By Robert Wilson
First-year Jackson Academy girls basketball coach Henry Gantz – who replaced the legendary Jan Sojourner this year after she had coached at JA for 40 years, won more than 1,000 games and an MAIS-record six Overall Tournament titles – has coached Anne Rylea Thurman for many years on the Mississippi Jazz AAU teams.
But Thursday night at JA’s Raiderdome in Northeast Jackson, Gantz was on the opposing bench of Thurman, a junior guard who plays for Brookhaven Academy.
Unfortunately for Gantz and his Lady Raiders, Thurman put on shooting clinic, scoring 25 points to lead Brookhaven Academy to a 56-50 victory.
The 5-foot-8 Thurman made 8 of 19 shots from the field, 5 of 12 shots from the 3-point range and 4 of 5 from the free throw line to go along with 6 rebounds, 2 steals, 2 blocked shots and 1 assist. And all of that with a tough case of tennis elbow.
“AR obviously had a great night from the scoring perspective. To see her fight thought her tennis elbow on her shooting elbow and shoot the ball with pretty good efficiency was a bright spot,” Brookhaven Academy coach Drake Flowers said. “She also had to draw some tough matchups on defense.”
“Thurman did what she always does,” Gantz said. “Coach Flowers does a really impressive job of allowing her to play free and he sets her up really well in sets. Her progression has been so impressive that I’m starting to believe she is a D-1 prospect. Her best basketball is in front of her.”
Thurman came into the game averaging 19 points in Brookhaven Academy’s first three games. She was four points shy of tying her career high of 29 points against Presbyterian Christian School as an eighth grader.
Thurman made shots from all over the court. She hit 3-pointers as deep as 24 feet from the top of the key, the corner and from each wing. Thurman ran off screens to get open looks and hit a couple of old fashioned three-point plays.
“I kind of just let the game come to me,” said Thurman, who is the daughter of a famous MAIS scorer, Chris Thurman, who still holds the scoring record with 54 points in a MAIS championship game in 1989, a triple overtime win over Madison-Ridgeland Academy. “I tried not to force many shots, but I was confident in the ones I did shoot. Coach Flowers put me in some great situations, my teammates got me the ball when I was open, and I was able to to knock them down. Whether I scored 25 points or 5 points yesterday, I give all the glory to God because I play for Him.”
Even more remarkable was that Brookhaven Academy played without several key players out to injuries.
“We are missing junior forward Bailey Douglas, a starter this year and a returning starter from last year’s team,” Flowers said. “We were also missing Mary Anson Tate, a senior that played off the bench for us a lot last year and was in the starting lineup this fall, Swayze Poole, a sophomore that had a really good fall for us and would add some depth in the post, and Jessi Covington, a sophomore who had been playing a pretty decent amount of minutes with everyone else who had been out.”
With all those missing, Flowers was impressed with his team’s performance.
“Last night showed a lot of toughness from this group,” Flowers said. “We saw a brand of team basketball that we have been looking for this team to play and last night was a great example of what it can do for you. We had people stepping up all over the place. Ali Hall has had to join the starting lineup and made some big shots for us in key moments. Caroline Case is the smallest girl on the floor but lead us in rebounding last night (with nine rebounds). Ruth Gates was extremely physical and held their post player to three points I think and made a big shot for us. Susanna Tate was playing some of her best basketball last night from her skill set all the way down to her leadership on the floor. Peyton Davis as a sophomore had to play a lot of minutes last night and really competed her heart out. So just a lot of good stuff from a lot of people stepping up and just playing the brand of basketball that we want to play at BA. I couldn’t be prouder of the intangible things we did last night. We have a lot of things basketball wise to improve on as we go, but this is exactly the type of team we want to be and we want to build on this and get back to work and get ready to keep competing.”
“We were able to win last night because we came out with a lot of energy and communication,” Thurman said. “We talked on defense and took our time when running our sets. We also encouraged each other and trusted each other. We played team ball and had a lot of fun.
“The ones who stepped in to the starting role were ready to play. They have been competing in practice, and last night they showed how fired up and excited they were to show their skills. The injured players gave us a lot of energy on the bench. We are ready to have our full team back and we are hoping our injured players can play again soon.”
Gantz and the JA Lady Raiders dropped to 0-2 this season. JA lost to defending MAIS Overall Tournament champion Parklane Academy 51-43 Tuesday night at Central Hinds in Raymond.
JA was led by senior guard Ella King with 19 points and senior guard Aubrey Chambers with 17 points and five steals.
“We didn’t come ready to play, that’s my fault,” said Gantz, who has won 502 games, 310 girls and 192 boys, with stops at Briarfield (La.) Academy, Central Private (La.), Copiah Academy, and Central Hinds Academy in his 19th season as a head coach. “I didn’t prepare them well enough. We are taking bad shots and stay in foul trouble. It’s frustrating, but we will correct it together, adversity is a good thing, and we have plenty of that to overcome.”
