By JOSEPH W. GEX II/Sports Writer

GULFPORT — The Saint Stanislaus Rock-A-Chaws traveled to West Harrison after a late night division game in Foxworth and stumbled against the Hurricanes 55-50. Up to Saturday afternoon,  the Rocks (10-6, 2-0) had won six consecutive games.

Alan Gilliam opened the game for the Rocks with a three-pointer to give SSC the early lead. KeShawn Cook answered for the Hurricanes with a basket to cut the lead to 3-2.

The two teams battled basket-for-basket for the remainder of the period until the final 49 seconds when the Hurricanes went on a 7-0 run to close the period with Kameron Bolden scoring five of the seven points to give West Harrison a 17-10 advantage.

The Hurricanes (10-8) got up by 11 points 23-12 on a basket from Jazear Carter with 4:01 left in the first half. 

The Rocks went on two 5-0 runs late in the period but the Hurricanes answered each run with a three-ball from Jeremiah McWillams and DeAndre Weston, respectively, as the Hurricanes enjoyed a 29-22 halftime advantage.

With 4:12 left in the third period, SSC cut the lead to 35-32 on a three-pointer from Gilliam. However, the Hurricanes went on an 8-0 run before Gilliam sank another three-pointer to stop the run. 

The period ended with the Hurricanes enjoying a 45-37 lead. 

In the fourth period, Max Baria scored seven points to bring the Rocks within a basket at 51-49 with 2:25 to play. But, the Hurricanes got buckets from Cook and Weston to keep the advantage in favor of West Harrison.

West Harrison head coach Jeff Norwood commented, “If you play as hard as you can then you will get the opportunity at shots to stop the opponent’s runs. That happened today. Saint Stanislaus kept fighting hard and we were not able to get away from them. We talk about stepping up for the shot and multiple players had that opportunity today. I am excited about where we are right now. We have the division schedule ahead of us with Pascagoula coming up first. We have to play our best against them so it is time for our players to face the bullet. We are better than our record indicates.”

The Hurricanes were led by Logan Robinson and Kameron Bolden with 13 points each followed by Jazear Carter with 11 points and Cook with 10 points. 

SSC head coach Daniel Grieves stated, “I knew that we would be somewhat sluggish today due to the late night returning from West Marion following an overtime division game last night. We did not have the energy or the rest needed to play an opponent of the athletic caliber of West Harrison. We had a game plan for the game but we were not able to execute it fully. The cushion they built at the end of the first period hurt us. Today’s game was perfect for us though. We are a young team in a program that is still trying to locate consistent success. We had won six in a row before today. This game will ground us to focus on the division opponents like I know we can.”

The Rocks were led by Alan Gilliam with 17 points followed by Max Baria with 10 and Jason Forte with 9 points. 

The Rocks traveled to Foxworth for a Division 8-3A game against West Marion on Friday evening. The Rocks were able to outlast the Trojans 63-58 in overtime.

The Rocks were down at at halftime 26-24 and eventually got behind by as much as 15 points in the second half before forcing overtime scoring five points in the final 50 seconds of regulation to knot the score 46-46.

Shots at the free throw line sealed the game for SSC as the Rocks went 5-for-8 while West Marion was 2-for-12 in the extra frame. 

Max Baria led the Rocks with 30 points followed by Gilliam with 12 and Forte with 9 points.