By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

PASCAGOULA — For the first time ever in his nine seasons as a head coach at Pascagoula, Panther mentor Lorenzo Wright’s squad endured a lengthy 17-day layoff over the holiday break.

Now, for the first time in almost two years, his PHS team has lost two straight games as well as back-to-back contests on consecutive nights for the first time in 25 months

Pascagoula returned from its vacation with a 50-40 loss to visiting D’Iberville Friday night, before falling to West Jones Saturday night 68-52 in the final game of the 16th annual “Panther Classic” here at Pascagoula High School.

“We’ll see how we play when faced with adversity,” Wright said, immediately after the loss to the Mustangs Saturday night. The 16-point loss was the largest for PHS since falling to Horn Lake on a neutral court 88-70 on Jan. 16th, 2023.

“I’m anxious to see how we come out in our next game.” He added.

Pascagoula falls to 12-3 on the season, while WJHS is just 5-12 on the year. The loss to WJHS was the largest at home for PHS since losing to visiting Wayne County 67-47 almost five years ago.

It also marks the first time since late January of that aforementioned 2020 season that the Panthers lost consecutive games by double digits, as they followed that loss to the War Eagles up with a 52-32 loss the next day to Gulfport in the HoopsFest at The Mississippi Coast Coliseum.

The Mustangs stampeded the Panthers in the first half Saturday night, jumping out to a double digit lead just before intermission and leading 31-21 at halftime thanks to a 20-point output in the second quarter.

West Jones drained four 3-pointers in the frame, including a pair from Ladamian Keyes in that explosive second stanza. Javier Buxton scored eight points in the first quarter to get WJHS off to a fast start.

Any hopes of a big comeback by the home team were quickly laid to rest by the Mustangs as the third frame unfolded, when Keegan Holmes dropped in two quick triples and accounted for 10 points in the quarter as West Jones steadily held off the Panthers.

Holmes paced WJHS with a game-high 19 points, while Buxton chipped in 12 points and Keyes added 11 points to the winning effort.

Marcus Cooper paced PHS with 11 points. The Panthers were without several key starters.

On Friday night, 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.

Pascagoula returns to Region 4-6A play Tuesday night hosting West Harrison.