By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director
JACKSON — The Wait is over.
Pascagoula excorcised the demons of basketball past with a thrilling 56-54 win over Terry Thursday night in the Class 6A state championship game here at The Mississippi Coliseum.
The title is the first ever for a basketball team, boys’ or girls, in Jackson County in the 104-year history that state championship trophies have been handed out.
Pascagoula’s “Class 6A Mr. Basketball” Blake Nettles took over in the last two minutes and put the Panthers over the top with a short jumper to return the lead to PHS at 53-52 and then feed center Tamir Boykin inside for a lay-up to make it 55-52 with :45 seconds left to seal the deal.

“We were pumped up and ready to go,” veteran PHS head coach Lorenzo Wright, whose team ended the season at 28-6 and on an 18 game win streak, said. “We lost a lot from last years team, and we had to find our roles after the twins came in. But they settled into their roles, and we found our groove. We wanted to write our own chapter in the history books at Pascagoula High School.
“This team can always say they were the first. There were some great teams in the 1970’s and 1980’s, but there will always be a degree of separation with this team because they were the first to do it.”

The Panthers trailed by eight points, at 45-37, with less than a minute to go in the third period. But Pascagoula got an inside basket from Tamir Boykin and a 3-pointer from Adam Griffin to close out the period and went on to out-score the Bulldogs down the stretch 19-9 to close out the historic night.

Adam Griffin, who fouled out late in the game, paced PHS with 15 points and was named the games Most Valuable Player. Nettles finished with 10 points. Tamir Boykin added nine points for PHS and Marcus Cooper had seven points.

It was just the second time ever for PHS to play for a state crown on the hardwood, with the last coming exactly 49 years to the day in 1977.

Keyshawn Jones led Terry with 14 points.

Griffin and his brother Jacob transferred in from Booker T. Washington High in Pensacola, Fla., and became eligible in early January.

Pascagoula never lost a game after that. The Panthers brought the first state hoops title back to the Gulf Coast in 12 years, when the Gulfport boys won it in 2014.

“It feels, great, unbeliveable!” Wright added. “We just find a way to win. We sucked it up and found a way.”