Pascagoula boys basketball looking to continue “revenge tour” in MHSAA semifinal

The Pascagoula Panthers boys basketball team is gearing up for their MHSAA semifinal matchup against Ridgeland on Thursday, February 26.

They are playing the same team that knocked them out last year, but it’s just the next stop in what the team is calling a revenge tour.

“I feel like it is going to be around real good game,” Blake Nettles said. “We are on a revenge tour. We are on a mission so we have to get this one.”

“It’s exciting to play them,” senior Kelan Rich. “Especially since it’s in the same spot we played them last year. Hopefully we can get revenge on what happened last year.”

The Panthers 2023-24 season came to an end in the semifinal round, falling to Ridgeland 48-42. On Thursday, Pascagoula has a chance at redemption facing Ridgeland in the same exact round at the Big House.

This is a new year and this is a different Panthers team.

“This group has really fought through a whole lot of adversity,” head coach Lorenzo Wright said. “They have come together in the last month, month and a half, and you can really see it in their play.”

“This team is different because we went through way more adversity than last year,” Nettles said. “This year we have had a lot of ups and downs and we have finally came together and we are getting it right.”

Pascagoula is looking to win the first basketball state championship on the coast in 13 years. Something they aren’t taking lightly.

“It means a lot because we haven’t won one yet,” Tylan Wilson said. “It’ll mean a lot. A lot to the coast, a lot to everybody on the coast, it would mean a lot.”

“It would mean a lot,” Rich said. “Not only for the school but for Jackson county itself.”

“It would be big,” Nettles said. “We have got to get this win for the coast, for Pascagoula and really have to get this win for Jackson county.”