Petal went back-and-forth with Terry the first three quarters of their Class 6A playoff matchup Saturday night. Then, the fourth quarter happened.
The Bulldogs outscored the Panthers 24-10 in the quarter, advancing to Jackson with a 67-51 win.
“They went to a 2-3 zone, and that’s never been a problem for us all year. Everything wasn’t quite as sharp offensively,” Petal head coach Todd Kimble said. “I thought they looked a little slow. We just never did get comfortable.
“They played hard. We just couldn’t score the basketball like we’ve been scoring it.”
Petal finishes year one of the Kimble-era at 17-6.
“It’s bittersweet, because I feel like we could’ve gone farther and done more,” Kimble said. “But hey, this time of the year, you can’t have a bad game. I didn’t think we played one of our better games at all tonight.”
Sophomore Caleb McGill led Petal in scoring with 14 points, while senior Matt Butler added 13 for the Panthers.
Looking forward, the Panthers are set to lose Butler and six other seniors, including MGCCC signee Mykah Brown. But McGill and Treylan Smith, two of the team’s top scorers as 10th graders, will return with valuable experience under their belt. That has Kimble excited for the future of Petal basketball.
“Especially the seniors, those guys have had to relearn everything. The sophomores and younger guys, they’re there now,” Kimble said. “So we’re not coming in fresh right now. Next year everybody has an idea about what the system is and how we play. We’re kind of ahead of the game a little bit now.”
