By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

PASCAGOULA — Pascagoula’s boys bounced back from a brief two-game losing streak to hammer Harrison Central 61-33 Tuesday night.
The Panthers moved back above the .500 mark at 5-4 with the win, while the Red Rebels had a five game win streak snapped and fell to 5-3 overall.

Pascagoula got 16 points apiece from both Marcus Cooper and Blake Nettles in the winning effort, while Ireyion Harvey added nine points fresh off his time as a linebacker on the Panther football team.
Panther center Tamir Boykin tallied all seven of his points in the opening quarter, including a 3-pointer, to match the entire HCHS output after tip-off as PHS doubled up on the Red Rebels 15-7 heading into the second period.

It only got worse for the Red Rebels as the teams headed toward halftime, as ‘Goula got five points apiece from both Nettles and Cooper (including a 3-pointer apiece) as well as six points from Harvey and the Panthers went into intermission in complete control at 34-11.

Harrison Central got seven points and seven rebounds from Jasen Pace in the loss, while Nehemiah Brown also had seven points for the Red Rebels and Ke’Adrian Brown grabbed six boards also.

Pascagoula heads to Meridian to face Jackson Forrest Hill Saturday afternoon in the annual Meridian Classic. The Panthers were coming off a 62-49 loss to Terry over the weekend in Jackson at The Mississippi Hoops Challenge. Nettles had a game-high 21 points in that game for PHS and Cooper had 12 points.

Harrison Central was coming off of a 55-45 win over Gautier over the weekend at home in the HCHS Thanksgiving Shootout.

Pace tallied a double-double with game-high totals in both points with 21 and rebounds with 17 in the win, while Jonathan Espinoza added nine points to the winning effort and both Deion Keyes and Geriyn Brown had four assists each.

The Red Rebels return home to face Independence (La.) Saturday in the final game of the Mississippi/Alabama/Louisiana Shootout in Lyman.