By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

CLINTON — Pascagoula picked up perhaps its biggest win of the season Monday afternoon.

The Panthers slipped past powerful Class 7A foe Germantown 74-69 in game five of the prestigious “Rumble in the South” MLK Day event here at A.E. Wood Coliseum on the campus of Mississippi College.

The win not only pushed Pascagoula to 17-3 overall, but dropped the Mavericks to 19-4 as well.

After losing in the Class 7A state championship game to Meridian last season, Germantown is considered one of the favorites to reach the state championship round again this season in the largest classification in the state. The Mavericks were ranked as the top overall team in the state by several media outlets coming into this week.

“Excited today about the win over the number one ranked team in the state,” PHS head coach Lorenzo Wright said, afterwards. “I thought it was a total team effort by the guys. We played really well defensively, and we had some guys make some shots and some guys that stepped up and performed really well.”

The Panthers made their intentions of a big day known right off the bat, out-dueling the Mavericks in what was an explosive opening quarter 23-21 thanks in part to 11 points in the period from Quey’Sean Taylor including a 3-pointer.

But the second stanza tilted in favor of Germantown, as it went into halftime up 39-36 as Maverick Michael Wiliams turned in 10 points in the period including a trey of his own after he tallied seven points in the first frame.

Momentum in the back-and-forth affair shifted back to Pascagoula as the third frame unfolded, as Pascagoula’s Kelan Rich celebrated his recent selection to play in the prestigious Mississippi/Alabama All-Star Classic with seven points in the period including a 3-pointer. The Panthers also got triples from Taylor and Tomareo Johnson, as PHS out-scored the Mavericks 19-7 in the stanza to take its first double digit lead of the contest at 54-45 entering the fourth quarter.

Devin Moore managed to get Germantown back in the game down the stretch, as he tallied 10 points in the final frame including a pair of 3-pointers, but Johnson answered the call with two treys of his own and eight points in the period as Pascagoula staved off the Mavericks for the big win.

Rich paced Pascagoula with 19 points in the win, while the Moss Point transfer Taylor chipped in 16 points to the winning effort and both Blake Nettles and Johnson each added 10 points apiece. Nettles also pulled down a game-high eight rebounds.

“We’ve had some players start to play a lot better recently like Johnson and Nettles,” Wright added. “We’re just trying to take a one-game-at-a-time approach and build up some momentum going into the postseason. Hopefully, things are starting to trend in the right direction.”

Williams tallied a game-high 21 points for the Mavericks, while highly-recruited 7-foot, 220-pound center Sam Funchess finished with 18 points. Moore had 17 points and Michael Johnson added 12 points for Germantown as both teams finished the game with four players apiece in double digits.