By Robert Wilson
FLOWOOD – Senior guard Ben Segrest lit the Jackson Prep fire with three 3-pointers in the first two and half minutes, then 6-foot-5 junior forward Kevin Roberts and 6-2 senior guard John Ed Maddux keep the fire burning.
Segrest finished with a game-high 17 points, and Roberts and Maddux both had double doubles (Roberts 12 points and 10 rebounds, Maddux 11 points and 10 rebounds) to lead Prep to an impressive, 63-49 victory over defending MAIS Class 6A state champion and Overall Tournament champion Jackson Academy Friday night before a packed gym of at estimated 1,100 with about 300 of those students from both schools standing and yelling for the entire game at Prep’s Patriot gym.
Prep improved to 17-3 overall and 2-0 in 6A play and avenged last year’s one-point loss to JA in the 6A state championship game. The Patriots had not beaten JA since a 31-24 win in the 6A state tournament semifinals two years ago. Prep lost all three meetings last season.
JA dropped to 13-4 overall and 1-1 in 6A play and broke its 31-game winning streak against MAIS competition. The Raiders hadn’t lost to a MAIS team since a 53-42 decision to Simpson Academy in the first round of the 2023 Overall Tournament. It was the biggest loss since a 79-47 decision to Madison-Ridgeland Academy in the last regular season game of the 2022-2023 season.
JA came in ranked No. 5 and Prep No. 6 in Mississippi by MaxPreps.
The 6-foot-3 Segrest – a member of the Tatum and Wade/Mississippi Scoreboard Preseason Metro Jackson Elite 11 Team – came out firing and hitting a 3-pointer from the left wing 25 seconds into the game, then another 3-pointer from the left wing a minute and half later, and another 3-pointer at the 5:32 mark of the first quarter for a 9-4 Prep lead.
Prep led 18-9 after one quarter, 31-24 at halftime, and 47-36 after three quarters. JA’s only lead was 2-0.
“I was proud of the way our guys battled,” said second-year Prep coach Zach Allison, who was an assistant for three seasons before taking the head coaching job at Heritage Academy and coming back to Prep after head coach Tim Wise went home to Memphis. “That was a very physical game on both ends of the floor. JA is a really talented team. (JA) Coach (Jesse) Taylor does an A+ job with his group. That team is one of the best teams in the state. Kevin and John Ed are two guys who are so valuable for how we play. They both have unique skill sets that we are able to utilize in many different ways. Our guards, (senior) EJ (Vaughn), (senior) De’Marion (Tyler), Ben, (sophomore) Ejay (Napier), and (sophomore) Cray (Luckett) did an excellent job of pressuring the ball and defending the perimeter. I thought we forced them into some tough shots throughout the majority of the game. Kevin and (6-6, 315-pound senior forward and Duke football signee) Cole Allen did an outstanding job controlling the middle of the paint.”
“Our team’s mentality going into it was we were here to get revenge,” Maddux said. “We knew we owed JA something for last year and knew we had to come out and play really hard to get our revenge. On offense, our main focus was to limit turnovers and we did pretty well in that. Rebounding is not as much about height as it is want. If you can convince yourself you are going to get the rebound then you will get more than you don’t. This win meant a lot after our three losses to them last year.”
Roberts – also one of the top baseball players in the country in the Class of 2026 and helped Prep to its seventh consecutive state championship last season – made a 3-pointer, had five assists and three steals. Maddux – a starting wide receiver on Prep’s state championship runner-up football team this fall – had one of his best games this season and continues to improve after coming off the football field. In addition to scoring and rebounding, Maddux had two assists and one steal. He tied his season high of rebounds. Maddux had a career high of 12 during Overall last season.
Prep shot 47.8 percent from the field and limited JA to 30.6 percent from the field.
“You can’t shoot 30 percent from the field and 22 percent from the 3-point line and beat anyone with any quality,” said third-year JA coach Jesse Taylor on an interview won Raider Network with Bryan Eubank and Tommy Barnette. “It was a gut check. Prep was there. Give them credit. They fought hard. Prep does a great job having fresh legs and got a lot of ballhandling over there and spreading out the minutes. I told our guys, ‘Did you win Overall today, or did you lose it? No, you didn’t.’ It was a great matchup, two top 10 teams in the state. It’s going to be a fun one, enjoy it. Here’s the weird thing about our conference. You play everybody basically three times. We are going to see these guys again, and I except us to play and shoot better than we did.
“It was very frustrating,” said JA senior guard Caleb Gaitor, who scored only 11 points averaging 20.5 points last week against two of the top teams in Louisiana and being named the Tatum and Wade/Mississippi Scoreboard Metro Jackson Player of the Week. “We usually hit those shots. We kind of felt like we got tight and we’re hitting the shots. We couldn’t knock down the open shots. It was rough. It’s hard to play defense as hard as you can and still to come back on offense. You need your legs to score, get around people and shoot the ball.”
JA – which was playing without out parttime starter, senior guard Schyler Chambers (out with a knee injury) – was led by Gaitor with 11 points. Also, junior guard Marcus Goodloe and senior forward Kendell Davis had 10 points each. Davis also had 8 rebounds, 4 steals and 3 blocked shots. Austin Richards, a 6-6 sophomore forward and son of former Mendenhall High and Southern Miss star Anthony Richards, had a team-high 10 rebounds.
The MAIS 6A conference is considered the best in Mississippi by many around the state, even better than last year. JA went 10-0 last season in league play. After the first week, Prep is the only undefeated team at 2-0.
“The chances of a team going undefeated is very slim,” Gaitor said. “(Madison) St. Joe has gotten a lot better, Prep has the same core team, we pretty much have the same core team. It’s going to be hard, going to be some good battles in 6A this year.”
“We will enjoy this win, but we know they will be ready for us in a couple of weeks,” Allison said. “Our attention will shift to Hartfield (Academy) for our next game (Prep plays Hartfield Tuesday at home).”
