JACKSON — All Starkville needed was a fast start.
The Yellow Jackets jumped out a 20-point lead in the first quarter and never looked back as they raced past Forest Hill 63-25 to remain unbeaten in a non-division matchup on Tuesday night.
“That was one of things we wanted to do is get out to a fast start and just take care of business early,” said Starkville head coach Anthony Carlyle. “We’ve kind of started off slow these last couple of games and we didn’t want the guys looking ahead to the Columbus game Friday, so they did a good job coming out focused and executing what we wanted them to do.”
Starkville jumped out to a 16-2 run to begin the game and ended the first quarter with a comfortable 24-4 lead.
The Jackets continued the momentum into the second quarter as they opened the frame on a 15-5 run to take a 39-9 lead and ended the first half with a 43-11 lead.
In the second half Starkville played backups that saw the Jackets outscore the Patriots 9-3 to hold a 52-14 lead at the end of the third quarter to put the game away.
“One thing that has been working for us is defense. We’ve been solid all year on that side of the court, we’ve had some ups and downs offensively where there are some things we need to clean up,” Carlyle said. “It’s still early in the season and just got a couple football guys back, so we’re finally full strength. We just need to continue to play games to continue to get reps in and get better. We got some big games over the next few weeks going into the holidays, so we will get to find out a lot about ourselves.”
T.J. Warren had a game-high 10 points to lead Starkville (7-0).
“We just came out ready to play, came out strong and took over the game to start off and not look ahead,” Warren said. “It’s been good so far through the first seven games. We’re playing as a team and need to keep the momentum going and building as a team.”
The Yellow Jackets travel to rival Columbus on Friday.
Starkville girls 66, Forest Hill 31
Morgan Williams scored on a game-high 16 points as the Lady Jackets ran past the Lady Patriots. Jada Gay added 13 points and Logan Warren chipped in 12 points for Starkville (9-0). Starkville will play at Columbus Friday night.
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