By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

GULFPORT — The Gulfport girls picked up perhaps their biggest win of the season Tuesday night.

The Lady Admirals knocked off visiting St. Martin 69-53 in Region 4-7A play to pull into a tie for third place in the region race with Harrison Central after Biloxi bombed HCHS 54-13.

Gulfport moved to 3-3 in league play and 10-10 overall and has now won six of its last nine games since defeating D’Iberville on Dec. 20th for its first region win of the year.

Meanwhile, the Lady Yellow Jackets suffered their second league loss in a week and drop to 4-2 in the region race two full games behind league leading Biloxi at 6-0. St. Martin sits at 18-3 overall.

The two teams battled on even terms to start out, as Ashlyn Casey scored seven points for Gulfport and M.J. Avery added five points including a 3-pointer while Kylenn Ward tallied seven points in the frame for St. martin with a trey of her own and the game was knotted up at 17-17 entering the second quarter.

Ward added five more points including another triple while Janila Curtis nailed her second 3-pointer of the game and Kennedi Jenkins added a trey as well for St. Martin as the Lady Yellow Jackets surged ahead at halftime 31-25.

But the second half belonged to the home team. Kamrya Rockingham drained a pair of 3-pointers in the third frame and Skyy Bush added her second trey of the game as well and by the time Avery and Shamia Walker put in four points apiece the Lady Admirals had cut the deficit to just two points at 44-42 heading into the final period.

It would be the fourth quarter when Gulfport turned the tide totally in its favor, blitzing St. Martin 22-9 in the stanza thanks in large part to four 3-pointers.

Bush bombed a pair of triples and scored nine points on her own in the period while both Rockingham and Casey dropped in a trey apiece as the Lady Admirals swiftly took the lead and steadily extended it to close out the big win.

Bush and Avery tallied 17 points apiece to lead GHS, including four 3-pointers from Bush, while Casey added 14 points to the winning effort and Rockingham finished with nine points all coming on a trio of triples.

Ward drained a game-high 18 points to pace St. Martin, while Curtis had a career-high 12 points for the Lady Yellow Jackets as well.