By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

OCEAN SPRINGS — It’s been 16 years since the boy’s basketball team at Gulfport High School didn’t qualify for the South State playoffs.
But that’s exactly the scenario that could play out early Monday evening here at Hubbard Gymnasium on the campus of Ocean Springs High School as the Region 4-7A Tournament begins.
The Admirals face D’Iberville for the third time this season at 5 p.m., in the second game of the event in a do-or-die situation for both teams. The Warriors have already swept two games from Gulfport this season, including taking a 36-31 road win in Bert Jenkins Gym to wrap up region regular season action Tuesday.
The other decision was also a five-point win, 51-46 in D’Iberville in mid-December.
Gulfport has missed the state basketball playoffs just four times in the past almost four decades. The last time was to end the 2008 season when they fell in Petal to the Panthers in the first round of the Division 8-5A Tournament 59-50 to wrap up what was also their last losing season as well at 13-15.

Gulfport is guaranteed a losing season for the first time since that season no matter what happens the rest of the way this year, as the Admirals sit 8-18 overall and finished as the fifth seed in the region race at 2-8.
D’Iberville is the fourth seed, while third-seed Ocean Springs takes on sixth-seeded St. Martin at 8 p.m., Monday night in the other opening-round elimination contest on the boys’ side of the bracket.
Meanwhile, in opening round play for the girls on Monday, third-seed St. Martin takes on sixth-seed Ocean Springs in the first game of the event at 3:30 p.m., while the fifth-seed Gulfport girls face fourth-seed D’Iberville at 6:30.
Again, the winners from Monday’s opening day games secure berths in the state playoffs and move on to semifinal action on Tuesday.The teams that lose on Monday say goodbye to basketball until next season.

Biloxi and Harrison Central are the two top seeds on both sides of the bracket, and they join the fray on Tuesday.
Tuesday also features four games, as the HCHS girls face either OSHS or SMHS at 3:30, followed by the top-seed Red Rebels taking on the survivor of the Warriors-Admirals affair at 5:00. The final two semifinal games pit the top-seed Biloxi girls against either Gulfport or D’Iberville, while the Biloxi boys face the winner of Monday’s Ocean Springs-SMHS contest.at 8 p.m.
Winners from the semifinal round advance on to Friday’s title tilts, while the losing teams are back in action on Thursday night playing for third seeds.
Also, the winners of the semifinal round games clinch home playoff games in the opening round of the state playoffs, while the teams playing in consolation contests on Thursday automatically hit the road to start the playoffs.