CLINTON — Bruce Franks has won enough state championships — five — to know that some days you’ve got it and other days you don’t.
Unfortunately, Wednesday was one of the latter for the Hebron Christian girls and boys basketball teams.
The Kirk Academy girls eliminated Hebron Christian 60-42 in the first game Wednesday of the second day of the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Overall State tournament at Mississippi College’s A.E. Wood Coliseum.
The Simpson Academy boys then swept Hebron Christian out of the event with a 73-38 victory in the second game of the event, which features the top three teams from each of the MAIS’ four classifications.
“We didn’t show up today,” said Franks, whose teams won the Class A North State and the Class A State tournament. The state championships are believed to be the first in school history.
But both teams didn’t have nearly any of the same energy or good fortune they had en route to both of those titles.
The girls game came down to two statistics: Turnovers and offensive rebounds. Hebron Christian (22-9) committed 42 turnovers and surrendered 30 offensive rebounds. Kirk Academy (33-7), the No. 3 seed in Class AAA, only had a 17-13 edge in second-chance points, but it had a 28-12 advantage in points off turnovers.
Kirk Academy coach Amy Denley said her team’s pressure defense typically is a big factor. It used that pressure in the first eight minutes to build an 18-4 lead. Kirk Academy held Hebron Christian without a field goal until Victoria Ferguson banked in a jump shot with 3 minutes, 41 seconds to play in the second quarter. By then, Kirk Academy led 28-8 and was well on the way to advancing to face Jackson Prep, which eliminated Leake Academy 53-47, at 2:15 p.m. Friday.
“I was unhappy with their press and their defensive pressure because they let too many easy things get away,” said Denley, who is in her fourth season as head coach at the school. “When you play tougher teams, you can’t allow that to happen. Our game is defensive pressure as well as running the ball up and down the court, and I don’t think we did that as well as we should have today.”
Margaret Taylor led Kirk Academy with 19 points, while Carley Hudspeth had 14 points and 10 rebounds. Kirk Academy has only two seniors, so Denley believes the program has the potential to be strong for years to come.
Franks feels the same way about his program. Ferguson led the Lady Eagles with 14 points, 10 rebounds, five blocked shots, and three steals in her final game. Laura Smith is the team’s only other senior. Holly Hudson added nine points and 10 rebounds.
“They did keep on grinding, but their errors were more mental errors,” Franks said. “I bet you we had 30 turnovers.”
When told his team committed 42 turnovers, Franks said. “That is not a good number. They’re good. Their press was good, but I don’t think it was good enough that if we were playing our best it was good enough to cause 42 turnovers. We just didn’t look the same way we did when we went to the state tournament.”
In the boys game, Simpson Academy used a similar plan of attack, building a 30-14 lead after one quarter and cruising from there. The lead grew to more than 20 points midway through the second quarter and grew as the game went on. The teams played with a running clock in the second half.
Brandon Cranford led Simpson Academy (37-3), the No. 3 seed in Class AAA, with 30 points, 16 rebounds, and four steals. Jacob Berry and Sam McWilliams added 12 points.
Channing Tapley paced Hebron Christian (20-8) with 13 points. Landon Hill added 12 points and nine rebounds. Tapley and Hill joined classmates Clay Faulkner, John Thomas Weaver, Payton Griffin, and Jessie Moore in playing the final game of their high school basketball careers.
“I think you really saw the difference in Class A and Class AAA,” Franks said. “They were stronger, quicker, and shot the ball better. It seemed like they felt comfortable and we didn’t. I couldn’t get the effort out of them that I wanted. I think that about sums it up.”
Franks said it is natural to have a letdown coming off the high of winning a state title. He said the significance of a letdown is magnified when you play a higher classification team. In fact, Franks said the boys team’s 70-47 victory against Riverdale Academy in the Class A State title game easily could have been different if Hebron Christian didn’t play as well as it did. After three days to think about making history, the Hebron Christian boys couldn’t dial up another championship effort to keep their season alive.
“You have to bear down to beat a AAA team,” Franks said. “An average game won’t beat them. You have to play your best and hope they don’t play their best.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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