By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

GULFPORT — The Gulfport girls host St. Martin Tuesday night in a key Region 4-7A contest to tip-off the second half of the schedule in league play for both teams.

The Lady Yellow Jackets sit in second place in the region race at 4-1, one game behind league leading Biloxi which is 5-0. The Lady Admirals are 2-3, but have won two out of their last three league games after starting out the region race with two straight losses including a 63-39 thumping from St. Martin a little less than a month ago.

Harrison central at 3-2 sits one game behind SMHS and one game. in front of GHS in the league standings.

However, since the calendar flipped to a new year, Gulfport has beaten Ocean Springs 57-41 and fell in a close one to arch-rival Biloxi 40-36 Friday night in a contest that marked the closest league encounter thus far for the Lady Indians.

In that game, Biloxi sophomore guard Jayla Carriere sank three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to hold off a scrappy Gulfport squad in the four point decision on Friday.

Biloxi led by three at the end of three quarters, but Gulfport scored twice to regain the lead at 28-26 early in the period. Biloxi’s sophomore star center Zaniya Johnson scored on a layup to tie the game at 28-28.

Carriere’s first 3-pointer of the period came on the Lady Indians’ next possession as she broke the tie to give them the lead at 31-28. Gulfport’s M.J. Avery responded on their next possession with a 3-pointer to tie the game at 31-31.

Biloxi’s defense turned it up a notch midway through the fourth quarter, stealing the ball from the Lady Admirals on consecutive two possessions, and forcing an errant pass out of bounds on their next possession. Zaniya Johnson scored on a layup, capitalizing on that turnover to give them their biggest lead of the game at 39-31.

Gulfport would score on their next two possessions, first on an Ashlyn Casey 3-pointer, then on a 12-foot jumper by Kamyra Rockingham to pull within 3 of Biloxi (39-36) with 45 seconds left in the game.

From that point, Biloxi’s Aaliyah Davison handled the ball for the Lady Indians, and she was fouled on three consecutive possessions. She sank one of six free throws, closing out the game’s scoring.

“Great effort,” said Gulfport coach Marcus Price. “Great environment. The biggest crowd we’ve had all year. The kids were up for the challenge. We played good defense and stuck to our game plan.”

Since spanking D’Iberville 58-28 five days before Christmas, the Lady Admirals are 5-3 overall with their three losses coming to Biloxi, Hancock and Gulf Shores, Ala.

Biloxi and Hancock are a combined 39-3 on the season and the loss to the Lady Dolphins came in the finals of their “Bash on the Beach Christmas Classic”.

Last week in the win over Ocean Springs, Shamia Walker tallied 14 points and Avery chipped in 13 points to the winning effort for Gulfport.

Lady Greyhound Starr Jackson dropped in a game-high 16 points in the loss and Lalya Daley added 10 points for OSHS.

Meanwhile, St. Martin is coming off of an up and down week last week as the Lady Yellow Jackets fell to Biloxi 51-12 Tuesday night before bouncing back to down D’Iberville 60-31 Friday night.

In the win over the Lady Warriors, Kylenn Ward tallied a game-high 16 points for St. Martin while Kennedi Jenkins chipped in 12 points to the winning effort and Yvette Nathan added 10 points.

Nay Jefferson had 12 points for the Lady Warriors.

St. Martin head coach Jason Kennedy and his crew comes into the showdown with Gulfport Tuesday night at an impressive 18-2 overall. Their only two losses are to Biloxi and Hancock.