NEW ALBANY – By the time Anthony Carlyle was able to make it to the gym, his team had already been run out of it.
Starkville got bum-rushed from the opening tip by Bartlett (Tenn.), which scored the first 20 points of the game en route to a 76-36 victory at the Hotbed Classic on Saturday.
Carlyle was tardy because he had been coaching in the MHSAA Middle School Invitational. He made it to New Albany in time for the start of the second quarter, by which point Bartlett (15-7) had staked a 24-9 lead.
“We’re not going to dwell on this one,” Carlyle said. “I’ll take the blame, not being here for the start of it. We just played against some high-level competition. There’s nobody else left in the state of Mississippi that we’ll be playing that will be as good as these guys.”
Dylan Jones led Bartlett with 29 points, while D.J. Okoth had 14. Those two combined for 12 points during the Panthers’ 20-0 game-opening run.
Bartlett is a young team. Jones is just a sophomore, Okoth a freshman. But a tough schedule up to this point has matured the group as a whole.
“We went through a tough, tough stretch in December going into January, lost five in a row. It wasn’t one of those things where guys tucked their tails and ran,” Bartlett coach Dion Real said. “They manned up and said, let’s get better.”
Bartlett held a 44-15 lead at halftime. A pair of 3-pointers by Jones made it 56-21 with 4:47 left in the third quarter and triggered the running clock.
The Panthers shot 67.9% from the field in the first half and 64.7% for the game. They were 9 of 18 (50%) from 3-point range.
Braylon Williams chipped in 12 points for Bartlett.
“We play off each other,” Jones said. “It’s been like that since this preseason. We do what we know how to do.”
David Washington led Starkville (20-7) with 13 points. The Yellow Jackets shot 40.5% from the floor, including 30% in the first half.
Three-Pointers
Turning Point: Bartlett’s early 20-0 lead proved too much for Starkville to overcome.
Point Maker: Jones shot 12 of 16 from the field, including 5 of 8 from behind the arc.
Talking Point: “A lot of guys have dreams and aspirations of getting to the next level or thinking of what level they should be playing at, and you get an opportunity to play against guys that are at that level, so you use it as a measuring stick to hopefully learn from it and work to keep getting better.” – Carlyle
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