By Robert Wilson
The Jackson Academy boys had one of its worst shooting games of the season but survived with a one-point, come-from-behind victory over Madison St. Joseph Saturday in the quarterfinals of the Overall Tournament.
JA coach Jesse Taylor didn’t want to have that feeling again, having to watch his Raiders miss shot after shot then somehow rally in the fourth quarter to pull out a victory.
Taylor got his wish Monday night.
JA, playing one of its most complete games this season, scored the first seven points of the game, took control in the second half and defeated Leake Academy 61-43 in the Overall semifinals before an estimated 2,000 at Mississippi College’s A.E. Wood Coliseum in Clinton.
Class 4A, Division II champion JA – ranked No. 20 in Mississippi and No. 3 in MAIS by MaxPreps – improved to 23-10 and meets Madison-Ridgeland Academy Tuesday at 7:45 p.m. for the Overall championship. MRA defeated Hartfield Academy 54-35 in Monday’s other semifinal.
JA and MRA have met only once this season with MRA winning 65-55 Dec. 2 at MRA. The second regular season meeting was canceled because of the winter storm.
This is JA’s third consecutive time to reach the Overall championship game, having won it in 2024 over MRA and losing to Jackson Prep last season and fourth time in five years, losing to Prep in 2022.
Class 3A, Division I champion Leake – ranked No. 25 in Mississippi and No. 4 in MAIS – finished 35-4. The Rebels were trying to get to the championship game and have a shot of winning their first Overall title since 1977 and were playing in their first Overall since 2015.
JA almost didn’t make it to the semifinals. If not for JA’s junior guard Coleman Edmonson’s back to back 3-pointers to ignite the comeback win, the Raiders might have lost to St. Joe. St. Joe led JA by as much as 12 points during the game and JA was shooting below 20 percent – including going scoreless during a seven-minute stretch in the third quarter – before the Raiders got hot, especially Edmonson. Senior guard Marcus Goodloe made three free throws to give JA a 37-36 lead – the first one since the first half – then watched St. Joe miss a potential game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer to survive.
But Monday was much different. JA shot 43.8 percent from the field, 33.3 percent from 3-point range, and 92.9 percent from the free throw line and had 17 assists in 21 made baskets.
Junior forward Austin Richards had 19 points and 15 rebounds and Goodloe had 16 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals for JA. Coleman had eight points and 6-foot-5, 300-pound Caden Moss – No. 1 rated player in Mississippi and No. 4 rated offensive lineman in the country in the Class of 2026 by 247 Sports who helped JA to a state football championship last fall – had nine rebounds.
“I thought last night was our most complete game of the entire season,” JA coach Jesse Taylor said. “When you’re playing a guy like Samuel Prince who has one of the best coaches in our state, (Jason Morgan), you have to be ready. Our guys believed in the game plan and executed it very well. It was a total team effort. Austin Richards played with a determination last night from the tipoff that when he does that we are very tough to beat. Bryce Bolton and Coleman Edmonson shot the ball well from beyond the arc and Marcus Goodloe’s senior leadership was a calming factor. Tonight will be an extreme challenge. Coach Duease has done a lot for the game of basketball in Mississippi and his team will be ready to go. We look forward to the challenge and it is an honor to coach against him in his last game.”
“They had a nice game plan defensively,” Leake coach Jason Morgan said. “Credit them for that. The way they guarded (senior guard) Samuel (Prince) along with the help they stacked behind his man – good plan for sure. We see stuff like that all the time, and we usually execute much better in those situations. Last night, we truthfully did not execute well in quarters one, three, and four. Did what we needed to in the second quarter, and it showed. But for the majority of the game, we didn’t do a good job of taking what the defense was giving us and making them pay. And you don’t beat teams like JA only having one good quarter on the offensive end.”
Prince, a Northwest Mississippi Community College signee, had a great tournament. He had 61 in two tournament games going into Monday night. Prince, who was averaging 30 points per game, finished with 15 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal and 1 blocked shot against JA. Junior forward Carter Seal had 10 points, 9 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocked shots. Junior Henley Jenkins had nine points, three for three on 3-point attempts, in only 15 minutes off the bench and gave Leake an offensive spark in the second quarter.
“With the scheme JA was using to guard Samuel, junior Henley Jenkins and freshman William Warner were basically left wide open once we got into sets,” Morgan said. “In the first half, those two combined for four three-pointers. At halftime, we talked about staying in sets longer until we got those kind of looks. As the game got into the final two periods, we rushed some stuff, took the wrong shots, took the wrong shots too quickly, and didn’t work hard enough for open looks for guys like Henley and William and others. Sophomore Ryals Wilkerson knocked one down with about two minutes to go, and I laughed out loud. I was like, “Those shots have been there the entire game!” Haha. Too little, too late by that point. Subpar night offensively from us for sure.”
But Leake had a tremendous season, the best one at the school, known its Madden Mafia fan following, this century.
“Our number one accomplishment – we either reached our full potential as a team or got very, very close,” Morgan said. “My primary goal every year is to share Jesus with our players, and second only to that is helping us reach our full potential and be the very best our roster is capable of becoming on the court. In many respects, I think we really did that this year. The 30-plus wins, district and north state and state titles, the Overall Final Four appearance were all byproducts of what I’m really talking about. Being the best you are capable of becoming. That is what I am most proud of this year. The guys really challenged themselves to go for that all year, and I think anybody who watched us play this season honestly saw what that mindset produced in our program. It was a very fun year from start to finish.”
