Second half surge sends No. 16 Pearl River to Region XXIII title game

Dylan Dunaway - PRCC Sports Information Director

CLINTON, Miss. — Nothing goes together like the No. 16 Pearl River men's basketball team and the Region XXIII finals. An impressive second half performance by the Wildcats led them to a 53-42 victory over LSU Eunice Friday inside A.E. Wood Coliseum at Mississippi College, sending them to a fourth Region XXIII title game in the last five seasons.

The win sends them to a title clash with Meridian Saturday at 6 p.m. The Eagles advanced to the final after eliminating Northeast with a 64-58 win.

"I thought we were making it too hard in the first half. I counted like six layups that we missed, and we didn't get back on defense a couple of times because we were going for steals," head coach Chris Oney said. "I told them that we're the number one seed. We didn't have to play erratic or play like we have to trick them to win the game. All we had to do was be us.

"For us to win a game like this — you've seen us play a lot better than we did tonight. We just gutted it out. The toughness and hard work will prevail. We held a very good offensive team to 42 points and that says a lot about our guys."

FIRST HALF It was LSU Eunice (19-7 overall) who controlled the opening tip, but it was Pearl River (23-3) who controlled the beginning of the game.

The Wildcats got things started with an impressive 12-2 run. Jaronn Wilkens (Biloxi) opened the scoring by euro-stepping through the lane and getting a layup to fall. Ankerion Gross (Sardis; North Panola) then caught a pass from Cameron Brown (Hattiesburg) at the top of the key and busted a 3-point shot. After the Bengals got a basket back, Gross struck again, knocking down a shot from the exact same spot as before. A perfect trip to the free-throw line and a layup from Jaronn Wilkens capped off the run.

With 7:45 left in the half, LSU Eunice battled back into the game, cutting the deficit to 18-14.

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