By Robert Wilson
Photos by Hays Collins
FLOWOOD – The Jackson Academy boys clinched the No. 1 seed in MAIS Class 6A and won their 13th straight game with a 52-39 victory over two-time defending MAIS Overall Tournament champion Jackson Prep Tuesday night at Prep.
And two of JA’s biggest stars – Mike and Mason Williams, sons of former NBA champion and all-star Mo Williams – combined for nine points.
That’s how deep the Raiders are.
JA improved to 27-1 overall and 7-0 in conference play. JA’s only loss was to MHSAA Class 6A state champion favorite Pascagoula, a 70-59 decision Dec. 23 at the BASSA Invitational at Mississippi College in Clinton.
Prep dropped to 27-8 overall and 4-3 in conference play. Prep lost to JA 60-55 Jan. 12 at JA in the other regular season meeting.
Sophomore guard Marcus Goodloe and junior guard Schyler Chambers were JA’s leading scorers for the second straight game. Goodloe, who comes off the bench, led JA with 16 points in 21 minutes and Chambers added 10 points. The two had a combined 39 points (Goodloe 21 and Chambers 18) in Friday’s 83-40 victory over Hartfield Academy.
“They (JA’s players) believe in each other,” second-year JA coach Jesse Taylor said on the Raider Network post game show. “It’s not about one or two guys, it’s about this whole team.”
“It’s about everybody staying ready and knowing when your time is going to come,” said JA junior point guard Caleb Gaitor, who had nine points.
Mike Williams, a junior guard who came in averaging a team-high 19.2 points, scored seven points for the second straight game. Mason Williams, a sophomore guard, had two points. But Mason and Mike combined for nine assists (Mason had six and Mike had three).
Despite the talented Williams brothers – who transferred from Dallas this school year to be with their father, now in his second year as Jackson State’s men’s basketball coach – not getting their usual points, JA controlled the game. The Raiders led 12-11 after one quarter, 26-15 after halftime and 40-27 after three quarters.
“Our stamina plays a part of it,” said Taylor about JA’s ability to increase its lead as the game goes on. “Our practice style allows us to play this style. These guys are in shape. They have embraced how hard we practice each and every day. That allows us in the third and fourth quarter to get things going.”
JA’s deep bench – led by Goodloe, who one of the main reasons why the Raiders’ ninth grade went 22-0 last season – keeps the defensive pressure on the opponent, which results in points time and time again.
“We try to stay levelheaded and don’t come out flat at halftime,” Gaitor said. “We just keep rolling.”
Junior guard Ben Segrest led Prep with 21 points, 8 of 14 from the field, 5 of 10 from 3-point range.
“JA has a very talented team,” said first-year coach Zach Allison, who was an assistant to Tim Wise at Prep for three seasons then was head coach at Heritage Academy in Columbus for one season before replacing Wise this season. “Coach Taylor does a good job with them. They are one of best teams, if not the best team, in the state right now. We will continue to improve as we get ready for our next opponent (Hartfield Friday night at Prep).”
JA has a shot of having the best record in school history. The 1993-94 team and the 1994-95 team, which both won the Overall Tournament championship, had a 36-2 record and a 34-2 record respectively. Stan Jones, the longtime associate head coach at Florida State, was JA’s coach for both of those teams. Hastings Puckett, whose son Billy, plays on Prep’s team, was the star player on the ‘94-95 team and started on the ’93-94 team. Puckett averaged a school record 22.8 points per game in ’94-95.
Taylor doesn’t think this year’s team will get complacent despite their success and clinching the No. 1 seed.
“Our players went in the locker room and celebrated the win, but literally the next thing they talked about is Thursday,” said Taylor referring to JA’s next game at Madison-Ridgeland Academy. “They do not want anyone in this Metro Jackson area to think that they are better than them. They are hungry. We really pin our ears back and play. We are ready to do that Thursday.”
MRA won its first 24 games this season before JA ended the streak with a convincing, 69-47 victory Jan. 17 at JA. Mason Williams had a career-high 27 points and Mike Williams added 21 points in that big win.
PREP GIRLS 40, JA 23
Prep held JA scoreless in the second quarter and pulled away for a conference win.
Prep improved to 18-10 overall and 5-2 in conference play. JA – without injured 6-foot sophomore starter and leading scorer and rebounder Gracelyn Carmichael for the fourth straight game – dropped to 13-14 overall and 3-4 in conference play and lost its third straight game.
JA defeated Prep 57-46 in double overtime in the first meeting this season Jan. 12 at JA. Carmichael – who missed most of last season with a stress fracture – had 18 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals and had eight points in the second overtime, including four of four from the free throw line in the last 85 seconds.
In Tuesday night’s game, JA led 11-7 going into the final minute of the first quarter before Taylor Caton made a 3-pointer from beyond halftime at the buzzer.
Prep scored 11 points in the second quarter while it kept JA scoreless for a 21-11 lead at halftime. Prep led 30-17 after three quarters.
Junior guard Ann Magee Stradinger had 15 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals for Prep. Caton – a junior guard who committed to Memphis last week in softball – had 10 points. She scored a career-high 33 points in a win over Madison St. Joseph last week. Sophomore forward Meg Barbour had a game-high 10 rebounds.
Sophomore guard Ella King led JA with eight points. Junior forward Belle Shoemaker – who was starting for Carmichael – had a team-high eight rebounds.
“I thought our girls played at a high level,” said Prep coach Michael McAnally, who has won 632 games (419 girls and 213 boys), and four state titles, two Overall titles and two Overall runner-up finishes in 23 seasons, the last 10 at Prep. “It took us a while to settle into the game. I think the hype and emotion of the Prep-JA rivalry can cause that. JA coming out in zone caught us off guard as well and it took us about a quarter to get into an offensive rhythm. I thought our defensive effort was really good. We were able to take JA out of some things offensively that had hurt us in game one. Our defense has been really consistent over the past six weeks or so and that was the case again.”
JA coach Jan Sojourner – the second winningest active girls basketball coach in Mississippi and the third winningest in Mississippi history – was denied her 1,032nd career win. She has won 929 games, a MAIS record six Overall Tournament championships and 10 state titles in her 39 years at JA. She also has 102 wins in five seasons at Canton Academy.
“I was proud of our girls’ defense, but we are struggling to score,” Sojourner said.
