Biloxi basketball powered by pair of dominant duos
You don’t have to take your pick when you walk inside the gym at Biloxi High.
Get there early enough and you can take in the low post prowess of a William Carey signee and the eighth grade prodigy that shares the hardwood with her.
Stay a bit later and watch an ultra-athletic tandem electrify the building with three-level scoring built by years of experience.
Between the Biloxi boys and girls basketball programs, bang for your buck practically comes guaranteed.
The two have combined for 36 wins against only eight losses so far this season and both are buoyed by their own star duos.
Reunited on the floor
Coach Seber Windham’s boys team has benefited from Vanderbilt football signee Duran Parish and the dynamic offensive boost he provides for several years.
Parish’s copilot, James Turner, calls Biloxi his home but spent his junior season at Mendenhall last year. The two reunited last summer and it has spelled trouble for their opponents ever since.
“Knowing that we had already played so many years together and we already had our chemistry down pat ... in my head I was like, ‘Oh, yeah. Championship,’” Parish told the Sun Herald about learning of Turner’s return.
Both are Dandy Dozen players that the rest of the Coast has had a difficult time slowing down. Most recently, the pair combined for 36 points in a win over Gulfport that completed a district sweep over the Admirals.
The Indians are in the driver’s seat of district 8-6A with a 5-0 record and just one region game remaining.
Biloxi’s ability to pick up where last year’s district-championship winning team left off can be largely attributed to the guard combo.
“When I first saw them, I knew they were going to be a really good pairing together,” Windham said. “They kind of compliment each other. Both of them are really point guards, but we play James off the ball and keep the ball in Duran’s hands ... but James has a knack for scoring the basketball. That’s why he leads the team in scoring. We’re just happy to have them two together.”
Two aggressive ball-handling court presences often struggle to mesh on the floor, but the senior combo hasn’t run into any issues this season.
The tight chemistry is a big reason why the Indians have won 14 of their last 15 games.
“That’s my guy,” Turner said of Parish. “How our system is designed, you’re either going to trap (Parish) or you’re going to trap me. Make your choice. You trap us and you leave a shooter. We all play together... It’s a team.”
Passing the torch
The last four years of Devin Hill’s tenure over the Lady Indians program has been marked by the dominant play of Shaneal Corpuz.
The senior is having another standout season, averaging 20 points and nine rebounds per contest in her last ride before taking her talents to William Carey.
Biloxi has improved in each season since Corpuz’s first and she has her Indians pushing for their first 20-win season since 2019.
“Shaneal is a four-year starter for us,” Hill said. “When we moved her up, it was out necessity, we had some kids transfer out and we had to play Shaneal as a ninth grader... She’s going to go down probably tops in our school history with over 1,500 points, 1,000 rebounds and 500 blocks (in Corpuz’s career). She’s one of those irreplaceable girls.”
Though Hill believes Corpuz is one of the greatest to pass through the Lady Indians program, he leaves an important caveat knowing who will be back-filling Corpuz’s role on the post.
Her name is Zaniya Johnson, she’s 6-foot-4, averaging close to a double-double on varsity and she’s only in eighth grade.
“Zaniya is going to come right behind (Corpuz) and I think she’s going to reset every record that Shaneal has set,” Hill said.
Hill says Corpuz benefited as a freshman from senior forward Marcavia Shavers, who now stars at Pearl River C.C., and Corpuz has been paying it forward by helping develop Johnson.
“They are Bonnie and Clyde, they get along well,” Hill said of Corpuz and Johnson’s relationship. “They’re always together. They sit together all the time, they hang out all the time.”
Hill’s team has faced some challenges down the stretch brought on by injuries, including a torn ACL suffered by his daughter Aubrey, that has heightened the importance of each already-important contest.
The Lady Indians have lost four of their last five games and have a stout Harrison Central team coming up.
Hill said his team has struggled with depth over the years and the stretch run to this season is no different.
“This journey, this season, is not going to get easier, it’s only going to get harder,” Hill said. “We have to learn how to handle hard better... This is just a roadblock. It’s not the end, it’s just a detour. We can still get to our destination, we just got to find another route.”
Both boy’s and girl’s teams will end the regular season with games against Moss Point before the district tournaments begin.
