By Robert Wilson
Madison Booker is a McDonald’s All-American, two-time USA Basketball gold medalist, MHSAA Class 6A Player of the Year, Mississippi Gatorade Player of the Year and PriorityOne Bank/MSB Metro Jackson Player of the Year.
Now, the 6-foot-1 senior guard and Texas signee is a state champion.
Booker had 25 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals and led Germantown to a 64-43 victory over Tupelo for the MHSAA Class 6A state championship Saturday night at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson.
Booker’s performance helped give the Lady Mavs their first state girls basketball championship in the school’s 12-year history.
For her outstanding play in the championship game, Booker has been named the Performance Therapy/MSB Metro Jackson Girls Basketball Player of the Week.
Booker also had 22 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists and led Germantown to a 46-35 victory over Harrison Central in the 6A state semifinals, playing not only in front of the coliseum crowd, but her future coach in Texas’ Vic Shaefer, formerly of Mississippi State.
Booker finished her senior season averaging 20 points, 8 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 2.6 steals and 1.1 blocked shots per game for Germantown, which finished 29-2, won its last 18 games and won 23 consecutive games against Mississippi teams. Germantown’s only Mississippi loss was a 57-56 decision to defending MHSAA 4A state champion Choctaw Central. Germantown’s only other loss was a 59-49 decision to Hoover, Ala., 33-1 and ranked No. 13 in the country by Maxpreps.
“I am happy for Maddie to finish her high school career with a state championship,” said Germantown coach Jamie Glasgow, the only coach in school history. “She has received more individual honors than any other athlete in school history but wanted to lead her team to the state title and she accomplished that. Maddie really was focused and turned it on in the playoffs. I am thankful I was able to coach an All-American like Maddie and look forward to following her in college and the WNBA.”
Booker was one of 24 players in the country named to the McDonald’s All-American Game, the first Mississippi female to make the team since 2008 and only the fourth since the game began in 2002.
She started every game for USA Basketball for the past two summers and helped the team to two consecutive gold medals without losing a game.
Booker was the Mississippi Gatorade Player of the Year as a sophomore.
She was the PriorityOne Bank/MSB Metro Jackson Player of the Year for the past two seasons as a sophomore and junior and has been a member of the Metro Jackson Preseason Elite 11 Team this year and last year.
Booker averaged 16.6 points, 7.6 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.1 steals and led Germantown to a 24-7 record and a MHSAA Class 6A state tournament semifinal finish last season. She scored a then career-high 30 points against Arlington, Tenn., last season.
Booker – whose father, Carlos, was a 6-10 center for Southern Miss in the 1990s – made official visits to Duke, Tennessee, and Texas. Recruited by the best programs in the country, Booker narrowed her college choices down to nine schools – Mississippi State, South Carolina, Tennessee, Connecticut, Duke, Florida State, Louisville, Oregon, and Texas entering her junior year.
Booker averaged 18.8 points, 7.8 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.6 blocked shots and led Germantown to a 13-4 record and the MHSAA Class 6A runner-up finish as a sophomore. She was first team on the All-Metro Jackson team as a freshman, sophomore and junior.
