Saint Stanislaus defeats "cold" Tide in Region opener 53-44

by Carey Meitzler

Picayune--The temperature inside Kelly Wise Memorial Gymnasium was as it always is; a little warm. But the Maroon Tide

shooting resembled the cold weather outside as very few shots would fall for Picayune and they dropped their Region 8-4A opener

53-44 to the Saint Stanislaus Rockachaws.

St. Stanislaus jumped to an early 6-0 lead, but Picayune fought back and took the lead at 7-6 on senior Wayne Mickel's lay up

with 2:43 to play.  Mickel drained a 3 pointer to make it 10-6 on the Tide's next possession.  Picayune led 12-9 at the end of the

quarter.

Picayune was leading 16-14 with 4:02 left in the second quarter after Mickel made one of two free throws.  From that point,

the Rockachaws went on a 8-0 run to lead 22-16 with 2:10 on the clock.  Picayune cut it to 22-19 on a lay up by Chris Dees as

he was fouled.  Dees added the free throw to make if 22-19 with 1:11 to go.  Stanislaus was called for a technical foul with 1:06

left.  David McClain made one of two free throws to make it 22-20 at the half.

The third quarter opened with the Rockachaws reeling off a 7-0 run to lead 29-20 with 6:14 left in the quarter.  Mickel's rebound

and put back with 5:30 left ended the run and made the score 29-22.  That's as close as the Maroon Tide could get and Stanislaus

led 38-27 at the end of the quarter.

The Rockachaws scored two quick baskets to start the fourth quarter to build their biggest lead of the game at 42-27.  Picayune

cut the lead to 48-41 with 1:05 to play on Reshun Smith's 3 pointer, but the Rockachaws made 5 of 7 free throws in the last minute

to hang on for the victory.

St Stanislaus (10-0, 1-0) was led by Daniel Grieves with 12 points and Pedro Maciel had 11 points and 7 assists.

Thomas Camargo added 11 points and Kele Mbadugha had 9 points and Bryan Lynch 8 points.

Wayne Mickel paced Picayune (7-2, 0-1) with 16 points while Chris Dees added 12 points, with 10 of his total in the first half.

David McClain had 9 points and Reshun Smith finished with 5 points.  Brandon Fortenberry was limited to a third quarter basket

to finish with 2 points

Picayune will play at Lumberton on Saturday with the jv boys game at 5:00pm to be followed by both the varsity girls and boys'

games.