By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

ST. MARTIN — Moss Point’s girls basketball team has played more games at the St. Martin gym so far this season than they have at home.
But the latest trip to the other side of Jackson County wasn’t quite as good as the past two were for the Lady Tigers.
Hancock slipped past Moss Point 31-25 in game one Saturday morning at the third annual “Girls Hoopsfest” here at the home of the Lady Yellow Jackets. Ironically enough, it was the fourth trip to St. Martin for the Lady Tigers so far this season and the second in just three days for the Lady Hawks.
Moss Point, which has just played three games so far this year in the friendly confines of its own Haynes Gymnasium, drops to 4-7 with the loss, while Hancock, which fell to home-standing SMHS Thursday night, is now 7-3 overall.

Moss Point was coming off of a 40-35 win over those same home-standing Lady Yellow Jackets last week in the championship game of the annual “Dina Holland Thanksgiving Classic”.
“Every year we try to play a tough schedule so that we are prepared for our district opponents,” MPHS head coach Ethan Porter said. “We are rarely concerned about our record, especially early in the season. I feel good about how we have looked so far. We have probably lost a couple we shouldn’t have, and we’ve probably won a couple we shouldn’t have. That’s kind of the point, though. I feel the best way for our team to get better is learning through games. I feel like we have played some really good teams with some really great coaches. That’s what it takes to get better. We don’t look to schedule wins. We try to schedule competition.”

On Saturday, Hancock got a game-high 14 points from Long Beach transfer Paityn Langley in the win, while Lexie Dreher added seven points for the Lady Hawks.
The game was tied at 22-22 in a defensive battle heading into the fourth quarter, but Langley scored six of her points in that final and decisive frame as HHS out-scored MPHS 9-3 down the stretch to take the win.
Moss Point got nine points from Kirsten Bailey and seven points from Zaria Nettles in the loss.
In the in over St. Martin to take the championship of that tourney last week, Lady Tiger Trinity Magee tallied a game-high 21 points and pulled down 10 rebounds to register a double-double to lead the way to the win.

In the first game of that annual affair, the Lady Tigers dropped Presbyterian Christian of Hattiesburg 40-30 thanks to 12 points from Nettles and eight points apiece from Bailey, Magee and Landyn Miller.