JACKSON — The numbers likely will determine the Starkville High School girls basketball team’s chances of winning a Mississippi High School Activities Association (MHSAA) Class 6A State title.
If Starkville can hold Olive Branch under 40 points at 6 p.m. Saturday at Mississippi Coliseum, it will be the 25th time this season the Lady Yellow Jackets have held an opponent to that scoring total. A sub-40 point effort by the Lady Quisters (32-1) will enhance the Lady Yellow Jackets’ chances of completing a 32-0 run and winning a championship and the gold ball trophy that goes with it.
Starkville coach Kristie Williams said the journey started last summer when senior center Kelsey Jones told her she wasn’t leaving without a gold ball. Since then, the Lady Yellow Jackets have embraced playing defense and stifling opponents.
“From that moment everything has just clicked,” Williams said. “The chemistry with each other and that determination to want to make everything better, whether it is a drill or helping each other with homework, the little things. I think those little things help out when you’re on the court. When your shot isn’t falling I can pat you on the back and say, ‘C’mon, we got this.’ That is how it has been for 31 games, and I am just so proud.”
Starkville enters the matchup against Mississippi State signee Myah Taylor and Olive Branch on an 11-game run of holding opponents below 40 points. Starkville beat MHSAA Class 5A finalist West Point 66-44 on Jan. 24 prior to kicking off that streak.
Starkville also had played the other Class 5A finalist — Neshoba Central. That game, a 59-58 overtime victory for Starkville, stands out because the Lady Rockets have the highest point total against the Lady Yellow Jackets this season.
Those scoring totals pale in comparison to Olive Branch, which is averaging 72.4 points per game. Its only loss is a 65-54 setback to White Station (Tenn.) High on Dec. 17. Its lowest point total came in a 48-25 victory against Cardinal Ritter College Prep (St. Louis, Mo.).
But Starkville’s defense has remained steady even when its offense has struggled. In a 34-20 victory against Biloxi on Wednesday in the state semifinals, Starkville shot 34.2 percent (13 of 38) from the field. It overcame 18 turnovers and a 6-of-22 shooting effort in the first half by holding Biloxi to 24.1-percent shooting (7 of 29) from the field. The Lady Indians also committed 16 turnovers.
Starkville will be hard pressed to force that many turnovers against Olive Branch because Taylor, who is widely regarded as the state’s best player, and Mahogany Vaught (game-high 23 points in a semifinal victory against Jackson Murrah on Wednesday) give the Lady Quisters two strong ballhandlers. The Lady Yellow Jackets’ best course of action might be to try to feed Jones and to have her battle Katie Blackmon in the post in an effort to control the tempo.
Williams praised junior guard Jariyah Covington after the victory against Biloxi for her defensive work on BreBre Riley. Covington assumed the stopper role after Tabreea Gandy was whistled for two fouls in the first quarter. She responded by helping to hold Riley to 13 points on 4-of-15 shooting.
Covington’s maturation is part of the Lady Yellow Jackets’ ability to embrace defense as a cornerstone to their success. Williams said Starkville stressed the importance of stopping opponents last summer when it started back on the road to a state title after a loss to Murrah in the state semifinals.
“As the season wears on for any team, everybody gets better,” Williams said. “Defensively, they’re going to take away your go-to spots, you go-to moves, so if you’re not able to score that bucket, what are you going to do to keep us still in the running? We were able to take some big shots down the stretch that we needed, but it wasn’t like we were scoring 60 points today. It was all about what effort we brought on defense. To hold them to 20 points shows we were bound and determined not to allow them to get any momentum.”
Gandy said the Lady Yellow Jackets have relied on defense all season. Whether it is the guard shutting down the perimeter or Jones patrolling the paint, Starkville has been tough to beat because other teams find it very difficult to score.
“Without defense we wouldn’t be playing,” Gandy said. “We trust it a whole lot. If you play defense, they can’t score.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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