Prep hoops: Ocean Springs opens Class 6A girls state playoffs with a big win at home; HCHS also wins

OCEAN SPRINGS — Ocean Springs started slowly against visiting Oak Grove in its opening round Class 6A girls’ state playoff game Monday night.

But fortunately for the Lady Greyhounds, they saved their best play for the second half.

After falling behind by double digits early in the game, Ocean Springs stormed back and dominated the second half of play in taking a 57-45 win over the Lady Warriors. Ocean Springs will now advance to the second round of action on Friday night.

Thanks to a pair of 3-pointers by McKinley Naquin, Oak Grove stormed out to an 18-6 first-quarter lead as she tallied as many points as the entire OSHS team did in that period.

But the Lady Greyhounds bounced back a bit in the second stanza to cut the 1-point deficit to just four, at 23-19, as the teams headed into halftime.

That set the stage for a dominant second-half surge that sealed the win for home-standing Ocean Springs.

The Lady Greyhounds outscored the Lady Warriors 23-13 in the third frame, and in the process took a 38-36 win into the fourth quarter getting six points from Kaleah lowery and five points from Katie Stovall in the eight-minute span.

Ocean Springs remained relentless in the final period, again out-scoring OGHS by 10 points at 19-9 as Lowery again had six points on a trio of field goals and De’Shauvione Jones added five free throws and OSHS secured the win 12-point win.

Lowery led Ocean Springs with a team-high 14 points, while Jones added 12 points to the winning cause and Stovall added eight points.

Shalea Boddie paced Oak Grove with a game-high 15 points, including scoring 11 of those in the third frame when she did her best to keep the Lady Greyhounds at bay amid their surging comeback but to no avail.

• In other action in the “Southern Six” in Class 6A girls’ state playoff opening round action Monday night, home-standing Harrison Central knocked off Warren Central 46-38 as Anaisha Carriere tallied 15 points to lead all scorers. Also, Meridian hammered Pascagoula 64-29 ending the season for the Lady Panthers. Gulfport was set to travel to Terry Tuesday night to start the playoffs.

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