The Region 8-4A prep basketball Tournament kicks off Monday with a pair of Pearl River County teams trying to extend their seasons and earn Class 4A South State playoff berths.

Pearl River Central is hosting this year’s event, and both the homestanding Blue Devils and the Poplarville Hornets are in action on the opening day.

The Hornets, coming off an overtime loss to the Blue Devils on Friday, kick the event off at 5 p.m., meeting St. Stanislaus. SSC is the second seed and Poplarville is seventh.

It marks the second straight year that the teams have kicked the region tournament off against one another, after ding the same in Pass Christian last season.

The Rocks swept the season series from the Hornets this yea.

The winner of that game will earn a berth in the semifinals on Thursday and meet the winner of Tuesday’s opening round game between Long Beach and D’Iberville.

Pearl River Central and Bay High follow the opening contest at 6:30 Monday night.

“It was a big win for us over Poplarville,” PRC head coach Alan Lumpkin said. “We could have fell all the way to the last seed with a loss. Plus, we have been struggling this season and that gave us a win and maybe some momentum heading into the district tournament.”

The winner of the PRC-Bay High game gets to take on top seed Picayune in Thursday’s semifinals.

The Maroon Tide moved unbeaten through the region schedule this season and secured the top seed in the event over three weeks ago.

The tourney begins with those two games on Monday, and then features three games on Tuesday.

There are more local teams in action on Tuesday, as the Picayune Lady Tide take the court at 6:30 against D’Iberville.

The Lady Tide is trying to break a seven game losing streak and has lost eight of their last nine game. Included in that streak is a five game losing streak in region games and Picayune has lost six of its last seven league games.

The Picayune game follows Tuesday’s first game, which features Long Beach against D’Iberville in boys action.

The finale Tuesday night features a pair of local teams, as host PRC takes on Poplarville at 8 p.m.

The teams just met on Friday, with Poplarville beat the Lady Devils for the third time this season.

It will mark the second straight year that the teams have opened the league tournament against one another after having faced each other three times in the regular season.

The Lady Hornets are trying to return to the Class 4A playoffs for the fourth straight year.

After an off day on Wednesday, action resumes with four games on Thursday beginning at 4 p.m., and then the event ends with four more games starting at the same time on Friday.

Picayune’s boys play at 5:30 on Thursday afternoon.

All eight teams that play on Thursday will advance to the South State playoffs, which begin one week from Monday for the girls and one week from Tuesday for the boys.