By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

PASCAGOULA — Pascagoula is headed back to the “Elite Eight” in Class 6A prep boys basketball action for the second straight season.

The Panthers pummeled Pearl River Central Saturday night 66-32 in the opening round of the Class 6A South State playoffs, moving to 24-3 on the season with their 13th straight win.

Pascagoula now advances on to the Class 6A Quarterfinal round at Danztler Gymnasium in Perkinston on the campus of Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College Saturday. The Panthers are one win away from a return trip to the overall Class 6A Final Four in Jackson at The Mississippi Coliseum for the second straight season.

“It’s good to win that way after being off a week,” PHS head coach Lorenzo Wright, whose team had been off for eight days since capturing their second straight Region 4-6A Tournament title, said. “The guys were prepared, focused and ready to go.”

Wright’s crew jumped out to a commanding 32-8 lead after the opening quarter and never looked back. The Panther guard combo of junior all-star Blake Nettles and senior sixth man Justin Roque combined for 22 points in the first frame, almost three times as much as the entire Blue Devil squad.

Both were true on their aim from long range as well, as Roque drained a trio of 3-pointers and finished the period with 12 points while Nettles dropped in a pair of triples also and countered with 10 points and the deal was all but done before the horn to start the second stanza sounded.

Another pair of Panther guards followed suit in the next period, as senior all-star Kelan Rich knocked home two treys and scored eight points and his sophomore sidekick Marcus Cooper nailed a 3-pointer as well and scored five points as the home team went to halftime up 49-20.

Wright was gracious enough to empty his bench even more so in the second half than he did in the first.

Rogue finished with those 12 points to pace the Panthers, and Nettles did as well with those 10 points. Rich also finished with 11 points, Cooper with nine points and Quey’Sean Taylor with eight points.

Titus Feaster paced PRC with 12 points in his return to Jackson County, while Konnor Cazenave had 10 points.