Picayune escapes with 57-49 Overtime win at Bay High

by Carey Meitzler

Bay St Louis —The homestanding Bay High Tigers gave Picayune all they could handle for four quarters before the Maroon

Tide was able to pull away in overtime and escape with a 57-49 win at Wilber Seymour Gymnasium.

Picayune led 15-14 after one quarter on Brandon Fortenberry's lay up at the buzzer. The Tigers took the lead on the first shot of

the second quarter, a Quincy Hall three pointer, but the Maroon Tide got a free throw from Shun Smith, a lay up from Wayne

Mickel and a three pointer from Smith to lead 21-17 with 5:37 left. After swapping baskets with the Maroon Tide twice, Bay

High went on a 9-0 run to lead 30-25 at the half.

Chris Dees scores over Bay's Brian Easley (44) in the first quarter; Wayne Mickel (3) looks to drive in.

Just as they did last Friday at Long Beach, Picayune turned up their level of play a notch in the third quarter.  Ben Daly drilled

a three pointer to open the third quarter for Picayune and Chris Dees tied the game at 30-30 with 4:40 left.  Dees then

completed the Tide's 7-0 run with another short jumper on an assist from David McClain. Picayune was leading 40-36

after Fortenberry hit two free throws with :04 left.

Ben Daly (far right) opens up the third quarter with a 3 pointer for Picayune.

Wayne Mickel (3) looks for a passing lane in trying to get the ball to Chris Dees (15).

Brian Easley scored for the Tigers to open the fourth quarter, but Fortenberry answered with a driving lay up for a

42-38 lead with 5:34 left.  Bay's Demitri Johnson scored on a drive to the basket and Easley followed up with two free

throws to tie the game at 42-42 with 3:26 left.   After neither team could score for roughly two minutes, Bay had the

ball with 1:30 left and ran the clock down to :18, but turned the ball back over to Picayune when Wayne Mickel

induced the Tigers' Hall into a charging foul.  Picayune got one final shot in regulation from Fortenberry, but it was

off the mark and the game went into overtime.

David McClain (33) looks inside for Brandon Fortenberry (4).

Picayune scored to start the overtime period on a short jumper by Jessie Ulmer.  After the Tigers missed the front end

of a one and one free throw opportunity, Fortenberry scored and was fouled on his made shot.  He missed the free throw,

but Chris Dees soared high above everyone to get the rebound and gently tossed it in from eight feet away to put the

Maroon Tide up 48-42.

Bay's Robert Labat hit a three pointer with 2:50 left to cut it to 48-45.  After Fortenberry missed the first free throw of a

one and one situation, Chaquille Lewis hit both free throws on the other end after being fouled to make it 48-47 with 1:28

left.

From that point, Picayune made six straight free throws in the bonus situation with Shun Smith hitting the first two and

Fortenberry connecting on the next four. The last two by Fortenberry came with :19 left.   Smith hit two more with :03 left

to close out the win.

Fortenberry paced Picayune (21-4, 8-2) with 21 points. Dees had 14 points and grabbed 8 rebounds. Smith finished

with 9 points and 3 assists. Mickel had 6 points, 3 steals, and 5 assists.

Easley led the Tigers (4-21, 1-8) with 14 points and Dustin Johnson tallied 10 points, all in the first half.  Hall added 9 points.

Picayune will host Poplarville on Friday in the Maroon Tide's last regular season home game.

The Lady Tide fights for a rebound in their 63-11 loss to Bay High.