The St. Martin Yellow Jackets enjoyed their two-day trip to Pearl River County last week.
Under the direction of veteran head coach Charlie Pavlus, St. Martin captured the championship in the boys’ bracket of the Pearl River Central Holiday Tournament in Carriere by picking up wins on Thursday and Friday.
To open play on Thursday, SMHS hammered Poplarville 74-19 in the first round of the Pearl River Central Holiday Tourney. Jalen Anderson and Tony Mora each tallied 12 points apiece to lead the way for the Yellow Jackets, while Ghabe Colding chipped in 10 points to the winning cause.
Then, in the title tilt on Friday, St. Martin defeated Stone 53-47 to win the championship. Ty’Lah Whitlock recorded a double-double for St. Martin, scoring 16 points and pulling down 13 rebounds, while Ghabe Colding added 14 points and swiped six steals and Tony Mora scored 11 points as well.
The Yellow Jackets now stand 13-4 on the year and are set to start Region 7-6A play this week. St. Martin will also host the region tourney next month at the conclusion of the regular season.
The host PRC Blue Devils popped Poplarville 66-26 in the consolation game Friday. PRC’s Donnie Ladner finished with 13 points and Payton Cardona added 11 while Jack Jenkins had 9 points. Zack Smith finished with 13 points for the Hornets.
The 39th annual Gulfport Hardwood Holiday Classic wrapped up Friday, with Metamora, Ill., winning its second tourney title in the past seven years. The Redbirds, coached by former Gulfport High head coach Danny Grieves, beat Harrison Central in the finals 57-50. Tyler Mason tallied a game-high 22 points for Metamora, while Aujaylen Barron paced the Red Rebels with 19 points.
The host Admirals, who lost by a point to HCHS in the semifinals on Thursday, took the third-place game by defeating Pascagoula 59-55 for their second win over the Panthers this season. Gulfport stands 16-3 on the season. The Admirals were led by Amir Abdul-Rauf who finished with 22 points and was named to the All-Tournament team. Keanu Patrick finished with 14 for GHS, and Kelan Rich paced Pascagoula with 20 points.
Meridian, coached by former Pascagoula head coach Ron Norman, beat Moss Point 48-39 in the fifth-place game and the Picayune Maroon Tide took the seventh-place game 70-61 over Madison Central.
“Starting Five” debuts
Starting on Monday, 228 Sports will debut a new weekly feature that will appear throughout the remainder of the prep basketball season called the “Starting 5 in the Southern 6” which will list five outstanding performances from the previous weeks’ action as well as five games coming up that week to keep an eye on.
You readers can help us out by sending us stats on your favorite players from the previous weeks’ games on our “228 Sports” Facebook page as well as at “@228Sports” on Twitter. We will consider all of those recommendations as we choose our “Starting 5 in the Southern 6” each week.
