By Robert Wilson
Few players in Mississippi can take over a game with the season on the line.
But there isn’t anyone in Mississippi like Germantown’s Madison Booker.
The 6-foot junior guard and 2021 Mississippi Gatorade Player of the Year scored 14 of her game-high 25 points to lead Germantown to a 62-54 victory over Tupelo last week in the MHSAA Class 6A state quarterfinals in Tupelo.
For her outstanding performance, Booker has been named the Performance Therapy/Mississippi Scoreboard Metro Jackson Girls Basketball Player of the Week.
This is the third time this season Booker has been named the Player of the Week.
Booker made two 3-pointers – one from about 24 feet left of the top of the key with a defender all over her – a pair of two-pointers, one of those on an offensive rebound and another on a drive to the basket, and four of four shots from the free throw line late in the game for her 15 points in the fourth quarter. Booker also finished with 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocked shots to help Germantown rally for a 42-40 deficit after three quarters.
“What can I say? Maddie was being Maddie,” Germantown coach Jamie Glasgow said. “She hit shots when we needed them. That’s what she does. Maddie also hit a couple of big threes in the second quarter to help us go up by eight at half.”
Booker was a starter on the USA 16-and-under National Team, which won the FIBA Americas Championship, this summer and was the Priority One Bank/Mississippi Scoreboard Metro Jackson Player of the Year last season.
She is ranked No. 4 in the nation by Prep Girls Hoops, No. 5 by Blue Star Basketball and No. 6 by ESPN Hoopsgulz in her class of 2023. Booker narrowed her college choices down to nine schools – Mississippi State, South Carolina, Tennessee, Connecticut, Duke, Florida State, Louisville, Oregon, and Texas – on Sept. 18. Booker’s father, Carlos, is 6-foot-10 and started at center for Southern Miss in the late 1990s.
Booker averaged 16.6 points, 7.6 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 2.1 steals for 24-7 Germantown, which reached the 6A state semifinals this season.
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 last season. She was first team on the All-Metro Jackson team as a sophomore and freshman.
