By SAM STAFF/Sports Writer

PASCAGOULA — On Friday night, D’Iberville knocked off one of the top Class 6A squads in the state.

But, less than 24 hours later and right back in the same gym, the Warriors couldn’t duplicate that feat when they moved back up to Class 7A competition.

D’Iberville fell to Northwest Rankin 48-26 in game four of the “Panther Classic” here at Pascagoula High Saturday afternoon. The loss came on the heels of a 50-40 win over home-standing Pascagoula for the Warriors Friday night.

In that game, D’Iberville led throughout most of the game taking a 17-9 lead after the opening quarter thanks to six points in the stanza from Steph Suszczyk.

Panther senior standout Kelan Rich tallied seven first half points, including a 3-pointer, helping Pascagoula stay within striking distance by halftime behind by a count of 23-18. But D’Iberville’s Juan Santiago matched that first half output from Rich in the same fashion, also with a trey to keep the Warriors in the lead.

However, Santiago tallied eight points in the third quarter for DHS as the Warriors steadily stretched their lead out to double digits at 42-31 entering the fourth period and maintained that advantage down the stretch to seal the win.

Santiago tallied a game-high 18 points for D’Iberville, Jeremiah Hunter added nine points to the winning effort.

Rich paced PHS with 15 points.

On Saturday, The Warriors couldn’t capitalize on that big upset win from the night before falling to Northwest Rankin in a big way.

Santiago also led DHS on Saturday with 10 points, as the Warriors fell to 11-5 overall.

The Cougars, who led just 13-12 at halftime, took complete control in the second half and blew the doors off D’Iberville out-scoring the Warriors 35-13 to secure the win.

Deshawn Dillon lead the Cougars with a game-high 14 points. Northwest Rankin sank seven 3-pointers in the win, moving to 10-8 on the year.

Next up for D’Iberville is a return home to welcome in Harrison Central to resume Region 4-7A play Tuesday night.