By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

PASCAGOULA — For the 18th straight January, a veritable plethora of prep basketball teams will converge on Pascagoula High School for a one day hoops event.

The 18th annual “Panther Classic” presented by Raising Cane’s is set for the PHS gym beginning early on Saturday morning. The annual affair started in 2009 as the brainchild of then Panther head coach Keith Robinson and was initially known as the “Chevron Classic”.

Seven games are on tap beginning at 11 a.m.,featuring six boys’ games and a lone girls’ contest.

Both the host PHS boys and their female counterparts will take part, as well as six other “Southern Six” squads along with six other teams from across the state of Mississippi.

“I think it has really competitive match-ups and will provide teams with a gauge to see exactly where they are going into district play,” veteran Pascagoula boys’ head coach Lorenzo Wright said. “And it also features two games that could be possible playoff previews, so we are excited about the games.”

This is the schedule for the day:

One of the featured games of the day pits Ocean Springs vs. Meridian for the third straight year. The perennial state power Wildcats are led by former Pascagoula head coach Ron Norman, whom Wright replaced at the helm of the Panthers when Norman left s decade ago.

Under Norman in 2023, the Wildcats won their second state championship since his arrival from Pascagoula just before the start of the 2016-2017 season.

Norman spent three seasons in charge at PHS. Norman, who came to Pascagoula in 2013 after an extremely successful career at Wayne County High School, continued that success at PHS. He guided the Panthers to a 24-5 mark in 2016, his final season there, and was an impressive 68-25 in three seasons at the helm of the Panthers. His squads won three straight Region 7-5A crowns, and made three consecutive trips to the overall Class 5A State Tournament.

Norman also won the 5A state championship in 2011 with the War Eagles.

Since taking over in Meridian before the 2016-17 season started, he has gone 202-61 to date. His best year record-wise with MHS came in 2018, the year following the last Wildcat state title, when they went 32-2.