Don’t lose focus if Tiffany Huddleston is guarding you.
If you look away or leave the ball unprotected for an instant, the Starkville Academy junior is liable to poke it away and race to the other end and score.
Few athletes can do that on the soccer field and on the basketball court.
But Huddleston’s ability to round back into All-State form is just another reason why the Starkville Academy girls basketball team can say today it is a champion.
Anna Lea Little had a game-high 18 points and Huddleston added 12 Saturday to lead Starkville Academy to a 61-35 victory against East Rankin Academy in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class AAA, Division II title game at Heritage Academy.
Nora Kathryn Carroll added eight points as the Lady Volunteers (31-5) had 10 players score in the finale of their three-game sweep to the championship.
“They were being very patient, and I was thinking, ‘Here we go again,’ ” Starkville Academy coach Glenn Schmidt said. “I think the kids knew they had to turn it up. (The second quarter) was huge for us. It set the tone and our offense began to click and we began to drop some shots in.”
The win pushes Starkville Academy into the overall Class AAA tournament, which will begin Tuesday at East Rankin Academy. Starkville Academy will be the top seed in the North and will play Presbyterian Christian, a No. 4 seed, at a time to be determined. Starkville Academy has defeated Presbyterian Christian twice this season.
That was the same story line Saturday, as Starkville Academy looked for a three-game sweep against East Rankin Academy. After taking most of the first quarter to adjust to playing against a zone defense, the Lady Volunteers relied on their defense for a spark. Anna Prestridge had a steal in the halfcourt and converted a layup, and Huddleston followed with another steal. Starkville Academy didn’t cash in on that turnover immediately, but it used a jump shot by Little off an assist from Huddleston to tie the game at 6 after eight minutes.
From there, Starkville Academy’s energy and efficiency on offense increased. The Lady Volunteers did their best to force right-handed point guard Brittney Vinzant to her left. Starkville Academy effectiveness in that area triggered a 23-4 second quarter that erased any doubt in the outcome.
Huddleston looked poised and aggressive off the bench substituting for senior April Burney. Not only did she distribute the basketball with the eye of a pass-first point guard, she also played with the aggressiveness of a scorer, draining two jump shots in the second quarter explosion. She also had a 3-pointer in the third quarter that helped the Lady Volunteers open a 40-14 lead.
“Tiffany is an All-State point guard from her eighth-grade year,” Schmidt said. “She has been there and done that. She played her ninth grade year and then focused on soccer last year. She has come back this year and her game is very, very close to being really, really good. We have several people we could start who aren’t starting.”
Schmidt feels Huddleston’s aggressiveness serves her well on defense. She said Huddleston can read the game and anticipate what is going to happen, which might help explain her knack for getting steals.
On offense, Schmidt feels Huddleston has settled in and is in the groove.
“She is back to doing the things she does well: Shooting, driving the baseline, grabbing an offensive rebound,” Schmidt said. “She is a great passer. We have two point guards. We’re able to bring her off the bench and rest Anna (Prestridge), or I can play her at another guard. Her game is really turning up.”
East Rankin coach Michael McAnally praised Starkville Academy for its ability to execute on offense. He also credited the Lady Volunteers’ defense, especially after he said his team played a “perfect” first quarter.
“They made it extremely difficult for us to get anything,” McAnally said. “Their athleticism allows them to switch a lot of screens and not have matchup troubles other teams might have. They did a great job taking away our strength, taking our some of our tendencies, and just made it tough for us to get baskets.”
Schmidt said she expects all of her players to deliver that kind of effort on defense. She said she doesn’t offer any of the players who come off the bench special instruction or remind them they need to bring energy when they enter the game because she feels it is understood. With as many as eight starters, including one like Huddleston who is a multi-sport standout, she knows the Lady Volunteers have a lot of weapons and ways to be teams on both ends of the floor.
Now the trick will be to keep it going this week.
“We preach to our kids it is really not about the other team, it is about us and playing our game,” Schmidt said. “The times we have gotten off the beaten path we have not been successful (in losses against Pillow Academy, Jackson Prep, and Jackson Academy). … They’re seeing it is really not about anything but what we believe in and what we do and being able to adjust and to do something else we do when that happens.”
From scoring, playing defense, sharing the basketball, and being the sum of their parts, the Starkville Academy girls basketball team appears to be able to do it all.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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