POPLARVILLE —
For the first time in 17 years, the Poplarville boys basketball team hosted a state playoff game Tuesday night.
Visiting Quitman wasn't impressed with the rare feat, however.
The Panthers jumped out to a 15-1 lead and never looked back, hammering the Hornets 79-45 in the opening round of the Class 4A South State playoffs.
Quitman, now 21-7, moves on to the South State Tournament in Columbia beginning Thursday night, while Poplarville wraps up the season at 13-14. It was the first home playoff game for the Hornets since 1996.
"We kind of came out with that deer-in-the-headlights kinda look," first year Hornet head coach Chareck Cable said. "Our kids have never been here before, and we were facing an athletic and physical team. We just didn't handle it very well."
The Hornets missed their first eight shots from the field and turned the ball over six times as Quitman raced out to the commanding early lead. Poplarville was just 2-of-12 from the field in the first quarter, and trailed 19-6 entering the second stanza.
Trailing 28-6 two minutes into the period, the Hornets went on a 9-0 run that included a 3-point play by Rojae Raine and a pair of baskets by Anthony Martin to cut the deficit to 28-15 with three minutes to play before intermission.
But Quitman responded, and went into halftime up 35-19. Poplarville never got closer than 15 points in the second half.
"They play a real physical game, and we just never adjusted to it," Cable added. "And we couldn't make any shots early, and they got a big lead that we never could recover from."
Raine paced Poplarville with 15 points, while Martin chipped in eight points. Hornet center Emetric Fells had six blocked shots and six rebounds in the losing effort.
Darius Hicks scored 22 to pace the Panthers, while DaQuan Stanley chipped in 21 points.
It was the first postseason appearance for the Hornets in four years. Poplarville has no seniors on its roster.
"We are young, and I hope we can learn from it," Cable concluded. "They see now what type of effort it takes to compete in the district tournament and in the playoffs. They realize we have to work hard and play with intensity on every possession."
Homepage
Hornets popped
- Local News
-
Picayune Memorial High School salutatorian Tiffany DeVore will speak at the school's graduation exercises at 7 p.m. Thursday at the high school stadium.
-
PMHS SALUTATORIAN
Picayune Memorial High School salutatorian Tiffany DeVore will speak at the school's graduation exercises at 7 p.m. Thursday at the high school stadium.
-
PRC VALEDICTORIAN
Pearl River Central High School valedictorian Baylee Brooklyn Owens will speak at the school's graduation exercises at 7 p.m. Friday at the high school stadium.
-
PMHS VALEDICTORIAN
Picayune Memorial High School valedictorian Chad Porter will speak at the school's graduation exercises at 7 p.m. Thursday at the high school auditorium.
-
City council seeks grant for downtown parking improvements
The council approved a request that can potentially allow the city to receive a grant of $100,000 to fund a Downtown Revitalization Parking Project.
-
POPLARVILLE SALUTATORIAN
Poplarville High School salutatorian Brent Breland will speak at the school's graduation exercises at 7 p.m. Thursday at the high school stadium.
-
PMHS SALUTATORIAN
- Sports
-
-
Saints ready to practice with Payton again
Even as Sean Payton tried to make the best of his one-season bounty banishment from the NFL by spending time with his children, getting in shape and playing golf, he often compared his punishment to prison time.
He missed his work that much, his players say, adding that his return has infused Saints headquarters with a fresh intensity leading up to Tuesday’s opening of voluntary offseason practices. - Wildcats honored for efforts
- Season ends for Maroon Tide
- Season ends for Maroon Tide
- Tide stays alive
-
Saints ready to practice with Payton again
- Lifestyles
-
-
Arboretum Paths
At the recent Master Naturalist training held at the Crosby Arboretum, Master Gardener Susan Swope discussed how using more natives in our landscapes can save us both time and money. She went on to describe some methods well-suited to lazy gardeners. One was to create planting beds in lawn areas. First, mow the grass as short as possible, then add layers of newspaper or cardboard, add a thick organic layer such as leaves, and there you go— less grass to mow.
- CBAC Did you know? program highlights dangers to senior citizens
- 2013 Partners for Pearl River County By Jodi Marze
- Tami Harris takes state
- Arboretum Paths
-
- State News
-
-
Fire chief says search almost complete in Oklahoma
The search for survivors and the dead is nearly complete in the Oklahoma City suburb that was smashed by a mammoth tornado, the fire chief said Tuesday.
- Indian guest workers sue company in Miss., Texas
- Man wants pay for snakes seized in Miss. porn case
- Tornado churns through Oklahoma City suburbs
- Tchnology can speed emergency response
-
Fire chief says search almost complete in Oklahoma
- International
-
-
Argentine Jorge Bergoglio elected Pope Francis
Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina was elected pope Wednesday and chose the name Francis, becoming the first pontiff from the Americas and the first from outside Europe in more than a millennium.
Looking stunned, Francis shyly waved to the crowd of tens of thousands of people who gathered in St. Peter’s Square, marveling that the cardinals needed to look to “the end of the earth” to find a bishop of Rome. - Pope Benedict VXI resigning
- Suicide bomber kills guard at US Embassy in Turkey
- EU summit ends without budget deal
- Govt to let Cubans travel freely
-
Argentine Jorge Bergoglio elected Pope Francis
- Opinion
-
-
Not your mother’s Ladies’ Home Journal
By Rheta Grimsely Johnson/Syndicated columnist
I haven’t seen the Ladies’ Home Journal in about a million years, except maybe in the dentist’s office when I was trying to avoid a television permanently set on Fox News.
Somebody’s grandchild was selling magazines for a school project, and Ladies’ Home Journal was the only one on the list I recognized. Now it comes to the house.
Let’s just say: It’s not my mother’s Ladies’ Home Journal. This month, right behind a feature called “A Country of People Who Never Stop Eating” is one called “Nice Girls Do Get Tattoos.” - Health care market needs oversight
- VA’s appalling failures not recent
- Dolley Madison politically savvy
- Mississippi isn’t immune from national college tuition trends
-
Not your mother’s Ladies’ Home Journal
- News Distribution Network
-
US Marshalls dig through rubble in a neighborhood on 149th Street and Santa Fe Drive hoping to find survivors from a tornado that hit Moore, Okla., Monday, May 29, 2013. Kyle Phillips
-
Okla. officials vow not to quit looking until everyone is found
The tornado that killed 24 people and injured at least 100 others in the Moore and Oklahoma City area cut a 17-mile-long path that started in Newcastle and ended at Lake Stanley Draper. Nine of the dead are children.
- The Big One: Preparing for mid-America earthquake
- 5 takeaways from the IRS report
- Warning Signs: Technology speeds disaster alerts, response
- Do school bus drivers undergo background checks?
-
Okla. officials vow not to quit looking until everyone is found
- CNHI Special Projects
-
A man check his car on Interstate 35 after a tornado ripped through Moore Monday afternoon.
-
Audio: How can we better prepare for tornadoes?
An NPR broadcast examines the question of how communities can better prepare for tornadoes like the one that struck Moore, Okla. on Monday. The broadcast features commentary from Michael Fitzgerald, who reported a five-part disaster series for the CNHI News Service.
- The Big One: Preparing for mid-America earthquake
- Technology speeds disaster alerts, response
- Warning Signs: Technology speeds disaster alerts, response
- Tips for tornado readiness
-
Audio: How can we better prepare for tornadoes?



