By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director
While a lot of attention is focused in North Mississippi on the seven state football championship games this weekend, there will be two pretty big prep basketball events in the “Southern Six” as well Saturday.
Both the St. Martin girls and the Harrison Central boys are hosting a full day of hoops action with teams from four different state spread amongst the two events.
In St. Martin Lady Yellow Jackets head coach Jason Kennedy has once again put together a strong field of 14 squads to take part in the third annual “Girls Hoopsfest” Tournament.

There are seven games on tap starting at 10 a.m. The event features a trio of “Southern Six” squads, including the host St. Martin team as well as Moss Point and Hancock. In fact, the Tigers face the Lady Hawks in the opening game of the day.
Other Mississippi teams involved are Meridian, Morton, Madison Central and Brandon as well as Choctaw Central and West Florida High from Pensacola, Fla. Alabama is represented by Blount and McGill-Toolen from Mobile, as well as Daphne and perennial state power Hoover.

Hoover faces John Curtis of New Orleans (La.) in one of the most featured games of the day.
Meanwhile, in Lyman, veteran Red Rebels head coach boo Hardy has assembled a solid 20-team field for the annual Mississippi/Louisiana/Alabama Challenge that is predominantly male-oriented.
In addition to both host Harrison Central teams, Moss Point, Resurrection, Long Beach and Gautier represent The Magnolia State as does West Harrison (boys and girls), Pass Christian and Gulfport. Mobile (Ala.) St. Paul and Foley are coming west to compete, as is New Orleans Sarah Reed and Ellender (girls) from New Orleans who each along with Pontchatoula (girls), Independence, Port Allen and Lafayette Teurlings Catholic are coming east to compete.