Pascagoula School District sweeps Region 8-5A tournament titles

LONG BEACH Gautier claimed the 8-5A championship with a 32-28 win over West Harrison in Gulfport on Friday at West Harrison High School.

Pascagoula took the girls’ crown, downing West Harrison 54-24. Both schools receive first-round byes,

Gautier took the lead at 19-18 at the 4:38 mark of the third period. They never let the Hurricanes get closer than two points the rest of the way.

“It’s a good win for us,” said Gautier coach Keith McQueen. “We didn’t make the playoffs last year. We missed two free throws; we went to triple overtime. A lot of teams didn’t think that much about us. This year we struggled early on with different issues.

“It’s all on the kids. They played hard. Tonight defensively they were tremendous at times. I give them all the credit. We missed some shots and free throws early, but at the end we finished some shots and made some free throws.”

With 3.8 seconds remaining, D.J. Johnson’s two free throws closed out the game’s scoring, securing the win for the Gators.

For Johnson, the way it ended couldn’t be any sweeter. In a very similar situation last season, he missed free throws.

“It feels great,” said Johnson. “Last year I missed my free throws. I’m just enjoying the win.”

The Gators were the fourth seed in district 8-5A, going 2-4 in Region 8-5A.

Johnson led the Gators with 14 points. Zavier Diamond added 11 points. Quieran Gay and Acie Stewart scored 8 points each for West Harrison.

Pascagoula Girls 54, West Harrison 24

West Harrison led Pascagoula 6-4 early in the first quarter. From that point Pascagoula went on a 22-0 run, taking control of the game.

The Lady Panthers held the Lady Hurricanes scoreless for the last four minutes of the first quarter and all but five seconds of the second quarter until Deniyah Downs scored inside.

The Lady Hurricanes had their biggest scoring quarter in the third period with 12 points, four more than they scored in the first two quarters combined. But Pascagoula also had their biggest offensive quarter of the game, putting up 21 points to extend its lead.

“The third quarter hasn’t always been that good for us,” said Lady Panthers coach Crisla Herchenhahn. “So I try to make a really big challenge. Don’t let them get back in it. I knew they were going to make a pushback. We just needed to put our foot down and be done with them.

“I thought if we got the ball out fast we’d have a lot of opportunities to score in transition. They are a little bigger than us inside, so we wanted to try and get some layups without facing those girls. That just goes back to conditioning. We’re able to push it.”

Jailin Cherry and Alexis McBeath led the Lady Panthers with 20 points each. Allanah Turner led the Lady Hurricanes with eight points.

This story was originally published February 17, 2017 at 11:18 PM with the headline "Pascagoula School District sweeps Region 8-5A tournament titles."