By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

BILOXI — Last week was a mixed bag of results on the hardwood for the Gulfport boy’s basketball team.

The Admirals started the week off with one of their biggest wins of the season so far, but ended it with its worst outing of the season some five days later.

However, despite Gulfport sitting at an impressive 23-2 under the direction of first year head coach Brian Butler, Gulfport can produce what would be its biggest win so far of the current campaign if it can complete a season sweep of long-standing arch-rival Biloxi on the road Monday night.

The Admirals sit at a perfect 7-0 in Region 4-7A play entering the final week of the regular season. A second win over the Indians in a two weeks span will secure a top two seed in the upcoming league tournament which Gulfport will host at Bert Jenkins Gym next week.

The top two seeds in the regular season standings automatically earn opening round byes in the tourney and with it the subsequent state playoff berth.

Biloxi is currently tied with Ocean Springs at 5-2 in the region race and the Indians can take a major step in grabbing one of those aforementioned top two seeds as well with a win over the Admirals. Gulfport slipped past visiting Biloxi 52-51 in the first meeting between the two rivals.

Biloxi is 16-5 overall, and comes in on its first two game losing streak of the season having lost to D’Iberville 49-43 at home in region play and then falling to perennial Class 6A state power Ridgeland 54-45 a week go at the prestigious “Rumble in the South” in Clinton at A.E. Wood Coliseum on the campus of Mississippi College.

Gulfport is coming off of a week in which it started out with an MLK Day celebration after moving to 23-1 with a 59-51 win over defending Class 7A state champion Meridian at Laurel High School in the “Wilson Terrell MLK Classic”.

However, on Saturday, the Admirals suffered their second loss of the season as Pascagoula pounded Gulfport 76-53 in the final game of “HoopsFest 2025” at Harrison Central High School in a game that pitted the two top teams in the “Southern Six”.

“Hat goes off to Pascagoula. They played very well,” Butler said Saturday. “We’re just going to roll our sleeves up and get back to work on district play. Our job isn’t done yet.”

And he and his Admirals hope to get started back in the right direction Monday night at The Biloxi Sports Arena.