STARKVILLE — The boys and girls Yellow Jacket basketball teams will look to extend their season tonight with neutral-site playoff games at Mississippi Valley State. The girls will tip off against Germantown at 7 p.m., followed immediately by the boys against Madison Central.
It’s been a season of positive performances for the two teams, both led by first-year head coaches, positive enough to turn ambition to reality with district championships and the confidence to aim for the biggest prize of all in Jackson.
The girls began the season 7-5, but after a heart-to-heart meeting in mid-December, the team has gone 16-1, plowing through its 7A schedule and securing the No. 1 seed with a win over Tupelo in the district championship game.
“I’ve been telling them since Day 1 we want to be clicking in January, and once January got here we’ve been flying around,” head coach Matt Wilbanks said. “Our shots went in, there was more effort and we played like we have a system. Once that confidence got in them it just took off.”
The Jackets are 3-0 against Germantown this season, so they bear the weight of expectation in this matchup. They won comfortably on the road and in the district tournament, but they’re not getting ahead of themselves. The regular season doesn’t matter anymore, and the Jackets know that.
“As a coach you always have concerns about each game, and my biggest concern is complacency,” Wilbanks said. “We’re playing a well-coached Germantown, they’ve got two or three kids who played for a state championship and they have the experience that matters this time of year. They’ve got the mindset that it doesn’t matter that we beat them the last three times, they just need to win this one time.”
The Jacket boys have had an impressive year themselves under first-year head coach Anthony Carlyle, going 24-7 and winning a district title with a win over Germantown in the championship game after losing both regular season matchups to the Mavericks.
“I think it gave us the confidence to realize we have a true chance to compete and win a state championship,” Carlyle said. “Germantown has been one of the best teams in the state all year, and it showed us we can beat them and we can compete with anyone.”
The Jackets made the quarterfinals last year and returned several upperclassmen from that team.
It helped boost the team down the stretch, and they’ve now won five straight heading to Itta Bena and eyeing a trip to Jackson.
“You can never substitute playoff experience,” Carlyle said. “These guys have been through it. Last year they made it to the quarterfinals, they’re back in the same boat this year and hopefully, that experience can help us get over that hump.”
The Jackets won comfortably in the first round against DeSoto Central, and now face a Madison Central team they’ve beaten twice already. Like Wilbanks, Carlyle isn’t overlooking their opponent. The lessons from the past are important, but the Jaguars left a strong impression on the Jackets after two close battles.
“They have a lot of confidence,” Carlyle said of Madison Central. “They’ve played well against us both times, they led at the half both times and I think they were up 12 going into the fourth quarter last time. We’re expecting them to have confidence and compete, both teams have a chance to get to Jackson on the line. It’s going to be a chess match and we have to do what we’ve done all year and try to out-tough them inside.”
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