St. Martin boys, girls stay on top

The St. Martin boys took their first loss of the season last week, but the Yellow Jackets remain the unanimous selection in this week's Sun Herald Top 10.

With identical records of 13-1, the St. Martin boys and girls both top their respective polls.

The St. Martin boys are back from a strong three-game run in a tournament at Disney's Wide World of Sports Arena in Orlando. The event featured teams from across the nation.

The Yellow Jackets went 3-1 last week, starting with a 65-30 win over Gautier.

St. Martin lost 80-67 to Chartiers Valley (Pa.) in the Dec. 17 tournament opener. The Yellow Jackets rebounded the next two days to win 62-60 over Golden, Colo., and 76-54 over Southern from Louisville, Ky.

"It was a great experience to go play three different schools from three different states," St. Martin coach Charlie Pavlus said. "The first two games we played were the toughest games we played all year."

Chartiers Valley hit 11 3-pointers in the first half to overcome Stacee St. Julian's game high of 38 points and 13 rebounds in the first game.

St. Julian had 17 points and Johnnelius Anderson added 16 in the win over Golden. Daetren Bivens hit a 3-pointer with a minute remaining that proved to be the decisive shot.

St. Martin cruised behind 21 points from St. Julian and 20 from Bivens to clinch its final game of the tournament.

"In the last two games of the tournament, Bivens played really well," Pavlus said.

The top five teams remain the same in the boys poll with Gulfport (9-5) at No. 2 and Pascagoula (9-2) sitting at No. 3, D'Iberville (10-2) at No. 4 and Biloxi (7-4) at No. 5.

D'Iberville solidified its spot at No. 4 thanks to a 66-62 win over Biloxi Saturday in the Jackie Laird Christmas Classic.

Moss Point (5-5) is the newest member of the poll at No. 10 while Harrison Central (5-6) drops out.

West Harrison (9-1) remains at No. 2 in this week's girls poll following double-digit wins over Gulfport and Mendenhall last week.

Ocean Springs is the biggest climber in this week's poll, moving up from No. 5 to No. 3 after pushing its record to 10-1 with wins last week over Hancock and Stone High.

Pascagoula (11-3) checks in at No. 4 and Harrison Central (7-4) moved up one spot to No. 5.

The St. Patrick girls (8-2) are the newest member of the Sun Herald Top 10, tying with Biloxi (6-6) for the No. 9 spot.

This story was originally published December 21, 2015 at 7:19 PM with the headline "St. Martin boys, girls stay on top ."