PASCAGOULA-- Ed Simpson put up 23 points and 13 rebounds as St. Martin held off Moss Point late for a 64-57 victory in the Chevron Classic at Pascagoula High School.
Stacee Julian also had 17 points for St. Martin (15-5) and Jamond Franklin added 16 in the most competitive contest among the tournament's seven games on Saturday.
Moss Point senior guard Devin Booker scored 33 points, 20 in the second half, to extend his run of games with at least 30 points to 12 games.
Booker did his best to rally his team late in the contest, scoring nine points in a 57-second span to cut St. Martin's lead to 58-57 with 59.2 seconds remaining.
"I feel like that's when the best player's supposed to play his best," Booker said. "I was just trying to do what I can do to get the win. We came up short, but we played well as a team."
The Yellow Jackets converted on their free throws down the stretch to close out the contest.
St. Martin was without two starters Saturday with Rodrick Sikes dealing with a rotator cuff injury and Ladarius Johnson has been removed from the team.
"To lose two starters in two days and come back, James Franklin and Mike Lanasa came in and did an unbelievable job of filling in without a whole lot of experience," St. Martin coach Charlie Pavlus said.
Simpson, a Middle Tennessee signee, is not typically in double digits on rebounds, but he made a point of hitting the boards hard Saturday night.
"Coach said that was the one of the biggest things he needed me to do," Simpson said. "(Derrick McMillan), I was guarding him and he is the most active person on the team and he said that if I keep him off the glass and get every rebound, we'd have a good chance of winning. I knew that was my focus today. I was glad to go out there and accomplish that."
Early in the game, St. Martin did a good job of limiting Booker, who got into foul trouble with his third coming less than three minutes before halftime.
"James Franklin battled (Booker) all night," Pavlus said. "He guards the best player every day in practice. He's a dog."
Moss Point dropped to 8-12 and returns to Division 8-4A play at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday at Pass Christian.
Pascagoula closed out Saturday's schedule with a 63-32 victory over Pass Christian to improve to 9-6.
Bobby Nettles was MVP of the game with 12 points for the Panthers. Joining Nettles in double digits were Jaylen Smith with 11 points and La'Datren Deas with 10 points.
Saturday's victory makes it four straight for Panthers, and they're starting to win in convincing fashion.
"I like where we're getting," Pascagoula coach Ronald Norman said. "We come out with a focus early in the game and we set a tempo early. Defensively, we got out in transition tonight. We know what Pass does. We know they're going to be prepared.
"We got in our press and created some turnovers, and it was on. Our kids really, really performed for me tonight.
In the fourth game of the day, Gautier bounced back from a loss at Hancock Friday night to take down Bay High, 47-31, to improve to 10-7.
Lafayette Rutledge led the Gators with 18 points while fellow senior Trivell Broyles contributed eight points.
Gautier led 21-11 at halftime, leaving little doubt of the game's outcome.
The Pascagoula girls basketball team got action started Saturday with a 46-43 victory over Pass Christian. Jailyn Cherry hit a 3-pointer with nine seconds left to clinch the win and finish with 13 points.
The boys actions started in the second game of the day with Puckett beating East Central, 70-43.
In the third game of the day, the Pascagoula junior varsity squad beat Vancleave, 47-45.
Theodore, Ala., was originally scheduled to be Vancleave's opponent, but was unable to make the trip to Pascagoula.
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