By CURTIS ROCKWELL

Item Sports Editor

A nearly two week break couldn’t shake Picayune’s Lady Tide off the winning track.

Head coach Kristie Mitchell’s crew tallied its third straight win, beating Pope John Paul 60-28 Monday night in the first day of action in the annual Picayune Holiday Hoops Tournament at Kelly Wise Gym.

The win moves the Lady Tide to 3-9 on the year.

Monique Brown tallied a game high 25 for the winners, almost out-scoring the visitors from Slidell by herself.

Janea Wills added 11 for Picayune, while Karly Moran and Andrea jackson added seven apiece.

The Lady Tide will take on Fontainebleau of Mandeville tonight at 6:30.

• The Maroon Tide made it a clean sweep on the night for the host teams, as they knocked off Northshore of Slidell 50-38.

Vincent Gable tallied a game high 19 for the Tide, while Lloyd Hall added 11 to the winning cause.

The win pushes the Maroon Tide to 7-5 on the season, and snapped a two game losing streak for first year head coach Tom Taylor’s team.

Tonight, Taylor’s troops meet Fontainebleau as well, the school where Taylor was an assistant coach for the past few seasons.

“It’s just another game, that’s how we want to approach it,” Taylor said. “We want to win it, just like any other game we play.”

In other action from the opening day, Slidell beat Hancock in boys play, 73-38.

The game matched a pair of head coaches with local ties, as Slidell head coach Bill Chimento is in his first year at the helm of the Tigers after being an assistant coach on the Picayune team last season that finished as the Class 4A state-runner-up.

And, Hancock head coach Dennis Peterson, Jr., whose team has beaten Picayune twice this season, was a former assistant at Pearl River Central and his dad Dennis Peterson, Sr., was the head girls coach at Picayune several years back and now coaches St. Patrick.

Also, Biloxi’s girls beat Fontainebleau 44-36 as Molly Haynes scored 10 for the Lady Indians and Jennifer Beechler scored 13 for Fontainebleau.

Also, Salmen of Slidell beat Fontainebleau in a boys game 81-49 as Isiah Tate scored 14 for the winning team.

Play begins today at 2 p.m., with five games on tap in the tourney’s final day.