STARKVILLE — Columbus High School girls basketball coach Yvonne Hairston knows the importance of the first few moments of the final quarter in every game.
“We always try to start those fourth quarters by getting a basket really early so we can kind of set the tone for everything,” she said.
In Friday’s road matchup with rival Starkville High School, consider that tone set.
Starkville cut into a sizable Columbus lead in the third quarter, threatening to storm back from 16 points down, but the Falcons’ Aniya Saddler converted an and-one layup 15 seconds into the fourth quarter. Starkville turned the ball over in an attempt to answer, and Columbus had the impetus to firmly seize control of Friday’s contest. The Falcons beat the Yellow Jackets 54-43 in a physical game, typical of the rivalry between the two schools.
“They’re a good team,” Columbus junior guard DJ Jackson said. “They’re very aggressive. We came out with more aggression. We just got it done.”
Once again, it was the senior Saddler leading the way for Columbus (6-2). The Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College commit had 21 points, seven rebounds, four assists and four steals.
“She gives us a spark,” Hairston said.
Jackson, the Falcons’ dependable point guard, did the same Friday, scoring 14 points and recording six assists. Senior forward Bri Smith, who had a double-double with 10 points and 12 rebounds, also played a big role.
“Bri Smith played big for me tonight,” Hairston said. “Under pressure, she did a really good job.”
The trio made things difficult for the Starkville defense, and the Falcons’ strategy of pushing the Jackets out of the paint to make them settle for longer shots worked wonders on offense.
Starkville (3-4) didn’t make a 3-pointer — though not for lack of trying — and couldn’t seem to get in much of a rhythm offensively.
“I thought they were good shots for the most part,” Starkville head coach Kristie Williams said. “They just didn’t fall.”
Outside of a plethora of missed jumpers, the Jackets turned the ball over plenty, and Jackson or Saddler often jump-started a Falcons fast break. The giveaways routinely led to points, stoking the Columbus bench and the sizable purple-and-gold section in the Starkville gym.
“Unfortunately, our mistakes turned into points for them, and that hurts you when you continually turn the ball over and then they score off your mistakes,” Williams said.
Starkville showed better effort than usual in getting back on defense after a turnover and trying to steal the ball right back, Williams said, and that almost turned the tide.
Columbus reached its zenith, a 16-point advantage, twice in the middle of the quarter, but the Jackets fought back late in the period to rouse the home crowd.
Defensive miscommunication briefly left the Falcons’ 2-3 zone with a hole in the middle, and Starkville took advantage. Amaya Ford made a nice move for a layup, and Jakailyn Brown converted an and-one to cut the Columbus lead to 10 going into the fourth quarter. During a hectic, turnover-filled sequence late in the third, the contest seemed yet closer.
But Saddler put a stop to that, converting her layup and knocking down the free throw 15 seconds into the fourth quarter.
Her sister, sophomore Mashanti Saddler, contributed off the bench with five points in the fourth, and Jackson made two big free throws and had a key block to help the Falcons put the Jackets away. With some more tough “put-out” games looming on the Falcons’ schedule, Hairston said, Friday was a test that Columbus passed.
“We’ve gotta make sure we’re able to close out the game,” she said. “But we were able to, so that’s a good thing.”
Though Columbus has now swept Starkville for the second straight year, Hairston is well aware nothing comes easy in the rivalry. Friday’s physical skirmish was proof of that.
“Each year is gonna be a battle with us,” Hairston said. “We’ll lose a lot of people next year, and I think they’ll still be solid. They’ll have their same squad. It’s really gonna be a battle next year. That’s just Starkville-Columbus.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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