PETAL – There have been a few bumps in the road for the Petal boys this basketball season, and the Panthers hit another one Tuesday night in Region 3-7A play against Brandon.
The Bulldogs used their superior size to dominate the glass and grind the Panthers’ offense into ineffectiveness, resulting in a 61-53 victory at the Petal High Gymnasium.
Petal dropped to 12-9 overall and 3-2 region play, while Brandon evened its record at 10-10 and 2-2.
“They have athletes year-in and year-out,” said Petal coach Brandon Jennings. “They’re a really good group, and it’s tough to rebound against them.
“I didn’t think we were very physical tonight; I thought we shied away from contact. Team’s bigger than you, you’ve got to be more physical, and I didn’t think we did that tonight.”
The record doesn’t reflect Brandon’s pedigree as a perennial threat to play in the Mississippi Coliseum for the Final Four, a destination the Bulldogs have reached each of the past three seasons.
Both teams had trouble sustaining consistent offense, but the Bulldogs did a better job of putting baskets together, especially in the second half.
A big reason was rebounding. Brandon simply worked the Panthers over on the glass at both ends of the floor. Unofficially, Brandon finished with 43 rebounds – 18 on the offensive end – while Petal had just 23, only 10 on offense.
“We were being too selfish and we weren’t running the offense like we should have,” said sophomore Jaylen Lee, who led Petal with 19 points. “We really weren’t being very physical, and they out-efforted us.”
The season series reflects just how evenly-matched the two teams were, as the Bulldogs’ avenged a 57-54 overtime loss at home to the Panthers in December. And they played like it for most of the game, battling through three lead changes and five ties in the first quarter alone.
Petal got what it wanted on offense in the early going, attacking the basket and getting layups. Lee got a fast-break layup to put Petal ahead 11-8.
But the Panthers never found an answer for Brandon senior Elijah Morey, who scored 11 of his game-high 23 points in the first period.
Morey hit a soft two-foot jump shot, drew a foul and converted the and-one to tie it up, then after a one-and-done for Petal, Morey stuck back a miss to put the Bulldogs back on top.
Senior Eli Causey answered with a 3-point shot from the right side of the key, and the first quarter ended tied at 16-16.
“We didn’t execute like and we lost the battle on the boards,” said Causey, who finished with 14 points. “We started jacking up 3’s, and we didn’t slow it down and run our offense. We played at their pace.”
Indeed, Petal fired up 26 shots from 3-point range, but only made 5.
The second quarter was when Brandon began to take the game away from Petal. The Bulldogs scored the first eight points of the period, completing an 11-0 run that started in the first quarter.
Lee got the Panthers back on track with a 3-ball, but Brandon maintained its advantage the remainder of the first half, which ended with the Bulldogs leading 30-26.
“Our team isn’t very tall, so we have to be more physical, box out and everybody has to crash the boards,” said Lee. “Everybody has to find a man to block out and work as a team.”
The two teams went at it hammer and tongs in the third quarter, as Petal outscored Brandon 11-6 through the first half of the third quarter.
Lee put the Panthers back in front 37-36 with a drive down the lane for a layup, but the Bulldogs answered with a steal and a fast-break layup to regain the lead.
Petal took the lead right back with a trey from Lee, then junior Mehki Keyes got a transition basket to put the Panthers ahead 42-39.
“Offensively, when we run our stuff, we’re pretty good,” Jennings said. “But I thought we played too selfish the second half and didn’t execute very well.
But Morey came back to life after going scoreless through the second quarter and most of the third, getting a pair layups sandwiched around a one-shot stop on defense. The second came at the buzzer and put Brandon ahead for good 43-42.
“We’ve just got to stay consistent and run our stuff,” said Causey. “People can’t guard our stuff when we run it right, but sometimes we get away from it. If we can come back to that, we can be successful.”
The Bulldogs converted 8 of 13 shots from the field in the fourth quarter (61.5 percent), including 5 of their last 6, and kept the Panthers at arm’s length, then pulled away in the final minutes.
Petal got as close as two, 51-49 on a fast-break layup by junior Yasiin Williams, but Brandon closed out the game on a 10-4 run.
Despite the loss, the Panthers are still in good position in the region standing. Without a true dominant team, everything is still on the table for Petal
“We’re still in the top three right now,” Jennings said. “Pearl beat (Brandon), we beat Pearl the other night on a buzzer-beater, we beat Brandon already, and we’ve got Northwest Rankin coming to town (on Friday). So the district is up for grabs.”
