With just 5 players, Moss Point girls stun 6A Biloxi. ‘I just told them to keep fighting.’
The Moss Point Lady Tigers didn’t let the first night of winter freeze them in front of their home crowd.
Moss Point (11-5) cooled off the red hot visiting Indians from Biloxi (12-4) with a 36-29 win in Arthur Haynes Gym. The Tigers used size and suffocating defense to their advantage to frustrate a talented BHS squad.
The Tigers (4A) came into the contest just 2-4 when playing against 6A opponents from both Mississippi and Alabama.
“There’s rankings all the time and rarely are we on them,” head coach Ethan Porter said after the game. “We use that as a motivator. Beating Biloxi, regardless of whether their ranked or not or their classification, is always a good win because they’re well coached.”
Porter deployed just five players in the win and relied on scoring from every starter. Guard Ar’Yonna Miller led the way with 10 points, eight of which came in the first half.
The Tigers came into the contest focused on taking the painted area away from the Indians. The strategy worked as BHS scored just twice across the first two quarters and went into halftime facing a 17-4 deficit.
Biloxi leading scorer Shaneal Corpuz was held to just nine points and couldn’t find a basket until the fourth quarter.
“The gameplan was definitely to stop (Corpuz),” Porter said. “She’s really good and we were going to send two at her all night.”
The Indians finally broke through in the second half with Amiliyan Gines scoring all 10 of her points in the back 16 minutes of the contest.
But the Tigers squelched any signs of life BHS showed with timely daggers.
When the fourth quarter opened with six straight Indian points and three MPHS turnovers, Porter could be heard across the gym in a spirited timeout huddle: “I want to win!”
Victoria Broughton and Raven Lee responded with two buckets that would put the game on ice.
“I really used those timeouts to get them back and calm down,” Porter said. “I just told them to keep fighting. Know that the other team is going to keep coming at us and we’ve got to do the same.”
The Tigers have won eight of their last nine games and head into the Christmas break energetic with still a crucial back-end of the schedule ahead.
“It definitely boosts our confidence,” Miller said. “But we just have to keep going and keep the momentum.”
Biloxi was held under 30 points for the first time all season in just its second loss of the month. Before Tuesday, Pascagoula was the only coastal team to earn a win over the Indians.
“You ranked us as the second-best team on the Coast and I knew we wasn’t,” Biloxi head coach Devin Hill said. “Now everybody knows.”
The Indians are still 1-0 in their region and are a couple weeks away from a big showdown with region power Harrison Central.
Biloxi boys 79, Moss Point 44
The home magic did not extend to the nightcap. Biloxi boys (15-1) handled the Tigers (8-7) with ease in a show of force from the top boys team on the Coast.
The Indians jumped out to a commanding 20-6 lead and never looked back in a route that was over when it started.
Biloxi guard Rayjaun Daniel filled up the box score with 12 points, six assists, five steals and three rebounds.
Kedrick Osby led MPHS with 16 points.
This story was originally published December 22, 2021 at 9:28 AM.
