By Scott Walters
STARKVILLE — Starkville Academy girls basketball coach Glenn Schmidt stressed the importance of the first five minutes of the second half to her team Tuesday night.
Fortunately for her, the Lady Volunteers listened.
In what Schmidt would later call her team’s “best game of the season,” Starkville Academy used a 12-3 run to start the second half to pull away to a 47-41 win over Heritage Academy in a Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class AAA, Division II, District 1 matchup at Starkville Academy Gym.
“We really played great as a team tonight,” Starkville Academy sophomore Bonner Hughes said. “We have really been struggling with that. We just have been trying to work hard as a team just to get a win. Defense really helps pick up a game. If you get the other team to turn the ball over, it really pumps you up. That got us going tonight.”
Starkville Academy has been playing with lots of youth this season. Schmidt has seen her team make strides despite Tuesday’s win moving the overall ledger to 5-16.
“This was a big rivalry game,” Schmidt said. “Both teams did a lot of good things tonight. Our records may not been indicative of what was going on out there. If you look at Heritage Academy’s size, you knew it would be a challenge. We felt like we had to apply the pressure tonight to get us going. We felt like the only chance we had was to keep the ball in the backcourt. You give up a few things but you get some things, as well.”
After building an early 7-2 lead, Starkville Academy gave up eight straight points to Heritage Academy (2-13). Then down 10-7, Starkville Academy scored the final six points of the first quarter.
Back-to-back 3-point baskets by Hughes and Sydney Passions ran the lead to 19-10. Starkville Academy still held a similar advantage at 23-17 at halftime.
“The start of the second half was huge,” Schmidt said. “The third quarter of a game is always a game-breaker. Everybody is calm and settled down. If you look at the statistics, the team that plays the best the first five or six minutes of the third quarter will win a game. We challenged the girls to play their best for five minutes right there. I thought we did that. We were very intense. We got some steals, easy baskets and took the game over.”
By the time, Hughes and Kacey Faver capped a half-starting 8-0 run with back-to-back baskets, the much-needed separation had been established.
Three 3-point baskets by Leah Howard fueled one final rally for the guests but the damage had been done.
“Both teams played hard and executed well,” Heritage Academy first-year coach Shane Edwards said. “Our girls executed things better than they have throughout the season. They caught us off-guard to start the second half. We thought they would come out in a 1-3-1 or half-court and instead they came out in the press. It took us a little longer than I would have liked to adjust. Really, the stretch there to start the third quarter was the difference in the game. It was an even game other than that stretch.”
Hughes led Starkville Academy with 14 points, while Sarah Morgan Pellum added 12 points and a team-high seven rebounds. Adrienne Futral had four assists and five steals.
Heritage Academy received 12 points from Howard, as well as 10 points and 13 rebounds from Sarah Neal. Harli Sesser had 11 rebounds.
The Lady Volunteers have been known for playing their best basketball in February. Hughes hopes that trend continues.
“We are not going to give up,” Hughes said. “It has been a struggle. There is no denying that. But we are going to keep working hard in practice. This win will give us more confidence to play with in the future.”
Taking the lead from the girls team, the Starkville Academy boys turned in a solid 32-minute effort in a 57-45 victory.
“We knew it would be a shooting game,” Starkville Academy senior John McReynolds said. “We came out soft at first but played much better down the stretch. We knew they would come out and play a 2-3 (zone) against us and so that meant we had to knock down shots. Fortunately, we were able to do that.”
Starkville Academy held a 38-37 lead after three quarters. The Volunteers (7-10) totally dominated from there, holding the Patriots (3-10) to only one field goal over the first six minutes of the final quarter.
“It was a rivalry game and we knew we could win it on defense,” Starkville Academy senior Brandon Lane said. “The fourth quarter was really good to us, because we got some turnovers and made some shots. Things worked well for us and that should really help us for the rest of the season knowing we can play like that.”
McReynolds hit two of his three 3-point baskets in the contest to start a game-decisive 12-0 run. Ironically, his first 3-pointer came as the third quarter horn sounded and gave the Volunteers the lead for good at 37-35.
“I was playing soft there in the first half,” McReynolds said. “Coach told me I had to shoot more for us to win the game. I hadn’t been shooting well the last three or four games, so maybe this will turn it around. The first one really gave me some confidence. It also gave my team some confidence.”
Starkville Academy first-year coach Bruce Allsup knew the long-range shot would be big.
“In my opinion, Heritage Academy has the best offensive team in our league,” Allsup said. “They have four or five guys who can really stroke it. So that meant we had to be patient on our end. I thought we did that. I thought we didn’t rush possessions and I thought that was really the key. If you shoot a lot of 3-pointers and that is what Heritage Academy does, you can lose your legs in the fourth quarter of a game. That is what happened here and we took full advantage of it.”
Heritage Academy shot 45 percent from the field and hit 9 of 15 3-point attempts. However, the fourth quarter performance was very disappointing to coach Gary Harris.
“This is a gut-check time for this basketball team,” Harris said. “This is a gut-check time for me as a coach. We got out-played in every phase of the game tonight and we have to fix that.”
Lane led Starkville Academy with 15 points and 12 rebounds, while Codie Futral added 10 points.
Dalton Ford led Heritage Academy with nine points.
“For the seniors, this was really sweet,” McReynolds said. “Beating Heritage is a really big deal around here. We reminded some of the younger guys about that before the game started. Fortunately, everybody responded.”
Follow Scott Walters on Twitter @dispatchscott
Scott was sports editor for The Dispatch.
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