Another March finds the Starkville High School boys basketball team in a familiar spot.
The Yellow Jackets are once again playing for a Mississippi High School Activities Association state championship.
While Starkville last won a state title in 2010, the Yellow Jackets have been regular visitors to Jackson under coach Greg Carter.
Despite the familiarity, each trip is appreciated.
“A lot of really great teams do not make it to Jackson,” Carter said. “It doesn’t matter how many talented players, you have to have a little bit of luck on your side.”
Starkville (24-5) will face Meridian (28-6) at 8 tonight in the semifinal round of the Class 6A state tournament at the Mississippi Coliseum. The winner will face either Provine (18-9) or Madison Central (18-12) in Saturday’s championship.
The task at hand is certainly doable, since Starkville beat Meridian once and Madison Central twice during the regular season.
“Reaching Jackson is accomplishment,” Carter said. “However, we are not satisfied at this point. We still feel like we have games to win. We feel like we have a championship to win. So it’s really all about focusing in and being the best you can be two more times.”
Carter has built this team like he has so many others at Starkville.
The Yellow Jackets play incredible, ball-hawking four quarters of defense. Every player on the team crashes the boards hard. On offense, there is no star player. Most nights, three or four top scorers are only separated by a basket or two. The Yellow Jackets run a deliberate system and run it well. This team has a little more size than the last couple of state tournament participants. However, the size won’t wow you.
“When everybody on the team is scoring at the same time, we are hard to stop,” Starkville junior point guard Tyson Carter, who is the son of the head coach. “We try to get four or five players to double figures. If we are doing that that means we are sharing the basketball and doing the things that we are supposed to do.”
Starkville typically has scores hovering in the 50s or 60s. If the Yellow Jackets reach 70, it simply means their defense has been outstanding.
“Good defense leads to good offense for this team,” Starkville senior Raphael Leonard said. “Not everybody can play the type of defense that we do. Since everybody plays all-out, nobody gets tired. We have seven or eight players who can come in and help get the job done. That wears the other team down.”
Coach Carter said the offensive balance for Starkville proved the key in a win over Murrah to start the Class 6A playoffs. The Bulldogs could not key on one player or stop one dimension of the Starkville game. Thus, the Yellow Jackets wore their visitors down and cruised to the win.
Few teams have been hotter than Starkville.
Starkville will carry an 11-game win streak into tonight’s contest, including a 62-47 win over Hattiesburg last Saturday at the Mississippi Coliseum to begin its state tournament competition. Starkville has won all for postseason games by 13 points or more.
“We got a lot of confidence from beating McComb (a 59-53 win on Jan. 19),” Tyson Carter said. “They were on a 34-game win streak and that just showed to us that we can beat anybody when we play for four quarters. Even though we lost our next game (a 59-52 loss to Madison Central), we really took off after that and went on a streak of our own.”
Senior Josh Skinner knows what it will take to win a state championship. He feels his team is ready.
“There is a lot of tradition here, so we know other teams get up to play us,” Skinner said. “We feel like we control our own destiny. We have to continue to buy in and give a great effort on the defensive end. We have been practicing real hard because we have been looking forward to this opportunity.”
The Starkville girls saw their state tournament run end with a 60-39 loss to Horn Lake in the semifinal round of the state tournament Wednesday night. Both the Starkville boys and girls have fed off each other all season. Both teams have played brilliant basketball with a lot of young players. The future is really bright for both teams.
Tonight, the Starkville boys will try to take the next step. With a veteran coach calling the shots and team chemistry at an all-time high, the Yellow Jackets are the team to beat in Jackson. Here’s hoping they can close the deal with two more wins.
Scott Walters is a sports writer for The Dispatch. His email is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @dispatchscott
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.