailing. As Rich reached the lane, he passed the ball off the backboard. McMillian caught it off the glass and slammed home a two-handed dunk, igniting the crowd.
McMillian put the icing on the cake in the final seconds when he broke free after a steal and sent the fans into a frenzy with a windmill dunk.
Other Panthers scoring in double figures were Wilson and Rich with 13 each and Chris North with 10. West Harrison didn’t have a double-digit scorer as Jafear Carter notched nine and Owen Rees eight.
West Harrison coach Jeff Norwood said he feels Pascagoula can go all the way.
“They are my favorite to win it all,” he said. “It’s about the best group of athletes I’ve seen in a while. They get their hands on so many balls. They have good reflexes, they have long arms, they are quick and they go where they are supposed to go. That makes it hard to play against them. They won’t let you hold it. They are going to trap you. Lorenzo does an excellent job. ”
Wright said Ridgeland is a guard-heavy team and has a big kid about 6-9 to 6-11 inside and they play good defense.
“We got to be able to execute and take care of the ball,” he said. “We don’t do those things we are going to be in trouble. We can’t play like tonight.”
