Holiday Tournament Wrap-Up

Christmas Holidays in Mississippi means its basketball tournament time and last week the action was hot and heavy through-out the state. Two of the more well-known holiday tournaments in the state are the JPS/Pepsi Holiday Tournament in Jackson and the Admiral Hardwood Classic in Gulfport and both of these tourneys lived up to the hype. Let's take a look at the results of these and a few other tournaments from last week.

JPS/Pepsi

The Wingfield Falcons served notice that they are a contender for the newly formed 6A state championship. Behind tournament MVP Trency Jackson, a Southern Miss signee, the Falcons, ranked no. 3 in our Magnoliapreps.com Hoops Power Rankings, posted four wins over three days capped off with a 68-66 win over the Lanier Bulldogs in the finals. The Falcons scored the winning points on a Daveon Slaughter lay-up with two seconds left off of a feed from Jackson. The Falcons were lead in scoring by reserve forward Corey Louie with 19 points while Jackson added 16. Lanier was led by guard Javerick Burrell with 15 points.

The win in the finals capped off a hard-fought day for the Falcons who withstood a 36 point effort by reigning Mr. Basketball, Andre Stringer, in an 89-83 semi-final win over Forest Hill earlier in the day. Jackson shared scoring honors with forward Darius Forest for the Falcons, each scoring 23 points.

Lanier advanced to the finals with a 113-110 double overtime win over the formerly no. 1 ranked Provine Rams in the best game of the tournament. The Bulldogs were lead by the backcourt duo of Greg Lee with 26 points and Quinton Watkins with 20 points. No. 2 ranked Provine was lead by Marcellis Hansberry, who transferred to Provine from Lanier this past summer, with a game high 27 points and his backcourt mate Jarvis Summers, who's clutch three pointer at the buzzer in regulation put the game into overtime, with 24 points.

Admiral Hardwood Classic

The Bay High Tigers captured their first ever Hardwood Classic title with a 62-52 win over Harrison Central in the finals. The Tigers were lead by do everything senior forward Daron Bell with 31 points. He was supported by Demitry Johnson with 12 points and Devon Narcisse with 10. Harrison Central was lead by reserve post Komichael Jackson with 21 points.

In other final day results: Tournament host Gulfport captured third place with a 65-49 win over Pascagoula. Pass Christian took fifth with a 66-62 win over Mary G. Montgomery of Mobile. Stone County finished seventh with a 72-52 win over New Orleans Carver.

Semifinals: Bay High defeated Pascagoula in a 57-52 triple overtime thriller and Harrison Central defeated Gulfport 54-48.

Hattiesburg Classic

No. 1 ranked Starkville pushed their record to 13-0 rolling to three wins in three days in Hattiesburg, defeating Brookhaven 70-41, tournament host Hattiesburg 73-63 and Oak Grove 77-49. The Yellowjackets were lead by their senior duo of forward Rashad Perkins, a Southern Miss signee and guard Edward Townsel. Perkins had games of 16, 21 and 19 points while Townsel had scoring outputs of 16, 17 and 13 points.

Tournament host Hattiesburg improved to 10-5 sandwiching two wins around the lost to Starkville, knocking off Collins 97-74 and Prentiss 92-64.

Northwest Rankin Classic

The Vicksburg Gators upset no. 5 ranked Brandon 64-62 to capture the title. The Gators overcame a 19 point third quarter deficit to take the win behind 23 points from senior wing Kelsey Howard and 20 points from forward Mychal Ammons who scored the winning basket on a buzzer beating alley-oop. Brandon was lead by senior PG D.J. Evans with 23 points and junior center Tyler Adams with 19 points

Ridgeland took third with a 69-48 win over Terry a day after dropping a tough back and forth 61-53 contest in the semi-final to Vicksburg.

Jackie Laird Classic

Host Biloxi, ranked no. 4, won captured first place with a 81-57 win over St. Martin. The Indians were lead by Jeremiah Dunnings with 28 points as they improved to 13-1 on the season. St. Martin was lead by Eugene Walton with 24 points.

St. Stanislaus defeated Ocean Springs 54-38 to capture third. St.Stanislaus was lead by junior forward Johnny Zuppardo with 23 points . St. Stanislaus was playing in the consolation game after suffering a 53-27 loss to Biloxi in the opening round.

Check back shortly for our updated Magnoliapreps.com Hoop Power Rankings.