The "Rooster" Rocks St. Stanislaus as Picayune wins 48-38

by Carey Meitzler

Picayune traveled to Bay St Louis to take on the Rockachaws of St Stanislaus at Our Lady Academy's

gym.  When the final buzzer sounded, the Maroon Tide came away with a 48-38 win due mainly to the

efforts of Randy "Rooster" Perkins who took control of the game in the second half leading the Maroon

Tide back from a 10 point deficit.

The Rockachaws (9-9, 5-6) jumped on the Maroon Tide 7-0 before Alan Moran banged home a jumper

with 5:15 left in the first quarter.  After a lay up by Stanislaus' Brian Rice made it 9-2, Picayune went on

a 6-0 run capped on Perkins lay up with :02 left to cut the lead to 9-8.

Picayune would withstand a second quarter 7-0 run by the Rockachaws.  Trailing 18-13, the Maroon

Tide would pull to within 20-17 at the half on senior Darionne Jones 10 footer from straight away at the

buzzer.

The third quarter opened with Stanislaus jumping out to a 27-17 lead with 4:17 left on the clock.  But

that's when a Perkins steal, one of his six on the night, turned into a breakaway lay up and Picayune

would go on a 10-0 run as sophomore Brandon Fortenberry and Jones each scored four points to

pull the Maroon Tide even at 27-27.  Jones tied it on a short jumper with :01 left.

On the first possession of the fourth quarter, Perkins drove the right baseline and dropped in a lay up

with a nice kiss off the glass to put the Maroon Tide up 29-27.  Stanislaus countered with a Mike Rice

put back of his own shot to tie it with 6:51 to play.  Senior Chris Griffith put Picayune back up 31-29

with a tip in of a missed shot.  From that point in the game, the Rooster took over.

Perkins stole the ball at half court and raced in for a lay up, was fouled, and converted the free throw

to make it 34-29.  Seconds later, he stole the ball again and drove in to score to make it 36-29.  Rice

would get free on a lay up and his younger brother Brian would make one of two free throws to make

the score 36-32 with 3:59 left.  Perkins scored on another lay up to put Picayune up

38-32 with 3:34 to play.

During the last 1:51 of the game, Perkins was fouled repeatedly by Stanislaus and he converted 6 of 6

free throws.

Perkins finished with 19 points, 15 in the fourth quarter, to lead Picayune.  Along with his six steals,

Perkins pulled down 4 rebounds. Jones finished with 10 points to aid the cause.  Moran and

Fortenberry each added 6 points.  Chris Griffith had 4 and Chazz Hawkins added a 3 pointer.

Mike Rice lead St Stanislaus with 16 points and 9 rebounds.

Picayune (21-4, 11-1) will close our their regular season with a non-division game at Hancock on

Friday.  Tip off is set for 7:00pm.