By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

RAYMOND — Coming into Thursday night’s Class 3A South State quarterfinal showdown with McLaurin, St. Stanislaus was looking for its trip to the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson for the overall state tournament for the first time in 14 years.

Unfortunately, the Rock-A-Chaws ran into a band of Tigers that had been waiting even longer for the short drive back to the “Big House”.

McLaurin led from the opening tip off in dispatching SSC 73-55 here at Raymond High School. The win moved McLaurin into the overall Class 3A Final Four in neighboring Jackson (27-5) where the Tigers will face the winner of Ruleville vs. Coahoma County Tuesday morning.

The Tigers, who will make their first appearance at the Mississippi Coliseum since 2000, moved to a solid 27-5 overall with the win, while the Rocks saw their 10 game win streak snapped and end their most successful season in a decade at 20-7.

“The whole community is brought together by this,” McLaurin head coach Don Moore. “The community is getting behind us. The school is rallying behind us, and it’s just a good thing to see our school being put in a situation where we can show that we are having success. I’m very proud of them with their effort, with their attention to detail and with their mental thought process.”

Tiger senior standout shooting guard Michael Wallace, who came in averaging right at 20 points per game, dropped in two early baskets and McLaurin never trailed even leading by as many as 20 points late in the game when the contest started to get away a bit from SSC.

Wallace had 23 points to lead the Tigers to the win, and he formed a dynamic duo in the backcourt along with freshman guard Tylon Williams who had 20 points.

““Our team had a great season, the best season we’ve had since the 2011 state championship year.” SSC head coach and former Rock standout Daniel Grieves, who starred on that title-winning team, said. “Anyone who saw us play last summer would not believe how far we made it or how successful this year was. We were young and inexperienced but as a program, we made a commitment to bring the right attitude and effort every day and taking it one day and one game at a time. It has taken these players four years and a ton of “sweat equity” to get Stanislaus back in the conversation for basketball playoffs.”

Rock-A-Chaw junior 6-foot-7 center Max Baria dropped in 13 first half points and SSC guard Carter Macias drained a pair of 3-pointers as Grieves’ squad trailed just 28-23 at halftime.

Baria was back at it again in the third frame with seven out of SSC’s 11 points, but the Tigers still managed to stretch their lead to eight points, at 42-34, entering the final frame.

But that would be it, as Williams took over and tallied 11 points down the stretch including a pair of triples and Wallace added eight points as McLaurin broke the game open.

“The game was very physical and was a great environment,” Grieves added. “We played really hard we just couldn’t get the ball to drop a few times. It was a game of runs and at the end of the day, they had more than we had. We would have a player make a huge play and cut it to three or five and they would counter with a big shot of their own. This was a great game to end our season on because it highlighted some of the things we need to work on in the off-season.”

Baria poured in a game-high 26 points to lead the Rocks, as he finished the season with averaging almost 27 points per game over the last five contests. Both Macias and Allan Gilliam added nine points apiece for SSC.

The Rocks also ended the season with 16 wins in their final 18 outings.

“All of the credit goes to the kids who showed up ready to work and the parents that allowed me the chance to work with their sons,” Grieves concluded. “Our team left motivated to get back to work as soon as possible. I feel like when you have a team who responds to a challenge by wanting to get back to work instead of feeling sorry for themselves then only good things can happen.”