HATTIESBURG – Oak Grove boys basketball coach LaRon Brumfield knows his team’s season could end any day now. However, he also knows his team can do what it takes to win after the Warriors rallied in the fourth quarter to defeat St. Martin 71-63 Tuesday night at home in the first round of the Class 6A playoffs. “We’ve got to all come out and take care of business now because we’re all down to a one-game season,” he said after his Warriors (16-11) scored eight unanswered points in the fourth quarter to beat the Yellowjackets (16-15). “We knew it was going to be a tough, gritty match. We knew going in that this first game was the game that you just feel like you had to get over it. We knew they were going to be pressing and we knew they were going to play hard.” The Warriors started off slowly, falling behind six points at 12-6 early in the first quarter. Brumfield said the players were a little anxious and ball movement slowed to a crawl at times. “I thought we were a little tentative early,” he said. “We thought we would get the shots against their zone and we worked on that. If you are going to shoot, you’ve got to shoot it with confidence. Once we started doing that, I thought we were OK.” Oak Grove managed to pull within one point, 14-13, with a minute left in the first quarter, which ended with St. Martin leading 19-15. The Yellowjackets opened the second quarter with a seven-point lead – the largest of the game for either side until the final score – jumping ahead 24-17. The Warriors managed to take a 37-35 lead at halftime after Charles Hartfield scored a basket under the goal and Winceton Edwards hit a three-pointer from the top of the key and drove for a score in the last minute. Both players scored 24 points to lead Oak Grove’s offense on the night. Brumfield said he stressed the importance of the second half during intermission. “We challenged them at halftime,” he said. “We said, ‘This is your last game in this gym. What are you going to do? You’ve got to make it memorable.’ They did that and we’re proud of them.” In the second half, St. Martin opened with four quick points to take the lead and outscored the Warriors 7-2 in the final 1:26 of the third quarter to lead 56-54 after three stanzas. However, down four points 60-5, Oak Grove scored eight unanswered points in the next two minutes for a 64-60 lead and pulled away in the final minutes. The Warriors’ tenacious defense in the fourth quarter put the game out of reach, Brumfield said. “I think our defensive effort in the fourth quarter really helped us out,” he said. “I think we limited them to seven points and that really means a lot. We stepped it up on defense.” Also scoring for Oak Grove were Travez Ward with nine, Xavier Daniels with six, Tate Ryder with four and Zachary Dearman with three. Jariyon Wilkens topped the St. Martin scoring with 17 points, while Cam’Ron Jones was the only other Yellowjacket shooter in double figures with 11. With nine apiece were Daetren Bivens, Jayce Franklin and Trez Kennedy. Da’Quan Gaudin added five, while Roshaun Jones contributed three.