By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

ST. MARTIN — The St. Martin and Pascagoula girls’ basketball teams get a jump on tipping off state playoff action Thursday night.

With most of the rest of the action for the larger classification squads not getting started until Friday night, both the Lady Yellow Jackets and the Lady Panthers get rolling a little, early one at home and one on the road.

St. Martin hosts Meridian to begin the Class 7A South State playoffs while Pascagoula travels to West Jones to tip off the Class 6A South State playoffs.

Tip time in St. Martin is set for 6 p.m., while Pascagoula gets started a little earlier in Soso with a tip off time at 5 p.m.

St. Martin looks to repeat its deep playoff run from last season when the Lady Yellow Jackets qualified for the first-ever overall Class 7A Final Four at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson.

But this season, the Lady Yellow Jackets enter the state playoffs with a while new cast of characters after losing their top six players from that team last year.

St. Martin comes into the game at 23-5 overall and finished second in the recent Region 4-7A Tournament after taking the title last season, while Meridian sits at 17-10 and wound up third in the Region 3-7A Tournament last week.

“My favorite part about coaching is seeing the growth and these young ladies have grown so much from last season,” SMHS head coach Jason Kennedy said. “There is beauty in the process and they have embraced the process. Most of the them were merely backups last season yet now they are staring in new roles. I’m so lucky to be a part of this journey.”

Meanwhile, Pascagoula heads to Jones County at 14-13 overall after finishing in fourth place in the Region 4-6A Tournament with a 54-5o loss to Picayune in the consolation contest. The Lady Panthers will encounter a pretty tough Lady Mustangs squad that stands at a solid 24-4 overall and stampeded its way through Region 3-6A action at a perfect 12-0 including a 56-32 thrashing of Terry in the league tourney title tilt late last week.

Elsewhere across the “Southern Six” on the female side of the South State playoff ledger, in Class 7A Biloxi hosts Oak Grove on Friday night while Harrison Central heads to Brandon and Gulfport travels to Northwest Rankin.

In Class 6A, Hancock hosts Jackson Forest Hill and West Harrison hosts Hattiesburg while Picayune travels to Terry.

In Class 5A, East Central heads to Florence and Gautier travels to North Pike.

In Class 4A, Moss Point hosts Lawrence County. And in Class 3, St. Patrick hosts Magee.