By Robert Wilson
CLINTON – Be aggressive.
That’s Madison-Ridgeland Academy girls basketball coach Stephen Force’ message to his team if they want to win their second MAIS Overall Tournament championship in three years.
“The group I had three years ago was aggressive and we came in the Overall championship against PCS (Presbyterian Christian School) and won,” said Force, who will be coaching his seventh Overall final and trying to win his fourth Overall championship. “Last year in the Overall final, East Rankin (Academy) was the more aggressive team and they beat us. We have been more aggressive in our last few games, so we have to be that way again to win it.”
MRA, 31-7 and the third-place team from Class 6A, meets Class 5A runner-up Parklane, 28-5, Wednesday at 6 p.m. for the Overall title at Mississippi College’s A.E. Wood Coliseum/Mike Jones Court. MRA defeated Parklane 61-44 Nov. 18 at MRA in Madison, Parklane’s worst loss of the season.
MRA – ranked No. 12 in Mississippi by MaxPreps – was the more aggressive team in Tuesday’s semifinals as the Lady Patriots defeated Class 4A state champion Central Hinds Academy 40-19.
“Central Hinds has two really good guards in Kat Strong and Stella Havard and we knew we had to be aggressive against them or we would get beat,” said Force, who has won 777 games, 637 at MRA and three Overall titles, three Overall runners-up finishes and three state championships in his 29-year coaching career. “We played really good defense against Central Hinds.”
Force is trying to join Pillow Academy’s Durwin Carpenter – the second winningest girls basketball coach in Mississippi history – with four Overall girls titles, the most by any active coach. Jackson Academy’s Jan Sojourner has a record six Overall girls championships, but she retired this season.
A great example of success when MRA is aggressive came in last week’s first round victory over defending Overall champion East Rankin.
“We played aggressively in our consolation game against JA and won and against East Rankin and won,” Force said. “We’ve got to come out and guard against Parklane and can’t let them shoot the ball as well as they did today against Jackson Prep. Parklane played great and they have two great players in (junior guard) Zoe Alford and (freshman guard) Carlyle Carruth (who combined for 40 points against Prep).”
MRA limited Central Hinds to 10.6 percent shooting from the field (5 of 47).
MRA junior forward Annie Toler and sophomore guard Anna Morgan Anderson had 13 points each. Toler had a team-high six rebounds and Anderson had a team-high four assists.
Havard had 12 points for Central Hinds, which finished with a 31-10 record and its second straight Class 4A state title and second straight Overall Final Four appearance.
“The girls played hard yesterday to defeat PCS, turning around in less than 24 hours is tough, especially when you face MRA,” Central Hinds coach Henry Gantz said. “But our girls fought early and just couldn’t overcome the talent and size of MRA. They are so good defensively and we couldn’t get the shots we wanted but we fought, and the Lady Cougars always will. Winning back-to-back state championships was our goal and going to the Overall semifinals back-to-back was surreal. The last two seasons have been amazing for our school and program. This senior group is beyond special, and we will miss them so bad.”
