Vols don’t dig out of hole in Class 4A State title game

JACKSON – Earlier this season when Starkville Academy and Hartfield Academy went head-tohead, the Volunteers fell into a hole and somehow made it out of it to score a major upset.

It was 33-15 after three quarters and Starkville Academy found away with an amazing comeback to get the win. While the Vols found themselves in a similar situation in the MAIS 4A State championship on Saturday night, it would not offer the same result.

It was the wrong time for a cold-as-ice shooting performance as the Vols went just 8-of-43 from the field and 2-of-23 from 3-point range. Hartfield got out to an early lead and never lost it as Starkville Academy fell short of a goal of winning a blue trophy and a state title in a 45-20 defeat at Hillcrest Christian.

Head coach Bill Ball got the defense he wanted from his Vols against one of MAIS’ best teams, but the offense just didn’t come. A zone defense clogged up the paint and forced shots from the outside that Starkville Academy just couldn’t hit.

“When you hold the best team in the state with two Division-i players and a Dandy Dozen to 45 (points), I would have taken it,” Ball said. “Our effort was there. Our defense was good for the most part, especially against that caliber of offense. Their zone really swallowed us up.”

Five players scored in the game for the Vols led by six points from Wiggy Ball, but none of them could ever find consistency with that zone. There were several minutes between baskets throughout the game and the momentum never came for Starkville Academy to try and stay in the game.

It started early when the Hawks raced out to a 7-0 lead a minute and a half into the first quarter prompting a timeout from Ball. It was 13-4 after the first quarter with a 2-for-11 start and the Vols could never get anything going from there. The defense kept them within striking distance, but another quarter of just four points made it 21-8 heading to halftime and Starkville Academy was 0-9 from 3-point range.

“I was hoping we might knock two or three down and get back in the game,” Ball said. “We had eight points halfway through the third quarter. We had to get some balls up and unfortunately we just couldn’t make them.”

Things snowballed in the third quarter. The Vols didn’t score for over 7 minutes and it wasn’t until Wiggy Ball nailed the team’s first 3-pointer that the Vols were able to climb over double digits trailing 33-11 at the end of three quarters. That was all that the Hawks needed to celebrate the win and make sure there was no repeat of the first meeting.

While Starkville Academy lost its first game since early in January against Heritage, it’s still a team to beat in the overall tournament coming up. The Vols (21-4) will host the first round of the overall tournament either Monday or Tuesday.

“We’ve still got basketball to play,” Ball said. “The quicker we can flush this out of our system and remember the accomplishments we had that got us to (Saturday), then we can move forward. It’s going to be a quick turnaround.”