STARKVILLE – Coming into the season, Starkville’s girls basketball team made it known early what they were chasing – perfection.
An undefeated run to a state championship ring and nothing less would suffice for the Yellow Jackets, who are coming off a 25-7 campaign and a 62-57 heartbreaking loss to Tupelo for last year’s 7A state crown. Southern Miss commit Jada Gay and Nebraska Omaha commit Jade Brown headlined a returning core of talented players who set out to make that dream a reality, and head coach Matt Wilbanks was fully on board in support.
“We do team goals every year and usually you have teams that say they want to go undefeated and you’re thinking, ‘Yeah, let’s think of a better goal than that,’” Wilbanks said. “But this year when they said it, we’re like, ‘Yeah. Let’s make that a goal. Let’s try to go undefeated. We have the potential to.’”
Those who compete know that chasing perfection isn’t easy and the route to achieving a certain goal doesn’t always pan out like it’s originally planned.
The squad got first-hand experience in learning that lesson last week.
An early-season slate of utter domination came to a halt in a narrow 41-33 loss to Laurel that pulled the rug out from under the Yellow Jackets’ dreams of an undefeated season. After winning 13 straight contests, many of which were blowouts, the Golden Tornadoes managed to hold Starkville to just four points in the second quarter and five in the third as they piled up 26 points in those two frames to create a big enough gap to hold on for the shocker.
In the aftermath of the loss, the team has had many days to sit on it and think. It was their last taste of action until the season resumes on Monday against Hancock, and out of the defeat has come some positives. While their hopes of ending the year unbeaten were dashed, there is still a state championship loss to avenge, and Wilbanks said the Golden Tornadoes only added more fuel to chase it.
“When you are as talented as we are and you are running the table and you have some close games, but every game you pretty much found a way to extend it late or in the second half to make that game turn into a 15 or 20-point (win) or you’re up 20 and win by like eight, so kids can get complacent,” he said. “I think Laurel coming in there and hitting us in the mouth a little bit kind of gave us a wake-up call that we needed. They were a really physical team. Jada got in foul trouble, when she was on the court I think we were plus-five but when she was off the court we were minus-13. So, that was kind of the difference in the game.”
Bouncing back
Just like they’ve been giving it out all season, the Jackets took the loss on the chin. Some of the players, mostly seniors, reached out to Wilbanks about the game and what it means for them going forward. They owned the loss and turned their attention forward.
“If we get the job done this year it’s going to be because of our senior leadership,” he said.
Now, without worrying about staying perfect, their sole focus is now on that elusive state championship. To get there they’ll continue to rely on their stalwart defense, which only gives up an average of 37 points per game, and an offense that puts up an average of 58 points per contest. Despite the haul of talent on the team, they play unselfishly and move the rock enough to get everyone involved, which is part of the reason why they’ve been nearly unstoppable.
“(Sharing the basketball was) a concern with this group going in because we had so many new faces and we have a lot of mouths to feed,” Wilbanks told The Dispatch. “Our point guard (Logan Warren) is averaging nine or 10 points a game, (she) can shoot it really well. Zariah Brown averages 13 (points) or so a game. She likes the ball in her hands; she’s our playmaker. You got Jada, who is averaging 17 (points) a game, you got Jada Brown, who came in from out of state. She’s averaging eight to 11 (points) a game. So having all those mouths to feed, it was really worrisome, I guess you could say, how we were going to keep everyone happy. But man, they get along, they genuinely have a friendship with each other, and I think that is really big for our success.”
After Hancock is a game against Collierville on Jan. 3, then Region 2-7A play begins with a tilt at Clinton on Jan. 6. Wilbanks said it’s important for his team to come out ready to fight and chart the path to redemption from last year’s state championship loss.
“I just want to see them be hungry again – avenge that loss,” he said. “Go back to doing the things that we were doing early in the year, playing extremely fast and extremely hard. The last few weeks, to be honest, I felt like the effort’s been there, but we have to get out of the press a little bit because we haven’t been getting back as good in it. To be honest, it’s just kind of an effort thing and knowing that we can take a playoff (run) here because we’re still doing fine, but that’s the kind of stuff that can catch up to you and it kind of did against Laurel. I’m just looking forward to getting back and seeing how they respond in a real game.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
