STARKVILLE — Raleigh Egypt (Tenn.) High School boys basketball coach Maurice Miller wasn’t going to coach if his assistant coach couldn’t be on the bench with him.
Miller’s assistant coach, who he didn’t name, was assessed two technical fouls in the second quarter. After the second technical foul, the assistant coach was disqualified from the game and asked to leave. That’s when Miller told his team to pack up and they walked off the court, forfeiting its game to Starkville High on Tuesday night in the final game of the Travis Outlaw Slam Dunk at the Hump at Mississippi State’s Humphrey Coliseum.
“Certain stuff I’m not going to allow,” Miller said. “I’ve played in the ACC, I’ve played overseas. I’m a guy with morals, discipline, and principles.”
Miller played at Georgia Tech from 2007-11 and was named coach at Raleigh Egypt, his alma mater, in May 2015.
One official said the Raleigh Egypt assistant coach was “rude” when assessed the first technical foul and “ruder” when he assessed the second foul.
“He calls techs and can’t explain himself,” Miller said. “He didn’t know why he was teching. He tried yelling at us. Referees don’t do that. I don’t mind losing. I’ve lost a lot, but certain stuff I’m not going to let it continue because it can go left. I don’t want players to get caught up in what’s going on, and I don’t want to leave a wrong impression, so the best thing to do was to get the guys and leave the floor.”
Starkville (12-2) led 35-18 with 2 minutes, 1 second left in the second quarter when Raleigh Egypt walked off the court. Miller wasn’t happy when junior Ethan Burnett fouled out with 4 minutes, 26 seconds left in the second quarter and had an exchange with an official and the scorekeeper. Raleigh Egypt didn’t have a scorebook and Miller couldn’t believe one of his reserves had fouled out in the first half.
“I’ve heard of it happening before, but I’ve never been a part of it,” Starkville coach Greg Carter said. “I know in Mississippi, the High School Activities Association frowns upon pulling your team off the floor. It comes with harsh penalties in Mississippi. I don’t know what they do in Tennessee.”
Carter caught up with Miller after the game outside the Hump. He said Miller had no ill feelings toward Starkville.
Starkville was coming off a 47-39 victory against Tupelo on Monday night. In a defensive battle, Carter didn’t get to play many of his reserves a lot of minutes. Leading the Pharaohs 20-3 after the first quarter, Carter pulled his starters and let his young players get some playing time.
“Anytime you don’t get to play, it matters, especially guys who don’t normally get to play very many minutes,” Carter said. “We put some guys in who normally don’t get to play a whole lot of minutes. The second half would have helped them.”
Starkville will play Kemper County at 3 p.m. Friday in the Trojan Classic at New Hope High.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Ben Wait on Twitter @bcwait
Ben Wait reports on Mississippi State University sports for The Dispatch.
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