By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

With yet another prep basketball season set to tip-off in the “Southern Six” and all across the state of Mississippi next week, there will be some new faces suiting up in different uniforms this year.
There were a pair of huge player transfers that caught the attention of prep hoops fans, one boy and one girl, along with a couple others that took many by surprise as well.
Former Moss Point standout Quey’Sean Taylor will finish out his prep career across Jefferson Street at arch-rival Pascagoula. Taylor competed for the Panthers in a jamboree over the weekend and will make his debut along with head coach Lorenzo Wright and the rest of the PHS squad Wednesday on the road at Biloxi.

“Quey’Sean is a unique player, we are excited to have him on our team.” Wright said Thursday morning. “He is a high energy guy that can be very explosive and can electrify the crowd. He’s adjusting to the guys really well and is learning and understanding his role.”
The 6-foot-5 Taylor has been a mainstay of late at MPHS, as he averaged almost 15 points and over eight rebounds per game for the Tigers last season and helped guide Moss Point to a first round Class 4A South State playoff appearance
“Having to go from being the man to a team focused unit, everyone playing as one has been an adjustment that he has made a tremendous leap in the short amount of time he has been here,’ Wright added.

Taylor joins a Panther team that recorded an historic season for the PHS program last season by winning 29 straight games and finished the season at 29-2 after advancing to the overall Class 6A state semifinals in Jackson.
His transfer will help Wright and his Panthers offset the loss of four key players including a trio of starters from last year’s team. Those losses included super standout Dorian McMillian, who signed with Jackson State after the sensational six-foot-3 sharpshooter, an athletic shooting guard, was selected to the prestigious “Dandy Dozen” squad as named by The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson newspaper in the preseason and then went on to excel on the hardwood his senior season for the Panthers as he was named Most Valuable Player in Region 4-6A scoring around 20 points per game was then named Class 6A “Mr. Basketball” in the state of Mississippi just before the state playoffs started.

In other moves within the “Southern Six” on the boys’ side of the ledger, Jaden Eckford has moved from Harrison Central to Biloxi to join what is expected to be a potent Indian squad under the direction of veteran head coach Seber Windham.
Eckford has already made his mark on the BHS athletic program through his role as a wide out on the Indian football team this season.
In addition to Taylor’s move, the biggest name on the girl’s side of things to transfer was former Harrison Central standout Jayla Carriere who is now at Biloxi.

Carriere, the younger sister of Mississippi State signee Anaisha Carriere, averaged double digits in scoring last season as just a freshman as HCHS went 24-6 last season and a berth in the Class 7A South State playoffs.
Carriere joins an already loaded roster for head coach Devin Hill and his Lady Indians that includes 6-foot-4 sophomore center Zaniya Johnson one the top college prospects in the Southeast.

Biloxi gets its season started along with their male counterparts on Tuesday at home against Moss Point.
Carriere wasn’t the only player HCHS lost as point guard Michelle Jackson transferred to West Harrison after starting as a sophomore last year at Harrison Central.
The Lady Hurricanes open the new season in the annual Pass Christian Tip-Off Tournament Tuesday night.