By MAURICE SINGLETON/Sports Writer

GULFPORT — The Brian Butler era as head basketball coach of the Gulfport Admirals basketball team began with an impressive 63-45 win over the Petal Panthers on Tuesday evening in Bert Jenkins Gymnasium.

Butler is the first African-American head coach of the GHS boys team in the 100-year history of the program.

Petal opened the game with a 5-0 run, but from there the Admirals’ defense took over, forcing eight first quarter turnovers and scoring nineteen unanswered points before closing the opening period with a 21-8 lead.

The Admirals would extend their lead to as many as thirty-two points early in the fourth quarter.

“I was excited to get here,” said Butler in his first regular season game as Admirals head coach. “The boys have put in a lot of hard work, and we’ve done a lot to get to this point right here. Everything we’ve done has gotten us to this point right here, and we’re excited to have it.

“We’re just aggressive defensively,” Butler explained the intensity that led to the eight early Petal turnovers. “We try to make sure that we put a lot of pressure on the ball and put a lot of pressure on our gaps.”

Morris Robertson got the Admirals going with a layup off of a turnover. Then Travor Frost scored on a layup off of a turnover. Denzel Jackson sank a 10-footer after a Petal turnover to give the Admirals a 6-5 lead, and the Admirals never trailed after that.

The Admirals’ first quarter scoring got a huge burst from Robertson who scored 8 points during the period.

The Panthers scored 8 points in each of the first three quarters, but they had their biggest offensive output in the fourth quarter when they outscored the Admirals 21-9 in the period as they rallied to cut the 32-point deficit in half, led by a 14-point scoring effort by Smith in the period.

Smith led the Panthers with 21 points, followed by Makhi Keyes with 12 points and Tyler Fulton contributed 12 points.

Robertson would lead Admirals scorers with 14 points on the night, followed by Frost with 13 points. Tavarus Brown added three 3-pointers in the second quarter, finishing with 9 points.

Butler reflected on being the first African American head basketball coach in the 100+ year history of Gulfport basketball: “It’s an honor to be a part of the tradition for sure, Everybody talks to me about the pressure of it, I mean, at the end of the day, I’m a basketball coach. This is what I love to do, and this is what God has blessed me enough to bring me here.”

Gulfport resumes play at Long Beach on Saturday. Petal hosts Laurel on Friday.