The Jackson Academy Raiders basketball teams hosted the Jackson Prep Patriots on Friday, January 12, 2024, at the Raider Dome in Jackson, Miss.

By Robert Wilson

       Jackson Academy girls basketball coach Jan Sojourner has been playing archrival Jackson Prep multiple times every year for her 39 seasons at JA, and she was just as intense and determined Friday night for her Lady Raiders to beat the Lady Patriots as her first game almost four decades ago.

       Sojourner – the second winningest active girls basketball coach in Mississippi – guided JA to a 57-46 victory over Prep in double overtime in an intense, gritty, MAIS Class 6A battle before an estimated 2,000 at a full house at JA’s Raiderdome on Jan Sojourner Court in Northeast Jackson.

       JA improved to 12-10 overall and 2-0 in league play, won its seventh straight game and defeated Prep for the first time since the 2020-2021 season. Prep dropped to 14-9 and 1-1 in league play and broke a seven-game winning streak.

       Sojourner won her 1,030th game Friday night, second to Pillow Academy coach Durwin Carpenter in active girls basketball coaches in Mississippi and third in Mississippi history behind Leake Academy coach Doyle Wolverton and Carpenter. She has won 928 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.

       Her teams have always prided themselves in sound defensive play and Friday night was no different.

       “I am so proud of them because coming in we were playing Jackson Prep and Prep was hot,” said Sojourner in an interview on the Raider Network with Bryan Eubank and Tommy Barnette. “They were playing extremely well, have great shooters, are long, and they defend. We had to come in and be on our A game and do some good things. We found a way to win. We did some good things defensively. If we just learn how to guard and hang our hat on that defense, in the end it’s going to huge for us and I thought tonight it was good for us. We also did a good job of executing our offense and getting some good looks. One of our goals is trying to keep our turnovers down. I gave them some grace because we want to keep it below 14 turnovers and we had 15 but we played two overtimes. That’s big for us to take care of the basketball.”

       Sophomore guard Aubrey Chambers led JA with a career-high 25 points. Sophomore forward Gracelyn Carmichael – who missed most of last season with a stress fracture – had 18 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals. Carmichael had eight points in the second overtime, including four of four from the free throw line in the last 85 seconds.

We had a chance to win in the last shot of regulation and we didn’t win it then,” Sojourner said. “When the team comes off the court, you don’t know what your team is going to be like. They may be down and discouraged because they didn’t win it. We came back and we fought. In the first overtime, we had the same thing happen again and we didn’t get it. And we found a way to come back in that second overtime and win. I thought it was huge for us to win this game.”

       Prep led most of the first half and opened a 23-16 lead at halftime, before JA came storming back for a 27-27 tie after three quarters when Chambers hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key at the buzzer. The fourth quarter was back and forth with each team having the lead several times. Carmichael made two free throws for a 38-36 lead, then Prep junior guard Taylor Caton (who had 15 points and three steals) made a driving a layup for a 38-38 tie with 1:30 to play. Chambers’ 15-footer with 10 seconds to play was blocked by Prep’s 5-foot-11 sophomore Meg Barbour, but Prep traveled under the basket with 0.2 seconds to play to send the game into overtime. Both teams missed potential game-winning free throws in the final minute and JA couldn’t get a shot off in the final seconds to send the game into the second overtime. JA scored 15 points in the four-minute second overtime, most points than they scored in any quarter of the game.

       “That’s what our program is all about, having people to step up and say, ‘look too many people have come through our program that have stepped up and not lose a ball game,” Sojourner said. “In the locker room after we won, I looked at them and said, ‘how much fun was that?’ Everyone of them said, ‘Coach, it was so much fun.’ That is contagious. It is in contagious in practice.”

       Also, Sojourner pointed to practice time with some of her former players helped get them ready for Prep’s length, who started one player who is 5-11 (Barbour), and two 5-10 players (Caton and junior Claire Crosby).

       “We had some of our older girls come back and practice with us some. We had the Thompson twins (Natalie and Emily, who were seniors on the Overall semifinal and 31-3 team in 2020-2021 team), the Hederman twins (Avery and Erin, who were seniors on the Class AAAA Division I championship team who finished 27-6 in 2018-2019),” Sojourner said. “We were looking for length. We knew we were going to see that. It helped us adjusting and understanding about some passes and ball fakes.”

       In addition to Caton’s 15 points, senior forward Ann Magee Stradinger had 15 points. Barbour had 10 rebounds. Prep had four players foul out.

       “JA just outplayed us,” said Prep coach Michael McAnally, who has won 628 games (415 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. “Chambers and Carmichael were terrific. We were unable to keep Carmichael off the free throw line and Chambers hit big shot after big shot. We had some chances to win the game and simply were not able to get it done.”

The Jackson Academy Raiders basketball teams hosted the Jackson Prep Patriots on Friday, January 12, 2024, at the Raider Dome in Jackson, Miss.

       JA BOYS 60, PREP 55

       Junior guard Mike Williams – son of former NBA All-Star and NBA Champion Mo Williams – had a game-high 21 points and senior guard Caleb Gaitor had 16 points for the Raiders in a MAIS Class 6A conference win.

       JA improved to 21-1 overall and 2-0 in league play. The Raiders won their seventh game in a row since losing to MHSAA Class 6A state title contender Pascagoula in the BASSA Invitational Dec. 23 without starting point guard Mike Williams, Mike’s younger brother, who was out with a bruised knee. Two-time defending MAIS Overall champion Prep dropped to 17-6 overall and 1-1 in league play.

JA’s win broke a nine-game losing streak to Prep, dating back to the 2019-2020 season.

       Mike Williams – who transferred to JA from Dallas to live with his father, now the Jackson State men’s basketball coach – made 8 of 16 shots from the field and 4 of 8 from 3-point range, and had 4 rebounds, 4 steals and 2 assists. He is rated as the No. 22 shooting guard in the country in the Class of 2025 by 247 Composite. Williams is second in the MAIS in scoring with a 20.1 average and is second in Mississippi in 3-pointers made, according to MaxPreps.

       Prep held an early lead then JA went on a run to take a 15-7 lead and led 32-24 halftime lead. Prep closed to 45-42 after three quarters and got within one in the fourth quarter, but never took the lead.

       “It was another instant classic JA vs. Prep night,” said second-year JA coach Jesse Taylor. “With the girls going into double overtime and our game coming down to the wire. Our boys played well for the most part getting out to a 13-point lead. I was proud of how we stayed together through a strong Prep third quarter. I have a ton of respect for Coach Allison, he has his guys playing at a high level.”

       Junior guard Ben Segrest led Prep with 19 points and three assists. Junior guard John Ed Maddux had 17 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists.

       “I am proud of the way our guys fought till the end against a talented team,” said first-year Prep coach Zach Allison, who replaced Tim Wise, who moved back home to Memphis.  Allison was an assistant to Wise for three years before being a head coach for one season at Heritage.

       “We cut their lead to one late in the fourth to give ourselves a chance. We will continue to learn and improve. This will be a good growth opportunity for us going forward.”