By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

JACKSON — No player on the Pascagoula High School basketball team this season or last was alive when the critically acclaimed movie “Remember the Titans” was released in the fall of the year 2000.

But, for the second straight season, Ridgeland made sure that the phrase would be ingrained in the memories of the Panthers forever.

The Titans returned to the Class 6A state championship game after a 70-60 overtime win over Pascagoula Thursday afternoon here at The Mississippi Coliseum. It marked the second consecutive season that Ridgeland ended the season for the top-ranked Panthers in the Class 6A Final Four here at The “Big House”.

One year ago to the day, the Titans upset also then top-ranked PHS 48-42 in the same round, snapping a school record 29-game winning streak for the Panthers in the process.

And even though it took four minutes more on the one year anniversary, in the end, the result was the same and again came in heart-breaking fashion for PHS.

Pascagoula head coach Lorenzo Wright posted on his social media soon after the contest ended “This game will rip your heart out…”

Pascagoula has recorded 55 wins and lost six games over the past two hugely successful seasons. But the Titans have been the big thorn in the paw of the Panthers when all the cards were on the table and PHS had no ace left in the hole.

Both teams came in looking for their first-ever state championship trophy. Ridgeland played for the title in both 2015 and last year, when after slipping past Pascagoula the Titans were tripped up by Olive Branch 59-56 in the Class 6A title tilt.

The same two teams will face off for the same crown Saturday night at 8:00 after the Conquistadors knocked off Hattiesburg 64-57 in the first Final Four match-up Thursday afternoon.

So Ridgeland, whose program started just 23 years ago, in 2002, will be playing for its third state basketball title in that time. Pascagoula, on the other hand, has only ever made one appearance in the state championship game in the 100 year history of the program.

The latest version of the Panthers was looking to become the first boy’s basketball team from Jackson County to make it that far since Pascagoula last played for the title 48 years ago in 1977.

Barry Bargainer led the Panthers into the title game against Florence High that year. Florence, led by Greg Grim, stopped the Panthers state title hopes with a 77-59 decision behind Grim’s 37 points. Grim, who went on to Mississippi State and was an All-Southeastern Conference performer several years later, then scored 40 against Utica in the Grand Slam Tournament to give the Eagles the overall state title as well.

Bargainer scored 28 points in his last game at Pascagoula, but it wasn’t enough.

In fact, only two boy’s teams from Jackson County have made it to the final game of the year since the Mississippi High School Association and its predecessor, The Mississippi High School Literary and Athletic Association, have been handing out state championship hardware since 1922.

The only other boys team from Jackson County to play for a state hoops title was Ocean Springs in 1961. The Greyhounds fell to Starkville in close fashion 70-66. Ocean Springs enjoyed one of the best seasons in school hardwood history that season, going 32-10 led by head coach Tommy Glass guards Tommy Jones and Jack Bennie Hughes and 6-foot-6 center Travis Normand.

But, after Pascagoula’s latest loss, Jackson County, almost incredibly, is now 0-103 over the past century in bringing home state basketball titles.