SHS boys breeze to victory
Playing five games in a week looked to be a daunting task for the Starkville High School boys and especially with the teams that were waiting on them.
The Yellowjackets had a run of threestraight road games in that stretch and had three Class 6A, Region 3 games against Madison Central, Murrah and Northwest Rankin included.
When taking into account just how well the Jackets are playing at this point, the breeze they made of those five games was no surprise. The brutal stretch ended on Friday night when SHS blew away Northwest Rankin 77-51 and pushed themselves within a game of clinching Region 3.
In the five-game run, SHS beat its opponents by an average of 24 points. Only the 11-point Murrah win on the road on Thursday was remotely close.
“I think we did well,” Starkville boys coach Greg Carter said. “You learn a lot about your team when you play a lot of games like that. We defended well. I think we’ve gotten a lot better over the last five games.”
The win was the 13th in a row for the Jackets who improved to 17-3 and are playing their best basketball at the right time. They moved to 4-0 in district play needing just one win in the next two games against either Murrah or Madison Central to clinch a
fifth-straight district title.
To get into that position, SHS had to win against a much-improved Northwest Rankin squad. The Jackets didn’t make it easy on themselves at times with their missed shots, but the game was hardly ever in doubt.
SHS started with a 9-0 lead in the first few minutes and expanded
it to 12-1 after a Natrone Brooks 3-pointer. Northwest Rankin closed the lead to 12-7 on back-to-back 3s, but Atavius Jones scored five points in the final 1:30 of the first quarter to push the lead to 18-9.
A 7-0 run to start the second quarter by the Jackets pretty much sealed the Cougars’ fate as they trailed 27-9. Starkville led 34-21 at the break.
In the second half, seven points by Jordan Temple sparked a 14-4
run and SHS was up 48-25. Tyler Talley hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to end the third quarter and it was a 53-29 rout by that point.
“We came out with more energy in the second half,” Temple said. “We were more confident in our shots after coach talked to us about it at halftime. We were confident in the second half.”
Jones led the Jackets with his 12 points in the game and Temple finished
with 11. The Jackets weren’t on top of their game shooting the basketball, perhaps playing with tired legs. They went 13-of-27 from the free-throw line, something that Carter said doesn’t worry him.
“I think it was more of a bad night than anything,” Carter said. “We don’t normally shoot free throws that bad and we had the right guys shooting, too.”
Now SHS looks to continue its
hot streak that has run for over a month now. After beating Murrah 61-50 on Thursday in Jackson, the Jackets are set to host them on Tuesday to seal off the district championship.
“We feel pretty good right now,” Temple said. “We shook off some bad losses and are playing well. Murrah on Tuesday is a real big game and one that we need to win to end up first.”