By Robert Wilson
The Madison-Ridgeland Academy boys basketball team are on a mission for retiring coach Richard Duease, the winningest basketball coach in Mississippi history and the second winningest active boys basketball coach in the country.
The Patriots are determined to finish the season on top and give Duease – who is in his last season of his amazing 51-year head coaching career, the last 44 at MRA – with his 42nd state championship and his 16th Overall Tournament title.
MRA looked the part Saturday as the Patriots jumped out to a big lead in the first quarter and continued to increase the margin on their way to an impressive, 71-41 victory over defending MAIS Overall champion Jackson Prep for the South Class 4A state championship at Copiah Academy.
MRA – ranked No. 2 in Mississippi and No. 1 in MAIS Class 4A by MaxPreps – improved to 30-2 and won its 10th game in a row. MRA’s only two losses are to MHSAA Class 5A Columbus High, ranked No. 5 in Mississippi, and Zachary High, the No. 1 rated team in Louisiana by MaxPreps. MRA swept the two-game regular season series with Prep, winning 64-34 Dec. 11 at Prep and 67-52 Jan. 23 at MRA.
Prep – ranked No. 54 in Mississippi and No. 6 in MAIS Class 4A – dropped to 19-13.
The 73-year-old Duease announced this past summer that this is his final season. The Indianola High, Mississippi Delta Community College and Mississippi State graduate has 1,882 victories (1,290 boys and 592 girls) with 725 losses, a 72.1 winning percentage, with 41 state championships and 15 MAIS Overall Tournament titles (13 boys and two girls) in his career. He has won 1,242 boys and 439 girls games at MRA.
MRA led 20-5 after the first quarter, 33-18 at halftime and 64-31 after three quarters.
“Our motif is a fast start,” Duease said. “We didn’t do that in our last game against Oak Forest (La.). (Oak Forest led MRA by three points at halftime in Friday’s semifinals before MRA got going and won by 20). We played much better in the second half. We spent time in practice to get ready for Prep and we emphasized getting off to a fast start against Prep. We respect them. They have great intensity. We knew we had to stop their two scorers (junior guards Cray Luckett and Ejay Napier). Luckett went off on us in the fourth quarter last game and finished with 26 points. He can get hot at any time and we didn’t want that to happen again. (Junior guard) Jack Dalton did a great job on Luckett (who finished with nine points, one 3-pointer against MRA after making seven 3-pointers in the first half against Simpson Academy in the semifinals).”
Duease said this team plays so well together, one of the best he has ever had.
“I have said many times this year and that this is one of the best passing teams I have ever coached,” Duease said. “They share the ball so well. We had 24 assists in 27 baskets against Murrah this year. We have a lot of assists every game. My senior leaders, guards Evan Carr and Will Bizot, keep our team together. All my guys have fun and love to pass and find the open man. And we have great players like (6-foot-10 sophomore center EJ) Dampier (son of former Mississippi State and NBA star Erick Dampier, now an assistant coach for Duease). I believe he’s the best player in the state. He is so good defensively. And he’s getting better and better offensively. There is no telling how he will be in two years when he’s a senior. And (6-2 sophomore guard Caeden) Harvey is having a great year. He practicing on his shooting a lot and it’s paying off (he was 7 for 8 from the field, 2 of 3 from 3-point range, for 16 points against MRA). Dampier and Harvey are like all my guys. They love the game and work hard at it. It’s paying off. They are on a mission to win a state and Overall championship.”
In addition to Harvey’s 16 points, Zavian Carr had 16 points, Dampier had 15 points, 16 rebounds and 2 blocked shots and Evan Carr had 11 points, 6 assists and 2 steals.
Napier led Prep with 16 points.
“Dampier changes every aspect of the game,” said Prep coach Zach Allison, who was an assistant under Tim Wise at Prep for three seasons and head coach at Heritage Academy for one season before coming back to Prep as head coach four years ago after Wise went home to Memphis. “He makes it very challenging to score. They outplayed us tonight. Credit to their team. We tip our cap and get ready for next week.
