By Stan Caldwell
stanmansportsfan.com
POPLARVILLE – It was over before it ever got started for Pass Christian.
The Pirates suffered through one of the most nightmarish 16 minutes of basketball a team could imagine against Raymond Saturday in the MHSAA Class 4A Quarterfinals at Marvin R. White Coliseum on the Pearl River Community College campus.
The Rangers held Pass without a single field goal in the first half and cruised to a 45-18 victory, advancing to the 4A Final Four in Jackson for the eighth consecutive season, and are on track for their fifth state title.
Raymond (29-4) will face Choctaw Central at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in the state semifinals at Mississippi Coliseum. Pass Christian finished its season 24-9.
“They’re the premier basketball team in the state for a reason,” said Pass Christian coach Buddy Kennedy. “It was just a nightmare for us offensively today.”
The Pirates actually led for a brief moment, when senior Terry Patton Jr. got to the foul line and made a pair of free throws for a 2-0 lead.
But it was all downhill from there.
Turnovers on three consecutive possessions allowed the Rangers to first tie the game on a soft 12-foot jumper from senior Eric Paymon, then take the lead on a fast-break layup off a steal by senior Mehki Strong.
Raymond used its tenacious man-to-man defense to clog the lanes and deny the Pirates any room to penetrate, and jump shots that usually fell, rang off the rim no good.
“We missed shots that we normally make,” said Kennedy. “I don’t know that I’ve ever coached a basketball game where we didn’t make a single shot in the first half before.
“We had opportunities where guys who usually shoot it well, were taking shots they normally take, and they just wouldn’t go in.”
Raymond led 11-3 after the first quarter, and blew the game open in the second quarter, holding the Pirates to a single free throw, while building a 22-4 halftime advantage.
“As we watched film on Pass, we knew they had key pieces, starting with the point guard,” said Raymond coach Tony Tadlock. “They had great shooters, good size, and Coach Kennedy always does a great job. We’ve seen them before in the playoffs and we have a lot of respect for them.
“But when our guys sit down and guard like they did tonight, we’re tough to beat. One thing we pride ourselves on is our half-court man-to-man defense. I’ve always been told if you want to win in Jackson, you’ve got to guard man-to-man, and we did that very well tonight.”
For awhile the Pirates kept themselves in the game with some stout defense of their own, forcing turnovers on four straight possessions early in the period, but were unable to take advantage of them.
“I felt like we had a pretty solid defensive game plan,” Kennedy said. “We held them to, what, 45 points, and their defense certainly had a lot to do with us not being able to put very many points on the board.”
And when senior Keymarius Lewis swished a 3-point shot from the right baseline, the Rangers got going offensively, and never looked back. Raymond converted 16 of 26 shots (61.5 percent) from the field in the final three quarters, most of them from close range.
Pass Christian was called on three different occasions in the first half on offensive player-control fouls on dribble drives, and that may have made the Pirates a little tentative going to the basket.
“I don’t know; I just think we couldn’t put the ball in the basket,” said senior Lauren Jaynes Jr. “It just wasn’t our night to do anything. That’s how the game goes sometimes.
“You could say we (panicked a little), but the object of the game is to put the ball in the basket, and we didn’t do that.”
The Rangers opened the second half by getting dunks after driving the baseline on their first two possessions, but the Pirates full-court press caused Raymond a few problems as the second half progressed. Pass forced 19 turnovers for the game, but got little out of them.
“I just think when I came in at halftime, I made it my priority to make sure my team didn’t ger down and hang our heads, that we could still stay in it,” said junior Perry Williams.
“Because the seniors, they were all hurting, I felt like it had to be my job to keep the team in it and keep the energy up.”
After missing their first 21 shots from the field, the Pirates finally cashed in a 3-pointer from the right baseline by junior Brendan Necaise with 5:21 to play in the third quarter.
“We talked at halftime how we how we had worked all week on a defensive game plan, and we thought we’d executed it pretty well,” Kennedy said. “We worked all week on an offensive game plan, and didn’t execute it very well.
“So we were trying to get them to relax, and hit a few shots in the second half. But offensively, it was a nightmare for us tonight.”
Williams gave Pass a bit of a spark with a couple of successful drives down the lane, but it was far too little much too late, and those four points made Williams the high scorer for the Pirates.
“We’ve got a lot of pride in this program, and they never quit,” said Kennedy. “They hung their heads here and there, but they never gave up. It was a lot to battle through, but they kept battling.”
Lewis led Raymond with 12 points, Strong added 11 points and Paymon had 10 points for the Rangers.
Despite the disappointing finish, it was another solid season for Pass Christian that included a 12-game winning streak and a Region 8-4A championship, both regular season and tournament.
“This season was the best fun I’ve ever had playing basketball in my life,” said Jaynes. “I don’t want this to take anything away from that. This bunch of guys in this locker room is the best group I’ve ever been with. I love them all.”
And while the Pirates lose some key players, a solid corps of juniors and sophomores returns.
“We’ve just got to start back from square one,” said Williams. “Got to get back in the lab and keep working. Hopefully, we can be back here next year.”
