TUPELO – Starkville got its revenge – and then some.
The Yellow Jackets demolished Tupelo 66-31 on the road Thursday night in a rematch of last season’s Class 7A girls state title game, which Tupelo won. This time, Starkville flattened Tupelo early and never looked back.
“Coming here, I knew it’d be tough,” Starkville head coach Matt Wilbanks said. “But we came out like we were mad at them, so I have no complaints.”
No. 1-ranked Starkville (6-0) jumped out to an early lead, and it snowballed from there. No. 3 Tupelo (3-1) struggled to beat Starkville’s press, and a handful of missed shots led to easy buckets for the Yellow Jackets, who repeatedly burned Tupelo in transition. A 16-2 lead for Starkville ballooned to 30-2 by the time the buzzer sounded to end the first quarter.
“I thought our press did a really good job forcing the long pass, and Jada (Gay) in the back did a really good job of going and getting those skips because on film that’s usually what we leave open,” Wilbanks said. “Tonight, she played with her head and she was reading the ball. We’re so long and athletic that the press has bothered a lot of teams, and our size kind of got to them tonight.”
Starkville added another 20 points in the second quarter to carry a 50-10 lead into halftime. That was enough to activate a running clock in the second half, and Starkville cruised from there. Gay and Logan Warren both had 15 points for Starkville.
“We work on defense every day, we’re getting better at talking,” Gay said. “Everything we didn’t do last year, we’re doing it this year, for sure.”
Tupelo graduated several key pieces after winning back-to-back state titles, and it was a trial by fire for its younger players.
“We’re a championship program and we’re going to hold our heads high,” Tupelo head coach Matt Justice said. “We’ve been on the other side of this a whole lot more than we’ve been on this side. Being able to handle it, we get to learn a lot more from this game than going out and winning a 40, 50-point blowout. I’m proud of our girls for holding their heads up high coming out of the locker room, not dropping their heads, because that means a lot for our program to keep battling the entire game.”
Three-Pointers
• Turning Point: Starkville was firing on all cylinders in the first quarter, jumping out to a 30-2 lead.
• Point Maker: Gay and Warren each scored 15 points to lead Starkville.
• Talking Point: “We dictated the tempo. Tupelo likes to play fast, we’re trying to play fast this year, kind of play an up-tempo style with our press. I thought the press really bothered them.” – Wilbanks
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