Vols lose to Jaguars when shots don’t fall
MABEN – Frustrations were high for the Starkville Academy Volunteers on Thursday. The Vols felt like they did just about everything they could to knock off J.Z. George and score an opening round win in the East Webster Christmas Classic. One big stat stood in their way like a brick wall, however.
An 0-for-24 shooting day from the 3-point line was something that could not be overcome and all of the other work was insignificant as Starkville Academy dropped a 61-53 decision.
“I don’t know if we didn’t adjust to the arena here or what, but I really think it was (J.Z. George’s) quickness that got us out of our game early,” Vols coach Bruce Allsup said. “I thought it took us a quarter and a half before we adjusted to it.
“I didn’t think we played very well, but we still had opportunities to win the basketball game. We missed several layups and were awful at the free-throw line. It was a good game for us coming out of Christmas to see that kind of speed. Hopefully, it will help us down the road.”
While SA was missing most of their shots, J.Z. George was successful. The Jaguars were 21-of37 (56 percent) from the field and hit half of their 3-point shots (8-of-16) in the victory. The Vols out-rebounded them 31-27 including 14 offensive boards to two for the Jaguars.
J.Z. George controlled the game virtually from the tip. It jumped out to a 17-9 lead after one quarter and maintained it to halftime up 34-25.
The game mostly hovered around that nine-point advantage all the way through though SA showed signs of life in several instances.
The Vols had the disadvantage down to five points on two different occasions in the third quarter and missed opportunities to cut into it further. By the time that quarter ended, the Jaguars had the lead back up to nine points at 45-36.
“It was super frustrating,” Starkville Academy’s Noah Methvin said. “Late in the game, we had a chance. We were getting stops on defense, but we couldn’t make shots. We figured the shots would fall eventually and they never did.”
J.Z. George led by as much as 13 points in the final stanza before the Vols got the margin back down to seven, but missed free throws and more missed 3-pointers kept them from taking control of the game.
Methvin led the way for Starkville Academy (7-3) by scoring 16 points in the game on 7-of-15 shooting and he had seven rebounds in the loss. Trey Tyler had 15 points and six boards with four assists and Brady Richardson had 10 points and nine rebounds.
The Richardson brothers, Raegan and Brady, normally sharp from 3-point range were 0-for14.
The Vols did force 25 turnovers in the game, which was encouraging to Allsup. The coach is looking for his team to keep that consistency on that side of the basketball.
“The offense is not going to be there every game,” Allsup said. “When it’s not, you’ve got to make some other things happen. There are some things where we’ve got to get better.”
Starkville Academy is back in action today in the tournament playing a game out of the consolation bracket against Winston Academy at 4:15 p.m. in Cumberland. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the Lady Vols controlled their game from start to finish as a 3-pointer on the first possession from Mary Peyton Passons set the tone for a blowout win. Starkville Academy hit six 3-pointers in the game and shot 41 percent from the field overall to capture another win and kick off the East Webster Christmas Tournament.
“We just shot the ball extremely well,” Allsup said. “When we’re on, we’re pretty deadly. We were able to knock down some shots early and got to sit back.”
Passons was a cool 7-of-10 from the field and hit 4-of-6 from 3-point land as she led all scorers with 20 points. She also grabbed six rebounds, had three steals and two assists for the Lady Vols (8-9).
SA had a big first quarter when it used a 7-0 run to jump out to a 13-4 lead. The Lady Vols kept that going through the rest of the quarter and had a 21-10 advantage after one frame.
The second quarter was the nail in the coffin as SA outscored the Lady Jaguars 29-3 on its way to a 50-13 halftime lead. The clock rolled from there.
The Lady Vols out-rebounded the Lady Jaguars 47-25. Aubree Campbell added 15 points in the win with eight assists and Caroline Wood had 10 points off the bench. Mari Laci Hatcher led the team with nine rebounds.
“I think (Thursday) was one of our better games, no doubt,” Allsup said. “I’ve told my girls all along that we’ve got an opportunity to be a pretty good ball club. We’re going to get better as the year goes on. We’re striving to be better every game and we’ve made some progress.”
It will be winner’s bracket Friday for the Lady Vols tonight against East Webster at 5:30 p.m.