By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director
Several “Southern Six” prep basketball squads will take to the hardwood Monday in various Martin Luther King Day holiday events across the state.
In Clinton, at A.E Wood Coliseum on the campus of Mississippi College, the prestigious “Rumble in the South” features eight boys games in an annual all-day affair.
A pair of Gulf Coast contenders are taking part, as Pascagoula takes on Northwest Rankin at Noon in the third game of the day and St. Stanislaus faces Germantown at 3:00 p.m.
The pair of local squads will be heading to the Jackson area with two Dandy Dozen products in tow and a combination of five recently named All-Stars.

Pascagoula is led by senior Dandy Dozen standout guard Blake Nettles, and will also employ junior stalwarts in Marcus Cooper and Adam Griffin. Nettles was recently named to represent his home state in the prestigious Alabama/Mississippi All-Star Basketball Classic while Cooper and Griffin were picked to participate in the annual Mississippi Sports Medicine North/South All-Star larger classification game.
The Panthers are 16-5 overall, while the Cougars are 13-6.
Meanwhile, when the Class 3A Rock-A-Chaws face off against their sixth Class 7A foe of the season in the Mavericks, Senior standout and Dandy Dozen big man Max Baria leads the way as well as junior guard a and key catalyst Rafael Cohen.

Baria was recently named to represent his home state in the prestigious Alabama/Mississippi All-Star Basketball Classic while Cohen were picked to participate in the annual Mississippi Sports Medicine North/South All-Star larger classification game.
St. Stanislaus sits a solid 17-3 overall, while Germantown comes in at 13-6.
Here is the complete “Rumble in the South” slate:

Also on Monday, both the Gulfport boys and girls teams head to Laurel to compete in the fifth annual Wilson Terrell MLK Classic. The Admirals play perennial state power Meridian for the seond straight season in the event, and that game is set for a 3:3 tip off.
Prior to that, the Lady Admirals take on Forrest County AHS at 9:30 a.m.

The Gulfport boys come in at a solid 18-1 overall, and are led by Dandy Dozen senior standout post product Morris Robertson. Robertson was recently named to represent his home state in the prestigious Alabama/Mississippi All-Star Basketball Classic.
The Wildcats are 12-7.
Here is that schedule: