By Robert Wilson
Photos by Robert Smith
Jackson Academy boys basketball coach Jesse Taylor doesn’t like calling timeouts during a game. He likes to hold into those so in case he needs them late in the game, but Saturday night when rival Jackson Prep scored the first 12 points of the third quarter to take an 11-point lead Taylor went against his normal routine.
“I don’t like to use them, but I turned to my assistants (Andre Stringer and Danny Robertson) and said, I think I need to use one, huh?” Taylor said. “I needed 30 seconds to calm these guys down.”
Taylor’s timeout slowed down Prep’s momentum, then JA got back into the game, took the lead and got a clutch shot by junior guard Caleb Gaitor and a deflection and steal by brothers Mason and Mike Williams in the final minute to survive for a 54-53 victory over two-time defending MAIS Overall Tournament champion Prep for the Class 6A state championship before an estimated 1,500 at Madison-Ridgeland Academy’s Duease Hall.
No. 1 seed JA improved to 32-1, won its 18th consecutive game and won its first state title since 2014. The Raiders will meet Class 3A third place team Lamar Christian Tuesday at 7:15 p.m. in the first round of the Overall Tournament at Mississippi College in Clinton. JA defeated Prep for the third time in as many meetings this season, with a 60-55 victory Jan. 12 at JA and a 52-39 victory Jan. 30 at Prep.
No. 3 Prep dropped to 24-11 and will meet Class 4A runner-up Greenville Christian Tuesday at 11:15 a.m. in the first round of the Overall tournament.
Prep junior guard Ben Segrest made a layup and a 3-pointer to give Prep a 53-52 lead with a minute to play then Gaitor and the Williams brothers set up their heroics. Gaitor caught a pass from Mike Williams on the left wing, drove into the lane, and hung in the air and made an eight-foot jumper for a 54-53 JA lead with 27 seconds to play. After a Prep timeout with 13.9 seconds to play, Mason Williams deflected a pass and Mike caught the ball and dribbled out the final 6 seconds.
“Caleb is the best on ball defender in this entire state and he is one of our key leaders on this team and more importantly at JA,” said Taylor, who is in his second season as head coach after three seasons as an assistant to Josh Brooks (now head coach at Belhaven). “We talked about not settling for jumpers all night. For the most part, we did a decent job executing the game plan. Caleb’s drive to the basket late in the game was incredible. He has such tremendous body control and poise. This team supports one another. Mike hit a huge three late in the game as well. There were big plays made by all of our giuys. It doesn’t matter who shoots the last shot, our guys are just looking to make the right basketball play.”
Mike Williams – son of former NBA champion and NBA All-Star and current Jackson State men’s basketball coach Mo Williams – had 21 points (7 of 14 from the field, 3 of 5 from 3-point range and 4 of 4 from the free throw line), 4 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 blocked shots and 1 assist and several clutch plays both on offense and defense. The 6-foot-1 junior showed why he is rated as the No. 22 shooting guard in the country in his class. Gaitor, a 5-10 junior, had 14 points (6 of 12 from the field, 7 assists, 3 rebounds and 3 steals). Marcus Goodloe, a 5-10 sophomore guard, had 11 points.
“The hardest part of the game was staying poised when Prep made their runs and coming out and getting back in it after halftime because we came out flat and made turnovers and we were settling,” Gaitor said. “We had to get locked back in. We know we can stop teams in transition. We have run too many sprints and run too many transition drills to give up easy buckets all game.”
JA didn’t seem to panic down 11 in the third.
Said Taylor: “It was extremely important to get us within striking distance. Thank the Lord some of these guys kept their heads and got us there.”
“We have put in too much work. We didn’t want to lose,” Gaitor said. “Me, Mike, Mason and Marcus and everybody was like, ‘we aren’t losing this game.’ And it took a certain determination to win this game.”
“I was trying get going in the first half, and I got more aggressive in the second half,” said Mike Williams, who has the second highest single scoring average in school history. He is averaging 19.1 points per game, second only to Hastings Puckett, who averaged 22.8 points per game during the 1994-1995 season when JA won the Overall title.
“Prep played a diamond in one defense on us in the second half. I’ve never seen that defense before. I had to set screens to get my teammates open. That’s what opened it up for me in the second half (Williams scored 14 points in the second half).”
Prep, which shot 53.3 percent from the field for the game, shot a sizzling 56 percent in the first half and was beating JA down the court for transition buckets and continued the pace early in the third quarter before JA rallied.
“JA came back by just doing what they do,” said first-year Prep coach Zach Allison, who was an assistant at Prep under Tim Wise for three seasons before taking the head coaching job at Heritage Academy last season. “JA is very talented and very good defensively at creating turnovers.”
“Our defense creates a lot of possessions so we can’t wax and wang with how the game flow is going,” Taylor said. “We have to remain steady. No matter what kind of junk defense or whatever is going to be thrown at us, we have to be true to what we are. That’s pressure defense, create turnovers, create bad shots, and get out and run. We had to calm down. We were a little confused with the diamond and one defense. We had to get some certainty and get some positive feeling. Diamond and one, any kind of junk zone for a high school basketball player, is going to throw them off. They don’t understand how much is actually open.”
Segrest had 19 points (9 of 14 from the field) with 7 assists, 5 rebounds and 4 steals. EJ Vaughn had 11 points (5 of 10 from the field) with 3 steals, 3 rebounds and 1 assist.
“I am extremely proud of our team,” Allison said. “They battled for 32 minutes in a really physical game. We gave ourselves a chance to win against the best team in the state, public or private. This group is fun to coach. We are hitting our stride at the right time of year. I look forward to seeing what we can accomplish in the Overall tournament.”
