By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

BILOXI — The Biloxi girl’s basketball team clinched a berth in the upcoming Class 7A South State playoffs Friday night.

But the Lady Indians did so without a couple of key pieces that have been instrumental in their impressive start this season, and both are from the same family.

Biloxi thumped visiting D’Iberville 40-15 in Region 4-7A action to move to an impressive 22-1 overall and remain perfect at 7-0 in league play. The Lady Warriors fall to 5-15 overall and are still searching for their first win in the region race at 0-7 on the season.

The Lady Indians did so without head coach Devin Hill on the sidelines or without his daughter Aubrey Hill in the line-up. It marked the third straight game that the younger Hill hadn’t played for Biloxi, after the senior has started since she was a sophomore as well as most of the first 20 games of this season.

When reached for comment Saturday afternoon, Coach Hill said this in a message to SouthMiss6 Sports:

“Respectfully, let’s keep the stories about our team and what we are trying to accomplish…”

Due to the weekend and a school holiday on Monday, no one from the Biloxi High School administration was available for comment.

With the win, and even with three league games left to play the Lady Indians have already clinched at least the second seed in the upcoming Region 4-7A Tournament which takes place in Gulfport in a little over two weeks. The top two seeds entering the tourney automatically earn byes into the semifinal round and the top four teams qualify for the state playoffs.

After opening the season with 20 straight wins, the Lady Indians suffered their only loss of the season so far last weekend in a 32-25 loss to Florida powerhouse Booker T. Washington of Pensacola. But since then, the Lady Indians have bounced back with a pair of impressive region wins beating Harrison Central on the road 54-13 Tuesday with Coach Hill on the bench and then DHS Friday without him in charge.

Biloxi has won 15 straight games against competition from the state of Mississippi, as the Lady Indians continue their chase for the first-ever state championship in girls’ basketball program history.

Next up for Biloxi is scheduled to be a region game on the road at St. Martin Tuesday night against the second place Lady Yellow Jackets. However, due to incoming inclement weather, that game may be postponed to later in the week. A decision on the status of the game is expected by school officials on Monday.

The status for coach Hill and his daughter Aubrey for that game and future contests remain unclear at this point.