By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

PASS CHRISTIAN — It’s been a tale of two seasons this year for the Pass Christian boys basketball team.
Fortunately, the second part of the saga was much more successful and still has at least another chapter or two left to be written.
The Pirates of veteran head coach Buddy Kennedy stand a solid 24-8 overall as they head to Poplarville Saturday for the Class 4A South State Quarterfinals Tournament. Pass faces perennial state power Raymond at 5:30 at Marvin White Coliseum on the campus of Pear River Community College with a berth in the overall Class 4A Final Four in Jackson on the line.

“This has been a season of growth for us,” Kennedy, who has now surpassed the 20-win total in a season 20 times at the helm of the Pirates, said Thursday afternoon after practice. “We lost a few games early, but we’ve played much better since then and during that time our players have become a very close group. They are unselfish, play together, and understand their roles. I’m proud of what they’ve accomplished and we want to continue playing as long as we can.”
Thanks to the work of a stellar senior class along with the play of a couple of underclassmen, the Pirates have won 16 out of their past 17 games since returning from a three-day tournament in Orlando, Fla., a week before Christmas.
At that point, Kennedy’s crew stood 8-6 overall after suffering four straight losses including three in the Sunshine State.

In addition, Pass Christian also had to work through unknown territory in the first half of its schedule after the Pirates football team advanced further into the state playoffs than ever before in the history of the program. Seven members of the PCHS basketball teams were also members of that football squad that reached the third round of the Class 4A South State playoffs.
“We were without three of our top six players for that long, which was uncharted waters for us,” Kennedy said. “It was great for the football team and for the school, but it was an adjustment for all of us, players and coaches. But it also gave some of our younger players a chance to get some experience that they might not have normally gotten.’

After arriving back on Mississippi soil, it was yet another road encounter in their final game before the holiday break in a 58-36 win over St. Martin that signaled the start of something special for the Pirates.
That tipped off a 12-game win streak for Pass Christian, which included a perfect 8-0 march through Region 8-4A play before the Pirates were nipped on the road 49-48 by Sumrall in the final game of the regular season.
“Sometimes coaching high school basketball is a lot more than the on-court results and X’s and O’s,” Kennedy told SouthMiss6 Sports, after that trip to Florida. “We lost all three games in Florida but I thought that spending four days together on that trip helped us maybe kind of mesh together a little more as a team. All three games could have gone either way, and I fully expected us to play better once we got back home.”

And indeed they have. A trio of senior guards have been the nucleus of the recent winning run for the Pirates, in L.J. Jaynes, A.J. James and Terry Patton. Jaynes, who eclipsed the magical 1,000 career points scored milestone earlier this season, was named the Region 8-4A Most Valuable Player while James was named Defensive Player of the Year in the loop and Patton was named to the All Region team after becoming the first athlete in South Mississippi history to play in the annual Bernard Blackwell North/South All-Star Football Game as well as a basketball game fr his school on the same day.
“They’re the backbone of our team,” Kennedy, who has registered over 600 career wins during his almost three decades over two different tenures guiding the Pirates, added. “They set the tone in practice every day as well as in each game. They exemplify everything that our program is about and because of what they have done, others will be ready to follow in their path next season.”

All three average right around double digits in scoring on the season, as do junior forward Brendan Necaise and sophomore center Kyran Laneaux. Junior forward Gus Simpson along with Necaise were both named to the All-Region 8-4A team as well.
It’ll take the concerted efforts of all of those Pirates and then some this weekend against the powerful Rangers. Raymond has won four of the last seven Class 4A state championships including two years ago and the Rangers came up just short of defending their title last year falling in the championship contest 53-43 to Yazoo City.
The Rangers stand an impressive 28-4 this season, and are led by one of the top collegiate prospects in the Gulf South region in versatile 6-foot-9 standout E.J. Paymon. Paymon was recently named Class 4A “Mr. Basketball” in the state of Mississippi for the second consecutive season and he had offers from over 50 Division I schools including at least 30 from Power Five conference members before signing with Mississippi State a few weeks ago.

Paymon is averaging 24 points, nine rebounds, five assists and four blocks per game and is the consensus top-ranked recruit in the state. Raymond has won 18 out of its last 19 games coming into Saturday.
“Raymond has definitely earned their number one ranking,” Kennedy concluded. “They present multiple problems because they’re big, physical, and have multiple guys that can shoot the three. Also, not too many teams have a 6-9 guy who can play every position on the floor. We’ll have to be at our best defensively as well as be able to handle the tremendous pressure that they’ll apply on us. I expect us to play well.”
Pass is in search of its second boys basketball state championship in program history and first since 2009. The Pirates lost to St. Stanislaus in the 201 state finals.