By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

OCEAN SPRINGS — On Tuesday night, in the semifinals of the first-ever Region 4-7A Tournament, St. Martin upset Harrison Central after losing two games to that same squad in the regular season.
Friday night, in the championship game of the same event, the same scenario played out again..
The third-seed Lady Yellow Jackets toppled top-seed Biloxi 42-34 thanks to a furious second half rally to capture the first-ever league crown.
Despite the loss, which dropped Biloxi to 25-5 overall, both Biloxi and the Lady Yellow Jackets will open the first-ever Class 7A state playoffs at home next week.
St. Martin moved to 22-7 with the huge upset win under the guidance of second-year head coach Jason Kennedy.
“I’m just so proud of the girls for leaving it all on the court,” a jubilant Kennedy said “We talked about this very moment from Day one. Our motto for the season has been ‘Don’t matter get better’. We were down big in the first, not much was going our way-at halftime I told them no excuses Don’t matter get better. Let’s be better in the 2nd half. We made a few adjustments and the girls’ hearts took care of the rest.”

Trailing 20-13 at halftime after a sluggish first half, St. Martin came alive in the third and fourth frames outscoring Biloxi 29-14 to pull out the win.
Behind the work of a pair of a pair of sophomore standouts in Kaleah Lowery and Kylenn Ward, the Lady Yellow Jackets dominated play in the third period as they began to make their move.
Lowery drained a trio of 3-pointers in the stanza, while Ward added seven points including a trey of her own as a 10-2 run at one point helped SMHS out-score the Lady Indians 17-9 in the period and take a slight 30-29 lead entering the final quarter.

It was more of the same from Ward in the last eight minutes of play, as she hit yet another 3-pointer and tallied eight more points while Jay Robinson added a pair of key baskets inside and St. Martin kept Biloxi at bay to secure the win.
Ward scored a season and game-high 21 points to lead the Lady Yellow Jackets, while Lowery chipped in 16 points to the winning effort including a game-high four 3-pointers.
Zaniya Johnson and Aaliyah Davidson each scored 10 points apiece for Biloxi.

The win came the third meeting of the season between the two neighbors, but Biloxi won both of those games with a close 31-29 road win in early January as well as a 39-27 home victory just a little over two weeks ago.

“After losing twice during the regular season to Biloxi and be able to grow each day so we can get the dub tonight just says so much about how locked in our girls are to the process,” Kennedy added. “It’s a great day to be a Yellow Jacket”.

In Tuesday’s semifinals, Biloxi advanced to the title tilt with a 65-27 win over D’Iberville. Johnson poured in 21 points and pulled down nine rebounds in the easy 38-point win. Amari Meredith added 12 points and seven steals to the winning attack, while Jada Washington had eight points and Nakenna Terry dished out seven assists.
The Lady Yellow Jackets moved on to the finals by upsetting Harrison Central 49-41 on the same night. The win came after SMHS dropped a pair of games in the regular season to HCHS.
In the girls’ consolation contest on Thursday, Harrison Central dropped D’Iberville 55-38. Freshman Jayla Carriere drained a game-high 24 points for Harrison Central, while Teeale Wells led DHS with nine points.
The state playoffs for the girls begin next Friday.