Hattiesburg held a team meeting after last week’s loss to Terry.
That loss ended the Tigers’ 17-game win streak and came untimely with one week left in the regular season.
But whatever was said in the meeting worked, as Hattiesburg returned to its winning ways on Tuesday night, defeating Pearl River Central 59-47 to get back in the win column.
“(The loss) was an eye-opener,” Hattiesburg coach Ernie Watson said. “We had a team meeting and got it together.”
Although Hattiesburg held the lead for most of the game, the Tigers didn’t break the Blue Devils until the fourth quarter, partly due to PRC hitting several timely three-pointers to keep the score close.
“We played halfway decent,” Watson said. “We can play a lot better than what we did, but it was senior night, so we mixed up our starting lineup and rotation. But there were certain points of the game that I thought we played real well. We did a good job of expanding the lead, getting execution, and doing our thing. Kudos to the seniors for getting that senior win and also getting the eighth win of the division.”
PRC held a brief 7-5 lead in the first quarter, but Hattiesburg surged ahead with a 14-2 run and took a 20-9 lead by the start of the second. However, the Blue Devils hit back-to-back three-pointers to stay within single digits.
Hattiesburg (23-2, 8-1) again pulled ahead by 11, but PRC knocked down a pair of buckets to trail the Tigers 31-23 at halftime. One of the keys for Hattiesburg was stopping PRC’s star guard Donnie Ladner, who scored nine of his 15 points in the first half.
“We tried to go after their guard (Donnie) Ladner,” Watson said. “He’s such a good ballhandler and smart player; we had to try to disrupt his rhythm and flow. Then, hopefully, he would throw the ball away or do something, but you aren’t going to take it from him. That’s the thing about him. He’s good enough to play on the next level and handle this team. We might have to play him again in the district tournament.”
The Blue Devils opened the second half with an 8-2 run to narrow the score to 35-31, but the Tigers picked up the pace and forced the fast break. The effort was spearheaded by Hattiesburg’s leading scorer Stephen McCullon Jr., who totaled 19 points by the end of the game. Logan Burns also added 12 points for the Tigers.
“If he’s on point and starts making shots, then he can really knock down that three,” Watson said. “Then that makes him hard to guard because they can’t stand in front of him. He works on that every day; hopefully he’ll get that to a point to where it’s deadly in the playoffs.”
Holding a 44-39 lead, the Tigers went on a 10-0 run between the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth to break the game open.
“We were just trying to pick up the tempo,” Watson said. “That’s what our goal was, which was to push it and play as fast as we can because they didn’t have any depth. We tried to get them tired, and it kind of worked out in the fourth quarter.”
Tuesday’s game against PRC is the first of three straight games, with Hattiesburg having to play district foe Forest Hill on Wednesday as a makeup game. If Hattiesburg wins then the Tigers would clinch the No. 1 seed for the Region 3-6A tournament and would receive a first-round bye.
Hattiesburg will then conclude its regular season schedule on Thursday night as the Tigers face crosstown rival Petal.
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