By Robert Wilson
FLOWOOD – The tradition rich Leake Academy girls basketball team is known for its excellent 3-point shooting for their success over the years.
That’s no different this season, but Saturday afternoon it took a clutch defensive play in the end along with consistent hustle and effort to help Leake continue its perfect record.
MAIS Class 5A Leake won its 18th consecutive game and held off upset-minded Class 6A Jackson Prep with a 42-40 victory in a frantic finish between two of the top girls teams in MAIS before an estimated 900 at Jackson Prep’s Patriot gym.
Leake junior forward Jenna Allen got a rebound after a missed shot by Prep and made one of two free throws with 14.4 seconds to play for a 42-40 lead, Leake was able to stop Prep from scoring, first by using three fouls to use the clock and keep Prep from getting close to the basket, then as Leake senior guard Caroline Cheatham had good defensive pressure as Prep missed driving shot in the lane in the final seconds and Leake 5-foot-4 senior guard Anna Morgan Young – one of the shortest players on the floor – got the rebound to clinch the win.
“Our defense kept us in the game,” Leake coach Amanda Hatch said. “Our effort was incredible on the boards and after loose balls. Caroline played great defense on the last possession and Anna Morgan go a huge rebound for us. She gets tons of defensive rebounds because she’s so disciplined in her blocking out.”
Prep dropped to 10-4 with two of those losses to Leake and undefeated and defending Overall Tournament champion East Rankin Academy. The Lady Patriots have come the closest to beating both of those undefeated teams, two points to Leake and one point to East Rankin.
Leake made nine 3-pointers, two of the biggest when sophomore guard Codi Breedlove came off the bench with hit two bombs, a 25-footer from the right corner and a 29-footer from the top of key, just inside the Prep logo, to give Leake a 36-30 lead in the first minute of the fourth quarter.
Prep, which took its first lead of the game at 27-25 early in the fourth quarter, never led in the fourth after Breedlove’s two long range 3-pointers.
Allen – who ranks 13th in the nation in 3-pointers made according to MaxPreps – made four 3 pointers Saturday to give her 54 for the season. Her last 3-pointer with 5:30 to play for a 41-35 lead was Leake’s last basket. She finished with 13 points.
Prep senior and Memphis softball signee Taylor Caton made a 10-footer and a 3-pointer from the corner to close the gap to 41-40 with 1:30 to play.
Leake made a turnover and Prep missed a shot and Allen got the rebound before her free throws.
“I thought our girls really competed today and gave ourselves a chance to win,” said Prep coach Michael McAnally, who has won 647 games (434 girls and 213 boys), and five state titles, two Overall titles and two Overall runner-up finishes in 24 seasons, the last 11 at his alma mater. “We did a great job of responding to their runs, one at the start of the game and another early in the fourth quarter. We knew we needed to keep the game in the low 40s and we did that. We just got detached from shooters on a few possessions and that ultimately was the difference in the game.”
Prep senior guard Ann Magee Stradinger – who was presented a ball for scoring her 1,000th career point earlier this week – and Caton had a team-high 10 points each.
Hatch – who was a junior on Leake’s last undefeated team which went 46-0 in 1998-99 season – has continued the winning tradition of Doyle Wolverton, Mississippi’s all-time winning girls basketball coach, who won 1,249 games, 15 state championships and five Overall titles from 1975-2013. Hatch has a 366-47 record – an amazing 88.6 percent winning percentage – and one Overall title in her 11th season at Leake and has 481 career wins in her 16th season as a head coach. She has led Leake to the Overall finals four of the last six seasons, winning in 2021.
Leake is attempting to be the third MAIS girls team to go undefeated since Hatch and her teammates accomplished the feat 26 years ago. Brookhaven Academy went 43-0 in 2003-2004 and Starkville Academy went 43-0 in 2013-2014.
Leake has won 15 of its 18 games by 15 points or more. Only Prep, Hartfield Academy (by seven points) and Central Hinds Academy by six points) have come closer.
Leake has scored at least 54 points in 16 of the 18 games, only failed to do so against Prep and Hartfield (44) and scored more than 60 in 10 games.
“Our team really loves the game and works incredibly hard,” said Hatch, whose best start at Leake was 21-0 in the 2019-2020 season. “They know when to be serious and get after it, but also how to have fun. No one cares who has the best stat line. The girls have the green light from me (to shoot 3-pointers) and confidence in themselves because of all the time they spend in the gym during practice and outside of practice.”
Next up for Leake is defending Overall champion and Class 5A, District 2 rival East Rankin Thursday at home. East Rankin, like Leake, is 18-0 and has won 22 consecutive games, 18 this season and the last four last season.
East Rankin beat Leake 51-30 in the semifinals of the Class 5A North tournament at Bayou Academy in Cleveland after splitting the home and home regular season series last season.
East Rankin hasn’t beaten Leake at home since current East Rankin coach Brooke Rhodes was a junior at East Rankin and McAnally was the coach in 2008-2009. Rhodes and East Rankin handed Leake one of worst home losses in school history with a 78-51 decision, one of only three losses for Leake that season. Leake won the Overall championship and defeated East Rankin 64-58 in the semifinals. Rhodes and East Rankin won the Overall the next season, her senior year.
Leake has won 86 out of its last 88 home games and had a five-year, 70-home game winning streak snapped two seasons ago.
“We are really looking forward to it,” Hatch said. “It is a huge district game for us and should be a great matchup.”
