By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

BILOXI — St. Patrick moved into sole possession of second place in Region 8-3A Wednesday night with an exciting 66-63 win over arch-rival St. Stanislaus in a Catholic league showdown.
The win moved the Fighting Irish to 4-1 in the region race and 15-7 overall. St. Patrick trails unbeaten Tylertown in the league standings, and the Chiefs beat the Fighting Irish 64-51 two weeks ago.
“It was a big win for us,” SPHS head coach Keith Robinson said. “St. Stanislaus didn’t quit. We let the big lead get away from us, but made some big plays at the end to get the win.”

The win over the Rock-A-Chaws came down to a battle between both teams’ leading scorers, as St. Patrick’s Matt Krass tallied a game-high 28 points and SSC’s Paxton Debardleben tallied 26 points.
Thanks to six points from Krass, the Fighting Irish took a slight 11-9 lead after the first quarter.
Krass was right back at it in the second stanza, scoring nine points including two 3-pointers as SPHS stretched its advantage to seven, at 29-22, going into halftime.
The third quarter was when the Fighting Irish created the big lead that Robinson mentioned, as they out-scored SSC 25-12. Krass had eight points in the frame and Max Triplett added five points for SPHS as the Irish jumped ahead 54-34 entering the final frame.

But Debardleben scored eight points in the fourth period and Allan Gilliam added five points as the Rocks continually cut into the large deficit and Debardleben finished off a furious 25-5 run for the Rocks with a 3-pointer that knotted the game up at 59-59 with just under two minutes to play.
The suddenly staggering Fighting Irish recovered, however, and just in time as Krass sank a pair of free throws with 1:11 to play to return the lead for good to SPHS.
St. Patrick led 63-61 after a pair of free throws by Jack Hewes when Triplett came up with a big blocked shot on the defensive end which transitioned into an even bigger slam dunk by him on the offensive end to seal the win with 15 seconds left.
Krass led the scoring parade for St. Patrick with his 28 points, while Hewes added 13 points and Triplett added 10 points to the winning cause. St. Patrick hosts West Marion in region action Friday night.
In addition to Bardleben’s 26 points, Gilliam and Henry Williams each added nine points apiece for SSC. The Rocks fell to an even 11-11 overall and dropped to 2-2 in the region race which puts them in third place.