By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

With the league-leading Hancock and cellar-dwelling George County girls off for a few days, both Pascagoula and West Harrison took steps a bit forward in Region 4-6A action Wednesday night.
The Lady Panthers won their third straight league game and pulled into a tie for number of region wins on the season with a 44-26 win over home-standing Long Beach. The Lady Panthers are 5-1 in the region race and firmly on the heels of Hancock which sits a perfect 5-0.
In their latest win, the Lady Panthers got off to a quick 12-4 lead after one quarter and never looked back, thanks to seven points from Massyah Thomas in the period including a 3-pointer.
Despite eight points from Long Beach’s Shania Hope in the second stanza, Pascagoula managed to stretch its lead just a bit to double digits at halftime as Aaliyah Moore drained a pair of 3-pointers to help put Pascagoula up 24-14 heading into the second half.
The Lady Bearcats never cut the deficit to single digits again.

In the third frame, it was Lady Panther Peyton Harmon’s turn to step up for PHS as she tallied 10 of Pascagoula’s 12 points in the period as the advantage reached 36-20 after three quarters.
Harmon raced Pascagoula with 13 points in the win, while Thomas chipped in 11 points and Samaha Johnson added eight points as the Lady Panthers moved to back above the .500 level at 9-8 on the year.
Long Beach dropped to 2-4 in league play and 8-11 overall, getting a game-high 15 points from Hope in the loss.

Also, in Picayune on Wednesday night, West Harrison slipped past Picayune 47-44 in league play. The win pushes the Lady Canes into sole possession of third place in the region race at 4-2, while the Lady Tide stands 1-5 in the loop.
Picayune led slightly at 21-20 at halftime, after Laikyn Moore scored six points in the first half for the Lady Tide.
But West Harrison out-scored PMHS 13-7 in the third frame to take the lead for good, getting five points from Sydnei Barber including a 3-pointer as well as four points in that span from Miranda Parker.
Barber led WHHS with a game-high 16 points while Parker added 10 points and Jaylenn Applewhite had eight points in the win.
Devin Adkins paced Picayune with nine points while Amiya Graves added eight points as the Lady Tide dropped to 8-15 overall.

The two games played Wednesday night were postponements from Tuesday. The other Region 4-6A contest that was originally slated for Tuesday night was Hancock at George County, and that game was moved to Thursday, Jan. 25th.