STARKVILLE — The Jackets were ready for revenge.

Last season, Starkville boys basketball and Tupelo faced off in the MHSAA Class 6A, Region 1 championship on the Golden Wave’s home floor, and the Yellow Jackets walked away with heads held low.

That night, nearly a year to the day, saw Tupelo celebrate a district title after a 67-57 win, but this time, Starkville wasn’t about to let lightning strike twice.

With the student section rocking, signs referencing this fall’s semifinal victory in football, the DJ blasting pregame tunes and a Starkville gym filled to capacity, the Yellow Jackets weren’t about to send their fans home empty handed.

Behind a second- and third-quarter surge, Starkville took control, fighting off a last-ditch effort from the Wave to take the district title back with a 74-54 win.

“I told our guys coming in, ‘I don’t know if you remember, but I remember this time last year, we were on their court and they won,’” Starkville head coach Qu’Varius “Woodie” Howard said. “I thought it was time for a little payback.”

Starkville (24-4) had built up as big as a 21-point lead in the third quarter, a 53-32 advantage after a quick basket from Trey Petty down low.

Added motivation from last year’s district championship played a big role in the flow of Friday’s game as the Jackets used defense to go on a run that began in the second quarter and stretched through the start of the third quarter.

Jonathan Baker added the cherry on top headed to the half, sinking a 3-pointer at the buzzer as Starkville took a 13-point halftime lead.

All told, the Jackets went on an impressive 18-0 run, snatching momentum like that as they maintained a steady double-digit lead for most of the second half.

“We played some great defense early,” Howard said. “In that second quarter, we only gave up four points, so that was how we got the lead in the first half.

“We’re just trying to show the rest of 6A that we’re a team that’s for real. We’re going to come out and play hard, play together, and it’s going to be a dogfight until the end.”

However, building such a sizable lead had its drawbacks as Starkville began laying back a bit, coasting through the quarter and hoping to do the same in the fourth, something that nearly cost them despite Tupelo looking out of sorts.

Down 16 with 4:26 left, the Golden Wave went on a 10-1 run in about two minutes’ time, cutting the lead to 61-54 with around two minutes left in regulation, but that was as close as they got Friday.

Starkville was able to regain control, make a few quick baskets late and capitalize off some costly late Tupelo turnovers to open the lead back up and seal the deal for good.

“That’s a team that can make runs, so we were prepared for it,” Starkville senior Makhi Myles said. “We worked hard on it in practice to try to counteract how they play to be able to stop that, not let them go on a long run. We played hard and finished up.”

Myles led Starkville with 27 points, scoring 19 of those points in the second half alone, one of four Jackets who finished in double figures in the win.

Starkville gets a much-needed break as it gets a bye to the second round of the MHSAA Class 6A tournament next Saturday. 

Those extra days of rest are much appreciated and will be utilized to the max.

“We definitely need it,” Myles said. “We’re going to use all the time we can to go ahead and rest and heal up for the next few practices and games.”

Tupelo girls 74, Starkville 45

The parallels of both district championship games were near-identical, just with different teams coming out on top in the end.

Tupelo, however, instead of coasting at one point in the second half, kept its foot on the gas pedal and opened up a 40-point lead at one point against Starkville in the Region 1-6A title game.

A game that saw Starkville take an early 16-12 lead after the first quarter quickly devolved into chaos for the Yellow Jackets, who fell down 13 points at half and 36 points after the third quarter as Tupelo ran away with a 74-45 win.

“We turned the ball over way too many times,” Starkville head coach Kristie Williams said. “You turn the ball over like that and it leads to way too many easy transition layups and that’s what Tupelo was able to do. We just couldn’t get it turned around.

“I thought that had we handled the ball a little bit better than we did, it probably would have been a closer game.”

Tupelo used a massive 14-0 run into the half and 16-0 run overall to build up a 15-point lead at that juncture, but it was the third quarter that solidified the game itself.

The Golden Wave came out red hot as Starkville (19-5) seemed to have no answers on either side of the ball, unable to break through their press while turning the ball over on key possessions that could have helped cut into the deficit.

It felt like Tupelo couldn’t miss and any shots the Jackets were taking were hitting iron.

“They were just making shots that we couldn’t make,” Starkville senior Je’niecia Hill said. “We had open shots that we just couldn’t make. I came out with two fouls, but I did everything I could to help out my teammates. We knew this atmosphere was going to be like this before we got here.

“… They were the better team tonight, and there’s not a doubt that I have that we couldn’t beat them.”

The two teams traded wins in the regular season, but on Friday, it was all Tupelo and in dominant fashion.

Hill led the Jackets with 11 points and two others tied with nine points in the loss as Starkville will take the weekend to regroup, hosting Southaven in the first round of the Class 6A playoffs on Monday night.