Last year, Pascagoula’s storybook basketball season had an abrupt and shocking ending in the Final Four state semifinals at Jackson with a 48-42 loss to Ridgeland.
After beating the Terry Bulldogs 59-37 in dominating fashion on Saturday at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Perkinston, the Region 4-6A champions are headed back to face Ridgeland once again in the state semifinals.
While Pascagoula coach Lorenzo Wright doesn’t like to get into narratives associated with games, especially when it comes to the revenge factor, he made it clear after this one.
“Well, we’re on to the next game, but last year’s game is definitely on our minds,” he said. “We’ll be playing the team that put us out in Jackson, so we will see. Our team will be ready. It has been a goal all year to get back to the Big House and we’re excited to get back there.”
Ridgeland’s victory against Pascagoula in 2024 was an upset that stopped the Panthers’ 29-game winning streak.
Pascagoula was relentless against Terry as the Panthers never trailed after the score was tied at 4.
Panthers senior Kelan Rich stayed on fire the entire game and led all scorers with 23 points, including four 3-pointers.
His teammate and co-leader, Blake Nettles, chipped in 16 points, but Nettles did more than that. He showed off his athletic ability by playing good defense, shooting from the outside and driving to the goal to throw in thunderous dunks to ignite the large Panthers contingent of fans who traveled to cheer on their beloved team.
Pascagoula has not been to the state championship game since 1977.
“Kelan and Blake played really well tonight, and it was contagious because our entire team gave a great effort,” Wright said. “We gave a tremendous effort.”
That effort included six dunks that mostly came in transition from the suffocating Panthers defense.
Terry battled as hard as it could in the first quarter, led by Quinton Wilson. Wilson scored a team-high 18 points and put up four in the first to keep it close at 15-11.
But Pascagoula flexed its muscles, led by the combo of Nettles and Rich and the Panthers defense that only allowed Terry seven points in the second quarter as Pascagoula led 28-18 at the half.
Rich knocked down two 3-pointers in the third quarter to allow Pascagoula to maintain its lead. The Panthers only gave up seven points to Terry once again in the quarter.
After a steal, Nettles showed outstanding body control by flying through the air for a layup late in the quarter to give the Panthers a 40-25 lead.
The layup forced a timeout from the Bulldogs not only to try to keep the score where it was but also to catch their breath. Unfortunately, they didn’t have an oxygen tank on the sideline.
Pascagoula combined its athletic ability and talent to dominate the fourth quarter and smother any chance Terry had to come back.
Terry made a little run at the start of the period, but Queysean Taylor slammed in one of those Panthers dunks to extend the lead to 17 at 46-29.
The crowd roared and Wright smartly called a timeout.
After a missed Terry shot, it looked like Pascagoula would play keep away when all of a sudden Nettles drove to the goal for a dagger layup. Later, Nettles slammed it home after a steal and finished off the Bulldogs with the final Pascagoula dunk with 58.1 seconds left. Wright called a timeout to clear the bench.
Now the Panthers will head to Jackson to play Ridgeland at 1:30 on Thursday afternoon. The 6A state championship will be at 8 p.m. on Saturday, March 1.
Olive Branch defeated Ridgeland 59-56 for the state title in 2024.
