Road to the Big House

Tomorrow four high school basketball teams from the Gulf Coast will embark on their missions of winning a 6A title at the state tournament in Jackson.
The Harrison Central and Pascagoula boys teams as well as the girls squad from Gulfport and St. Martin are all part of the Elite 8 in both sectors.
Whether they’ve been to the Big House before or they’re making their first trip, like the Lady Admirals, these coaches are embracing the moments leading up to their biggest games of the season.
Harrison Central Head Boys Basketball Coach Boo Hardy said, “Well, we’re just happy to be one of the eight because there’s a lot of teams that want to be here. But they’re not, so we want to take advantage of this moment and complete the goal.”
Pascagoula Head Boys Basketball Coach Lorenzo Wright said, “You feel good about it because you’re one of the eight teams left in 6A, but you also understand that you can’t look ahead because you can’t look to see if you’ve got Meridian or Southaven coming up. You’ve just got to focus on Greenville and take care of that, and then you let everything else fall where it may.”
St. Martin Head Girls Basketball Coach Gina Bell said, “From Day one we’ve talked about the fact that we want to win state, we want to make it to Jackson. And with these three games left we mark on our board, we mark them down. Five to go, four to go, three to go and the kids feel like they can do it, and in my opinion, if you feel like you can do it you can.”
Of the five Gulf Coast teams remaining in the state tournament, Harrison Central is the only one making a return trip from last year.