'Big House' bound: Hattiesburg knocks off Florence 64-49 to advance to MHSAA 5A Semifinals

POPLARVILLE – On a night when everything wasn’t always going right, the Hattiesburg boys displayed their playoff mettle.

The Tigers established a big lead in the first half against Florence and weathered several attempts by the Eagles to rally in the second half, taking away a 64-47 victory in the Class 5A Quarterfinal Round at White Coliseum on the Pearl River Community College campus.

HHS (22-7) won their 14th-straight and advanced to the 5A Final Four at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson. The Tigers will face the winner of Saturday’s quarterfinal between Canton and New Hope. Florence finished 14-10.

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“I don’t recall how many times this is, but it’s always good to get to the Big House,” said HHS coach Ernie Watson. “I really enjoyed the effort, really enjoyed the kids’ focus, and the fact that they really understood the moment.”

This game wasn’t as easy as some of Hattiesburg’s recent games have been. The Tigers were challenged at several points in the game and did not play their best game, at least on offense.

“Mainly, it’s just like every game, we just wanted to be prepared, play defense really well and get our offense moving,” said senior forward Darrian Johnson.

Florence grabbed a 10-6 lead before the Tigers kicked their offense into gear, and it was the bench that showed the way.

Sophomore reserve guard James Griffin swished a 3-point shot from the left baseline to ignite what would be a decisive 14-0 run over the rest of the first quarter and into the second.

Junior forward Logan Burns made a nifty move to the basket down the lane on back-to-back possessions, sandwiched around a turnover, then freshman Tristen Keys worked his way for an open layup as Hattiesburg ended the period leading 15-10.

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“Our senior group really didn’t come out with a spark, but our second group helped us and made us get going, and then we started playing well as a team.” said Johnson.

“They are major for us. They push us to be better. The bench is a real important part of this team. Without them we wouldn’t be as far as we are. They’ve saved us in a lot of games, and they come out with energy, then we try to go back out and match it.”

It was more of the same in the second quarter. Johnson got a putback layup on the opening possession of the period, drew a foul and made the free throw to convert the three-point play.

The Tigers hit four of their first six shots, including another putback by Johnson, and outscored the Eagles 11-2 to open the second quarter and build a big lead. HHS lead 31-17 at halftime.

“We were getting easy baskets,” said Watson. “We went inside and established the inside game, because we knew they were going to be hurting a little on the inside.

“Logan Burns did a great job of establishing that, and then we started getting offensive rebounds and that got us going.”

The second half was little different ball game. The Eagles made some defensive adjustments to prevent the Tigers from getting to the basket as easily as they would like.

“32 (senior Carter Mullins) and 10 (junior Cameron Lee) are good players , so we wanted to isolate (Lee) and make (Mullins) do all the dirty work, and we did a good job of that, and keeping them off the boards.”

Hattiesburg played without one of its main offensive weapons, the 3-point shot. After hitting 10 off 22 from beyond the arc last week in their second-round win over West Harrison, the Tigers were just 4 of 13 against Florence.

“Not playing in here, not shooting in here, it makes a difference,” said Watson. “The 10 minutes we had to warm up was the only chance we had to shoot. So I guess that’s why our shooting was off a little bit.”

The Eagles slowly climbed back in it, but every time the threatened, HHS was ready with a response. Senior guard Malik Walker had a big drive down the lane for a crucial third-quarter basket, and Burns hit a little 4-footer in the lane to keep Florence at bay.

“I think we, (junior) Christian Moody and me, are the best defenders in the state,” said junior guard Stephen McCullon Jr. “We believe we can guard anybody.”

Florence cut Hattiesburg’s margin to eight points late in the third quarter, 38-30, but Johnson got a well-timed drive down the baseline and Walker converted a foul shot to put the Tigers ahead 40-31 heading into the final period.

“In the second half, our offense was a little bit off,” Johnson said. “But, we wanted to make sure we had a 15-point lead at halftime and we wanted to maintain that. So it wasn’t so much about our offense as it was our defense.”

The fourth quarter proved to be McCullon’s time for Hattiesburg. The junior guard scored 17 of his game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter, including 11 of 12 shots from the foul line.

“We just wanted it more than they did,” said McCullon. “We came together there and picked up our game in the fourth quarter. It was just the little things we were doing that we’ve practiced on.”

McCullon’s foul-shooting prowess in the final period was a welcome sight after the Tigers were just 4 of 10 from the line in the first three quarters.

“We practice on free throws every day, because we know they are key,” said McCullon. “So when it came down to free throws at the end, it was easy.”

With HHS still not certain of victory, leading 43-32 early in the fourth quarter, McCullon took a missed shot coast-to-coast for a fast-break layup and drew a foul.

He missed the and-1, but the Tigers got the rebound and kicked the ball out for senior Kelby McKeller for a wide-open 3-ball from the right wing and a five-point play.

Florence made one more run at the Tigers, using a 9-0 run to cut the margin to 52-43 with three minutes to play.

But McCullon took a steal for a layup, then the Tigers stole the inbounds pass, fed Johnson for a drive down the baseline and he answered with an authoritative slam dunk with 1:14 to play. McCullon then made eight straight free throws in the final minute to seal the deal.

Johnson finished with 14 points for Hattiesburg and McKeller had 9 points on three 3-point shots. Lee had 14 points to lead Florence, Mullins and senior Avery Taylor each added 11 points for the Eagles.

Watson said he’s got something of a scouting report on Canton, but nothing on New Hope, so he’s traveling Saturday to Fulton and Itawamba Community College to scout his team’s next opponent.

“We’ve got an extra day that they’re not going to have,” said Watson. “We need to use that time to our advantage and get as much preparation as we can.”