By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

OCEAN SPRINGS — The last time that the Ocean Springs boys basketball team won a state playoff game no player on the current team was alive.
In fact, their head coach wasn’t even as old as his five starters this season are.

But that all changed Saturday night in Hubbard Gymnasium.
The Greyhounds pounded Pearl 61-47 in the opening round of the Class 7A South State playoffs. The win marked the first playoff win for the OSHS boys squad in 20 years, since 2004.
The win also gave first-year head coach Collin Goley and his Greyhounds their 20th win of the season, as they now stand 20-8 heading into the Class 7A South State Quarterfinal Tournament in Perkinston next weekend at Dantler Arena on the campus of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.

“We came into the game wanting to keep them out of the lane and make them shoot tough contested jumpers,” Goley, a former Greyhound standout himself, said. He graduated from OSHS in 2008, and was 14 years old the last time OSHS won a boy’s playoff basketball game.
“Pearl has some really talented guys that can make tough shots.” he continued. “But we wanted to make them settle for those shots. I thought we did a good job of that.”
The Greyhounds got off to a bit of a sluggish start, trailing the Pirates 15-10 at the end of the first quarter.
But Ocean Springs began to get into the flow more so both offensively and defensively in the second stanza, as the Greyhounds got points from six different players including 3-pointers from Elijah Isom, Brooks Saucier and Jaylin Goleman in the period and the defense held Pearl to just five points. The Greyhound outscored the Pirates 14-5 in the frame, taking their first lead of the night in the process and headed into halftime up 24-20.

“Offensively we handled their 1-2-2 half-court trap well throughout the game,” Goley added. “Our guards did a good job being tough when they were trapped and Christian Bingham did a good job being available in the middle of the floor. We got good looks all night, first quarter they didn’t fall for us, but we stayed the course and they started to fall in second quarter. “
Ocean Springs steadily increased its lead as the second half unfolded. Maddox Noblitt drained a pair of 3-pointers and Kaleb Bradley added a trey as well, and the Greyhounds used a 7-0 spurt at one point to stretch the advantage to 44-31 entering the final period.
Any hopes the Pirates held of a furious fourth quarter comeback were dashed on the rocks as Noblitt added two more 3-pointers and Bradley converted five of six free throw attempts to heal seal the historic win.

The junior standout shooting guard Noblitt tallied a game-high 18 points to guide the Greyhounds, while Isom chipped in 11 points and Bradley added 10 points to the winning effort.
Michael Robinson scored 17 points to pace Pearl. The Pirates finished the year at 18-12.
Next up for Ocean Springs is a match-up with perennial state power Meridian on Saturday afternoon. The Wildcats, led by former Pascagoula head coach Ron Normand, knocked off Gulfport 64-41 Saturday night.