On Jan. 5, the Starkville Academy boys basketball team took a six-point lead into halftime of its home game against rival Heritage Academy before the Patriots hit two 3-pointers early in the third quarter to tie the game. Heritage Academy went on to win 46-42.
So at halftime of Thursday’s return game in Columbus, the Volunteers — staked to a seven-point advantage — made up their minds to avoid a repeat performance.
“We knew we couldn’t let that happen again this week,” sophomore Cy Hallberg said.
After Heritage Academy senior Sam Hannon and sophomore Mack Howard began the half with back-to-back layups to cut the Vols’ lead to three, Hallberg sliced through the defense for a critical layup to break the spell.
Starkville Academy picked up its play from there en route to a 55-43 win that put the Vols into first place in the MAIS Class 4A, District II standings.
“I could not be more happy with my entire team,” Starkville Academy coach Bill Ball said. “You’re seeing us grow up.”
That growth was evident in all aspects of Thursday’s game. Instead of the 13-2 run Heritage Academy opened with two weeks ago, it was the Vols who got ahead early. And when the Patriots went up six points on a 3 from Howard with 5 minutes, 39 seconds left in the first half, the Vols responded.
Starkville Academy scored eight straight points before a triple from the Patriots’ Jonathan Peal, and Hallberg — who led his team with 13 points off the bench — was right there to answer with a 3 of his own as the Vols reclaimed a two-point lead. Reese Jackson also connected from deep as Starkville Academy led 31-24 at the break, a crucial reply to the Pats’ huge scoring spurt.
“We knew that either way we’d be in a dogfight and they were going to play their best basketball,” Hallberg said. “We had to step it up tonight.”
That meant taking care of business on the defensive end, too. Ball said the Vols simply stayed in their zone, contested the 3s the Pats continued to hoist up and turned a few key turnovers into fastbreak baskets when they needed to.
“I think we got just enough buckets in transition just to kind of keep the game from getting close,” Ball said.
Heritage Academy coach Russ Whiteside credited Ball and the Vols’ fundamentally sound defense for the Patriots’ offensive struggles Thursday but said those late giveaways revealed an issue with his team’s ball security.
“We’re too sloppy with the basketball,” Whiteside said. “We’re turning it over too much.”
A stingy Starkville Academy defense made things even tougher for Heritage Academy on Thursday, and the Pats didn’t help themselves out much, Whiteside said.
“Tonight we didn’t shoot it well, but Starkville had a heck of a lot to do with that,” he said. “We didn’t do a good job of hitting guys on screens; therefore, they were making it really hard to get open. When you’re playing them, you just don’t get very many clean looks, and when you do, you’ve got to make them.”
Thursday, Heritage Academy didn’t, and that was the difference. The Patriots fell to 7-1 in district play as the Volunteers moved to 8-1, meaning Starkville Academy can clinch the No. 1 seed with a home win Tuesday against East Rankin Academy.
Starkville Academy girls 24, Heritage Academy 20
Like the Starkville Academy boys, the Volunteers girls were well aware of their own four-point loss to the Patriots on Jan. 5.
And like their counterparts, they were ready to do something about it.
The Vols drove to the rim to considerable success, locked down on defense in key moments and emerged with a 24-20 win Thursday.
“We finally started playing for each other,” Starkville Academy coach Marianne Ward said. “We were attacking the basket more. We were getting the and-ones. We had leadership that stepped up big time.”
Senior Lillee Alpe provided much of that command for the Vols (7-8, 3-6 conference). Alpe kept a level head as the two teams fought back and forth, and when the time came, she stepped up big.
Intentionally fouled with 8.4 seconds to go, Alpe hit both of her free throws out of the one-and-one to make it a two-possession game.
It was the final blow in a contest in which Heritage Academy (5-14, 1-7) certainly had its chances. The Pats got the ball back with 20.6 seconds trailing by two after the Vols’ Fallon Parker missed the front end of her own one-and-one. But Chloe Boyd, who tied Alpe for the game lead with nine points, committed an offensive foul with 9.3 seconds to go.
Ward said the Vols were hoping to create a turnover on the play and effectively did when Boyd crashed into a blue-clad Starkville Academy defender, drawing a whistle.
“The offensive foul was very important,” Ward said. “That was a big key for us.”
Ward said she switched things around plenty on defense, praising her players for transitioning well into each new scheme. Heritage Academy coach Moe Reed admitted the Pats just couldn’t figure it out against the Vols’ multiple defensive looks.
“We played hard,” Reed said. “We just struggled to get things going offensively.”
Reed pointed to the Pats’ numerous misses on open looks as well as a pair of missed free throws by Sharp in the fourth quarter as possible turning points that Heritage Academy couldn’t capitalize on.
Still, she praised her team’s defensive effort in again keeping the Volunteers to a low number on the scoreboard.
“Anytime you hold a team under 30 points, that means you did a pretty good job,” she said.
But the Patriots’ offense, of course, couldn’t back that up Thursday.
“Another defensive battle,” Reed said, “and we came up short.”
Other scores
Prep Girls Basketball
Oak Hill Academy 42, Winona Christian 23
WEST POINT — The Oak Hill Academy girls beat Winona Christian 42-23 in Thursday’s home game.
Carley Wooten scored 16 points for the Raiders, and Morgan Dabbs had 12.
Oak Hill will play at Indianola Academy on Tuesday.
Prep Boys Basketball
Oak Hill Academy 52, Winona Christian 27
WEST POINT — The Oak Hill boys beat Winona Christian 52-27 on Thursday in West Point.
Manning Huffman had 22 points for the Raiders.
Pickens Academy (Ala.) 56, South Choctaw Academy (Ala.) 47
CARROLLTON, Ala. — The Pickens Academy (Alabama) boys beat South Choctaw Academy (Alabama) 56-47 in Thursday’s home game.
Hayden Dyer led the Pirates (5-4) with 12 points, while William Parker, Rafe Brown and Drake Lowery all had 11. Deveren Wilkins added eight points for Pickens.
The Pirates will host Southern Academy (Alabama) on Friday.
Theo DeRosa reports on Mississippi State sports for The Dispatch. Follow him on Twitter at @Theo_DeRosa.
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