POPLARVILLE, Miss. — The Pearl River men’s basketball team returned to form Monday night inside Marvin R. White Coliseum, ending a three-game skid with an unreal 105-52 thumping of Mississippi Delta. The Wildcats shot a blistering 52 percent from the floor in the game — aided by a 64 percent showing in the second half.
“I was proud of the effort tonight. I’ve been proud of our effort the entire time,” head coach Chris Oney said. “Those 17 points we got used to having with Austin in the lineup were missing. Tonight, we got a chance to get him back in the lineup and get everyone going again.”
Pearl River (20-8 overall; 7-6 MACCC) was nearly unstoppable in the first half, largely thanks to the play of Cal State Bakersfield transfer Cedquavious Hunter (Como; North Panola). Hunter was unreal from beyond the arc in the first half, burying seven and finishing the half with 23 points.
The Wildcats opened up their first large lead of the night over the Trojans (8-17; 2-10) at 15-6 when Ta’Zir Smith (Woodbridge, Va.; Virginia Academy) lasered a pass to Hunter for a long 3-pointer.
The lead swelled to 30-12 with 8:35 left in the first half, with Hunter hitting 3-pointers on back-to-back offensive possessions. Devin Jones (Camden; Velma Jackson) chipped in soon after. The first time, he cleaned the glass for an offensive rebound and put it right back up and into the hoop. The second time, he was dished a perfect pass from David Combest Jr. (Hattiesburg; Forrest County) and laid the ball softly off the backboard for a bucket, 38-16.
Hunter and Smith connected for one of the highlight plays of the season a few points later. Hunter started the fastbreak, sprinting down the court with Smith trailing slightly behind him. Hunter moved inside the paint, bounced the ball off the backboard and Smith slammed it home viciously, 42-18.
The Wildcats continued to score rapidly, and by the time the first half had ended, they had led 54-25.
Smith opened the second half with another big-time play, slamming home a precise pass from Austin Green (Sicklerville, N.J.). Green began to score frequently following the play. Smith lobbed a pass on the inbound, and Green was there to tap it into the basket. One play later, Green caught the ball at the free-throw line, surveyed the court for a moment and popped a pullup jumper, 60-25.
Pearl River continued to pour it on down the stretch and hit the 90-point mark on a Dorien Goodman (Dallas, Texas; Lancaster) basket at the 6:46 mark. The Wildcats eclipsed the 100-point mark a while later with the hot 3-point shooting of big man Dyllion Redmond (Jackson; Callaway), who nailed three consecutive long balls from the corner to make it a 51-point, 101-50 lead.
PRCC tacked on a few more points before the game ended to take the contest 105-52, securing its third 100-point game of the 2023-24 campaign.
LEADING THE WAY
Hunter finished the night with a team-high 26 points, nailing eight 3-pointers along the way. Smith ended the game with a 19-point, 11-assist double-double. He also tacked on five rebounds.
In Green’s return to the lineup, he tallied 17 points and eight rebounds.
NEXT UP
Pearl River wraps up the regular season on Thursday with a road trip to Northeast. Tipoff in Booneville is set for 7:30 p.m. The game will be livestreamed at NEMCCTV.com.
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