By Robert Wilson
MADISON – Madison-Ridgeland Academy coach Stephen Force isn’t predicting his team will win an Overall Tournament championship this season – which would give him a fourth Overall, tying him with Pillow Academy’s Durwin Carpenter for the most among active coaches – but he was excited Monday night to start the season with an impressive win.
MRA led from start to finish and held off Leake Academy 48-43 in the first day of the MRA’s Madison Madness Preseason Classic Monday night at MRA’s Duease Hall in the season opener for both teams between two of the best teams in Mississippi for the first win over Leake in an early season meeting since 2013.
Leake has gotten the better of Force and MRA in this early season matchup partly due to many of MRA’s players are playing other sports like soccer, softball and cross country and hadn’t had a chance to practice much.
Not having soccer this fall – the MAIS pushed soccer to the spring this year – helped Force because several players play soccer, but also he wasn’t dealing with several injuries like he had in the past.
And Leake normally starts off the season clicking on all cylinders.
Leake was good Monday, but MRA was better. MRA jumped out to a 7-1 lead and led 12-7 after one quarter, 22-16 at halftime and 35-31 after three quarters. Leake climbed within two at 45-43 with 33.6 seconds to play, but couldn’t catch up.
“We don’t normally win this game because we haven’t had hardly any practices and we give out in the third and fourth quarters,” Force said. “But I was pleased to win this first game. We aren’t in midseason form, but we were in better game conditioning and were able to play the entire 32 minutes and played hard.’
Senior guard Gabby Gray led MRA with 16 points and senior forward Presley Hughes – daughter of Whit Hughes, who played on Mississippi State Final Four team in 1995-96 – added 12 points.
Force won his 778th career game (638 at MRA) along with three Overall titles, three Overall runners-up finishes and three state championships in his 30-year coaching career.
“It was one of the better high school games for both of them,” Force said. “Gabby came off the bench for us last year. She did a great job starting tonight and was a spark for us. She played within herself. Gabby has a lot of potential and played hard the whole time. She plays good defense and rebounded well. Presley has been playing with us since the eighth grade and this was the first time that she was not either coming off the soccer field or being injured to start the season. She was in the best game condition of her career to start the season. I put her in the post to try to get her closer to the basket. She had six points inside and made two 3s. I was pleased with her play tonight.”
Hughes, Annie Toler and Anna Morgan Anderson are MRA’s three returning starters from last year’s 31-8 team. And MRA also had a new starter Monday in Presbyterian Christian School transfer Anna Kate Woodward along with Gray, who was coming off the bench mostly last season.
MRA reached the MAIS Overall Tournament championship game for the third straight season last year, but for the second consecutive year the Lady Patriots lost in the Overall title game.
Force hopes his team can get back to the winners’ circle this season.
Monday was a good start.
For the past two seasons, Leake’s Sarah Prince has been a thorn in MRA’s side in this tournament. As an eighth grader two years ago, Prince made a shot at the buzzer to give Leake a 42-41 victory over MRA and then last year Prince scored a game-high 15 points and played outstanding defense to lead Leake to an impressive 55-39 victory.
Senior Jenna Allen led Leake with 16 points. Junior Kylee Boykin had 10 points, and Prince, a freshman, had nine points.
Tradition rich Leake is trying to win its 23rd state championship and seventh Overall title this season in its school history this year. Leake coach Amanda Hatch has been a part of seven state title and two Overall championships. She was a junior on the 1999 Overall championship team, which finished 46-0, and she has led Leake to six state titles and one Overall crown in her 12th season as head coach. Hatch has a 380-53 at Leake, an amazing 87.8 winning percentage, and 497 wins overall in 17 seasons.
Hatch has two returning starters – Prince and Allen – from last year’s 32-5 team, which didn’t make the Overall Tournament for the second consecutive season.
“We played with incredible effort,” Hatch said. “I was proud of how hard we played. We didn’t shoot it great from the outside but credit that to MRA’s defense. Their length, athleticism, and physicality affected our shooting. Then, in the fourth, each time were able to get it down to one possession, they would make a big shot.”
Both MRA and Leake play again this week against tough competition in the tournament.
MRA plays East Rankin Academy Wednesday at 7:15 p.m. MRA ended East Rankin’s season in the Overall Tournament quarterfinals last year. ERA is one of the favorites to win the Overall with four returning starters from last year’s 36-3 team, led by 6-foot-3 junior Liz Stevens, one of the top players in Mississippi with several Division I offers.
Leake tries to rebound against Jackson Prep Thursday at 7:30 p.m. Prep returns only one starter, 6-3 senior Meg Barbour, one of the top players in Mississippi who has several Division I offers and scored 18 points in Prep’s 63-12 win over Riverfield, La., Monday in the season opener. Prep finished 26-7, won the MAIS Class 6A state tournament and reached the Overall semifinals last season.
