Eye on the prize: Coast boys basketball teams begin march to Jackson
The time has come for South Mississippi's best boys basketball teams to step up or go home.
Sixteen Coast teams made the state playoffs with 11 opening play Tuesday.
In Class 6A, D'Iberville travels to Biloxi and Harrison Central visits St. Martin, while Gulfport and George County have byes.
In 5A, West Harrison hosts Stone and Long Beach visits Picayune with Pascagoula earning a bye.
In 4A, Forrest County AHS treks to Pass Christian, Poplarville heads to Bay High and Moss Point is on the road at Columbia on Wednesday. Vancleave was supposed to visit Sumrall Tuesday night but the game was also moved to Wednesday due to the threat of severe weather.
All of the games are set for 7 p.m. starts except Poplarville-Bay, which starts at 6 p.m.
Moss Point-Columbia
Tony Woody's Moss Point Tigers (13-17) have a tough draw to open the Class 4A playoffs against his former team in Columbia (16-9).
Moss Point will travel to Columbia at 7 p.m. on Wednesday.
The Tigers won three of their last five games, but were bounced from their region tournament by Bay High.
Woody said playing sound defensively will be key if Moss Point is to advance.
"If we can play as well as we did Friday night and the last couple of games, we've got a good chance of going up there and getting a win," he said. "... This is the perfect time to be playing well and executing the game plan. This is the right time to be doing it."
St. Martin-Harrison Central
St. Martin coach Charlie Pavlus appreciated his team's effort, but the execution wasn't there last Friday when the Yellow Jackets (20-9) fell in the region championship to George County.
After the loss, Pavlus said his team has a decision to make if it's to make another post-season run.
"We've been here before. We've been to the Elite Eight three years in a row," Pavlus said. "This team gets to decide: What is it you want? Do you want this to be it? If you take care of business Tuesday you're right back in the game to go to Jackson. We're trying to get to Jackson to make things happen."
HCHS (16-13) has multiple weapons on the court, but the Red Rebels are run by Biscuit Floyd, who is averaging nearly 20 points a game.
"He's tough. He can put the ball on the floor and is as quick as you get. We've got to make things difficult. We have to guard better than we did (against George County)," he said. "Ultimately they have a great coach and a great team. They have more than Biscuit Floyd, I can promise you that. St. Martin has to come to work."
D'Iberville-Biloxi
Tuesday night's playoff matchup was a long time coming for the Warriors (19-11), who earned their first playoff bid in 10 years by defeating Ocean Springs in the region tournament.
In order to clinch the post-season berth, Kyle Winters and Zach Scales combined for a whopping 40 points in the win over the Greyhounds.
Now the Warriors and Indians must break the season tie. Biloxi won 59-40 at D'Iberville in November. The next month, the Warriors won 66-62 at Biloxi.
Sun Herald reporters Patick Magee and James Jones contributed to this story.
This story was originally published February 22, 2016 at 4:38 PM with the headline "Eye on the prize: Coast boys basketball teams begin march to Jackson ."