By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

Both the Harrison Central and Moss Point boys proved that the home-court advantage can be a real thing in important games Monday night.
The Red Rebels clinched the top seed in Region 4-7A with a 75-26 thumping of visiting St. Martin while Moss Point clinched a Class 4A South State playoff berth with a 49-39 win in Region 8-4A play over Greene County.
At Arthur Haynes Gymnasium in Moss Point, the Tigers wrapped up the league portion of their schedule with a 10-point win over the Wildcats. Moss Point secured the number two seed behind Pass Christian for the upcoming Region 8-4A Tournament in Poplarville next week.
“It is always one of our goals, to make the playoffs.” Moss Point head coach Daryl Osby said. “So we’ve accomplished that. Now we want to build from there and continue to work hard and keep getting better. We always take it one game at a time.”

The Tigers and Wildcats will face off in a rematch to open tourney play next week after the teams split their regular season meetings with GCHS winning 66-46 in mid-December.
Moss Point got 15 points from Jujuan Nettles and 12 points from Quey’Sean Taylor in the win, which moved the Tigers to 16-11 overall while the Wildcats fell to 4-3 and to third place in the region race and 13-10 overall.

Yet another win in Moss Point’s prior game, Friday night over Bay High, put MPHS in position to seize the second seed. In that contest, a 55-36 win over the visitors from Hancock County, Alejandro Montalvo tallied a game-high 18 points for Moss Point to lead the way to the win, while John Feaster Jr., added eight points and Kevon Ford seven points. Taylor grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds,, while Ford added four assists.

Bay High got 15 points from Anthony Robinson in the loss. After another loss to Petal in “HoopsFest” on Saturday, Bay High stands 4-20 overall and 1-6 in the region race and will wrap up league play with a home game against last-place Poplarville Friday night.
Those same two teams will face off in the first round of the region tourney next week with a berth to the state playoffs on the line. The Hornets are 0-22 overall.
Meanwhile, in Lyman Monday night, home-standing Harrison Central cruised to the top spot in Region 4-7A with a dominating performance against St. Martin.

Aujaylen Barron poured in a game-high 29 points to pace the Red Rebels to the 75-26 win, and he also had three steals. Xavier Quinn and Jaden Eckford added nine points apiece to the winning effort, while Nehemiah Barnett had eight points and five assists. Shaun Murray and Jashun McMillian had nine rebounds each.
St. Martin, which trailed 21-5 after the first quarter, got seven points from Terrence Allen while Ty’Lah Whitlock pulled down seven rebounds and Christian Dinh dished out five assists.
Harrison Central wrapped up league play at 9-1 and with nine straight region wins, and the Red Rebels are just one win shy of 20 at 19-8. The Yellow Jackets finish in last place in the region race at 1-9 and stand 4-20 overall.