To championship game of U.S. Games

It takes a team effort to make a run at a championship.

That’s what the Mississippi North 16-Under youth basketball squad experienced last weekend at the U.S. Games in Atlanta.

Coach Tricky Jackson’s group made it all of the way to the championship game before losing to Georgia 85-80 in overtime late Sunday night.

After losing to the same Georgia team to start the tournament, Team Mississippi won four-straight outings to get another chance in the title game.

Jackson said his players came together throughout the event and contributions came from everywhere on the court.

“What was really neat about this group was from game to game we had different players step up,” Jackson said. “All players contributed to the success over the weekend.”

It was the first time for Jackson to get a team to the championship of the U.S.

Games, but the weekend did not start well with the loss to Georgia, which is a program with a history of winning championships in multiple

divisions at the U.S. Games.

Jackson said Team Mississippi was just not ready to play the first game.

“Myself and the assistant coach went up on Thursday night because we had a coaches meeting, but the rest of the kids drove up with their families Friday morning,” Jackson said. “They literally drove 4 1/2 hours, we had an hour to get loose and we lost that first game by 11 (points). I believe it was because they just came off in that long drive and they left about 6 in the morning.”

Team Mississippi was much more competitive with Georgia in the championship game. It had the unfortunate situation come up where it had six players on the court to start overtime and was hit with a technical foul. That led to a pair of free throws for Georgia and it scored again on the next possession with a four-point swing.

That deficit was just too much for Team Mississippi to overcome in a 1 minute overtime, but Jackson was proud to be able to rally from 14 points behind to get the game into overtime.

“The funny thing about it is I had to go into my bench a little bit and the bench actually brought us back to within two (points),” Jackson said. “All of the guys were good, but we had some big 3’s off the bench and got us back in it.”

Team Mississippi had big performances in the tournament from L.J. Hackman and Gavin Brinker, while the weekend Most Valuable Players in Jackson’s mind were Kylan Baggett of Starkville High School and Caleb Parr.

“We had outstanding play from Caleb Parr in the semifinals and finals,” Jackson said. “He scored 19 (points) in the semifinal game and he scored 17 in the championship game with 15 of those in the second half.”

It was Parr, who hit a 3-point field goal to tie the championship game at 7777 to force overtime. He pulled down a rebound with 4.2 seconds remaining, then went down and scored.

Parr was on the road back and forth to Atlanta and was only able to make two practices with Team Mississippi, but Jackson quickly knew what he was getting when competition started.

“Parr was really kind of quiet,” Jackson said. “When you get All-star teams together, you try to get them in synch and learn who can do what. I knew (Parr) could play ball, but I didn’t know how much. I just wasn’t able to work him into the system because he didn’t know it very well. He is one of those glue players and one who gives it all.

“At 6-3, he averaged about 10 rebounds per game. He is really more of a 3 (guard) and we had to play him at a 4 (forward). There were a couple of our bigs that backed out at the last moment. We were a little undersized. We only had one true post player, who was David Harbour from Mooreville and he played good all weekend. Gavin Brinker probably had 12 points per game. He led us in the championship game with 26 points.”

The members of Team Mississippi are Baggett, Brinker, Hackman, Parr, Hayes Halbert, David Harbour, Reese Jackson, Tre Dismuke, Jarius Jordan and Braxton Bishop. There are two players from Tupelo, two from New Hope, one from Pontotoc, one from Mooreville and three from Starkville.

Starkville was represented by Baggett, Jackson and Jordan, who have been playing together since the sixth grade. Jackson and Jordan attend Starkville Academy.