By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director
GULFPORT — Last season, entering the opening round of the Class 7A South State playoffs, home-standing Gulfport lost in a rematch of a regular season meeting in which the Admirals won the first time around.
Friday night, facing the same scenario, second-year head coach Brian Butler’s team fared much, much better.
The Admirals bombed Brandon 72-43 at Bert Jenkins Gym as the Class 7A South State playoffs tipped off. It marked the first playoff win for GHS in three years, as Butler’s crew moved to an impressive 27-2 overall with the win and they also punched their ticket to the Class 7A South State Quarterfinal round for the first time in the illustrious history of the Admrial basketball program.

Gulfport will face Northwest Rankin Friday in Poplarville on the campus of Pearl River Community College.
The Admirals got seven points apiece from the inside combo of big men Morris Robertson, Jr., and Travor Frost in the first frame as well as a pair of 3-pointers from Cameron Morris to take a double digit lead at 23-13 heading into the second stanza.
It was more of the same for Robertson in that period, as he nailed a trey of his own and put in seven more points while Denzel Jackson got in on the long range action with a triple and a short jumper as the home team doubled its advantage heading into halftime at 44-23 and never looked back.

Frost tallied a game-high 17 points to guide Gulfport to the win, and Robertson collected 16 points for the wiining cause. Morris finished with nine points, on a trio of triples, as 11 different players scored for GHS.
It marked the secon the season over Brandon, after the Admirals downed the Bulldogs 66-58 in late December at the prestigious Hattiesburg Coca-Cola Christmas Classic.
Last season, after beating Meridian 59-51 at a neutral site in mid-Januray, the perennial state power Wildcats came into Gulfport and upset the Admirals 52-46 in the opening round of the state playoffs.