STARKVILLE — Starkville High School’s potent combination of senior point guard Forte Prater and junior guard Coltie Young presents opponents with quite the catch-22.
Clog the lane when Prater drives, and Young will be left open for catch-and-shoot 3-pointers. But opponents who dare switch a second defender onto Young will leave Prater with a wide-open path to the basket.
“I think they complement each other very well when they get going together,” Starkville assistant coach Qu’Varius Howard said.
On Friday in the Travis Outlaw Slam Dunk at The Hump at Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville, the Yellow Jackets duo got going just as Howard described, and opposing Tupelo found out just how hard it is to plan for them.
First it was Prater, who exploded for 16 points in the second quarter alone, sparking a 13-0 Starkville run to start the quarter and giving the Jackets a one-point halftime lead. Then it was Young, who hit four 3s and scored 14 points in the third quarter to stretch the Starkville advantage.
Together, Prater and Young fueled a 74-60 win for the Jackets over the Golden Wave on Friday. Prater finished with 27 points, and Young contributed 23 for Starkville (12-2), giving the Jackets bragging rights in what both players and their coaches acknowledged was a bit of a rivalry contest.
“They’ve been talking back and forth, so everybody was amped up to play,” Howard said.
Perhaps none more than Prater and Young, who fed off each other as they have done all season. With Young struggling to find his shot in the first half, Prater shouldered the load to propel Starkville into the lead.
After Tupelo’s Mason Gary opened the second quarter with a 3-ball to give the Golden Wave a four-point lead, Prater almost singlehandedly led the response. He made a running layup then sank two free throws to tie it. Prater, Trey Jackson and NyJal Johnson all made 3s, and Starkville had a 13-0 run. Prater added four layups — including one three-point play — in a high-scoring quarter for the Jackets.
“I just had to take over because we were getting down and couldn’t score, so I just took it upon myself to get the buckets we needed,” Prater said.
But Tupelo kept up the pace, going into halftime down a point and seizing the lead on Hayes Halbert’s 3-pointer to open the second half. Then it was Young’s time to shine after his cold first half.
“Anytime I don’t shoot the ball well, it just gives me motivation to just keep going,” Young said. “It just builds me up to keep going.”
The junior did just that, scoring eight points during a 12-0 run that took Starkville from down 44-43 to ahead 55-44. He added two more 3-balls in the period, falling to the floor on his final connection with three seconds left in the third. Young quickly got up and met Prater’s flying chest-bump as the clock ran out on the third quarter.
“He made me look good a lot, hitting big shots like that,” Prater said. “I love to see my brother kill like that, especially when I’m getting assists.”
Starkville took a 61-50 lead into the final period and kept Tupelo’s high-powered offense in check, something Howard and the Jackets’ coaches were happy to see.
“We preach defense,” Howard said. “Once we got scoring, it was good to see them still focus on defense. You get the ball in the basket, and now they want to keep playing defense to hurry up and get the ball back and score again.”
The victory was big for Starkville, which opens district play on the road Friday at Greenville, and the Jackets know how much the win means.
“They’re a very good team,” Young said of Tupelo. “It’s a good feeling to be able to beat a good team like that.”
Starkville girls 55, Horn Lake 49
Starkville girls basketball coach Kristie Williams says senior Brayland Ferguson is the Yellow Jackets’ “X-factor.”
Ferguson can defend, score and rebound well, and her presence is invaluable for Williams and her team.
“She is that one player that we’ve gotta have on the floor at all times because she does so much for us,” Williams said.
On Friday against Horn Lake at Humphrey Coliseum, Ferguson showed her coach and her teammates just what she’s capable of.
Ferguson had 12 points on efficient shooting from the field and the free-throw line, provided critical stability in a hectic contest and helped the Jackets beat the Eagles 55-49.
“For her to go out and score 12 points, that’s huge,” Williams said. “She worked hard, so I like to see a reward for her. She’s gonna give it everything that she’s got. Her upside is tremendous.”
Ferguson wasn’t Starkville’s leading scorer, though; that was junior Amaya Ford, who had 22 points for the Jackets (5-6) after fighting through a shaky start. Ford had just two points in the first quarter.
“She was rushing things,” Williams said. “Once she settled in, she did what we expected her to.”
Ford had five points in the second quarter, nine in the third and six in the fourth. She hit four free throws in the final period as the Jackets were repeatedly forced to the line in late-game situations.
“She’s one of the top players in the state, so you expect for her to kind of keep everything calm at the end of the game, and that’s what she did,” Williams said.
Ford and Ferguson led the way as Starkville held a lead of various proportions throughout the game. Once the Jackets went up 7-5, they never trailed, but their grasp on the game often seemed tenuous.
Starkville pulled away to a 22-10 lead midway through the second quarter on two Jada Odneal free throws, but the Eagles came right back. Horn Lake got the score to 23-20 with under a minute to go, and Ford split a pair of free throws to give Starkville a four-point halftime lead.
But a back-and-forth third quarter saw no more progress for Horn Lake. The period ended with the Jackets up five points, and Starkville never led by less.
The Jackets were able to notch a win despite plenty of turnovers, which stunted their rhythm, but Williams noted the team’s turnover numbers have actually come down since the start of the season. That’s progress, she said.
“We still turn it over way too much, but I think we’re growing from it,” Williams said. “We don’t allow one turnover to get us in a down mode. We’re regrouping better, and that’s what you expect. That’s what you want this time of the year. We were careless with the ball, but we didn’t give up the fight.”
The victory was a nice bounce back from Thursday’s 69-38 loss to Olive Branch, in which the Jackets’ inexperience was glaring. It still showed Friday, Williams said, but her team’s talent shined brighter.
“For them to shake that loss off and come back and play as hard as they did today, it proves that they’re growing, they’re maturing,” Williams said. “That’s what we need as we go through the rest of our season.”
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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