Starkville Academy boys look for victory to keep on playing

It's that time of year in basketball where any game could be the last for area teams. That's certainly the case for the Starkville Academy boys tonight.

The Volunteers are heading to Leake Academy at 6:15 p.m. to begin the MAIS District 2-AAA Tournament. It's a place that head coach Bruce Allsup is all too familiar with as he took Starkville Academy's boys to the North State title game in that gym just two years ago.

He's hoping that the same magic happens with a much younger team this year. The Vols start it with a matchup between four and five seeds in what is essentially an elimination game with the loser finishing up the season. The two teams have split their respective games with each other this year.

“I think we're pretty evenly matched with Winston," Allsup said. "They won on our home court and we won on ours. The thing about this game is that you have to win or you take up the uniforms for the year. For this young basketball team, it would be big for us to play some more games. We're trying to get as much experience as we can.”

The SA boys (10-15) have grown quite a bit since the beginning of the season with fresh faces all over the court and even some production from freshmen players.

The team has begun to find its footing as Allsup's teams normally do this time of year.

“I feel like our mindset is good right now,” Allsup said. “They want to continue playing. We played at MRA on Friday night