MADISON COUNTY:
Jamie Glasgow was a part of two incredible girls basketball programs and coaches during her playing career. She played for Durwin Carpenter, the second winningest high school girls basketball coach in Mississippi history, at Pillow Academy in Greenwood. Glasgow, then Jamie Howard, helped Pillow to an undefeated season and the MAIS Overall championship as a senior in 1997. Then in college, Glasgow was coached by Mississippi coaching legend Lloyd Clark at Delta State and she helped the Lady Statesmen to back to back NCAA Tournament Division II Elite Eight finishes her junior and senior years.
With that background, basketball fans shouldn’t be surprised that Glasgow has built one of the best programs in Mississippi in less than a decade at Germantown High, which opened nine years ago.
Glasgow, whose top assistant is her husband David,has guided the Lady Mavs to four consecutive winning seasons and has a 20-4 record in their first season at the Class 6A level. The Lady Wavs had their biggest win of the season Tuesday night with a 57-56 victory over defending 6A state champion and previously undefeated Pearl to end the Lady Pirates’ 43-game winning streak. Germantown finished 25-5 last season and reached the 5A state semifinals.
Germantown is led by 6-foot guard Madison Booker, who is considered the top freshman in Mississippi and already has scholarship offers from Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Alabama, Florida, Florida State and Arkansas. Booker, who missed the first 17 games with a foot injury, is averaging a team-high 12 points, 5.9 rebounds and a team-high 1.2 blocked shots. She started for the Lady Mavs as an eighth-grader. Her dad Carlos played for Southern Miss from 1998-2000. Carlos, who is 6-10, averaged more career blocks per game than anyone in school history except for Clarence Weatherspoon.
Other starters from Germantown are 5-5 senior point guard Marvia Spann (8.6 points, a team-high 2.8 assists anda team-high 2.2 steals), 5-4 junior guard Raven Sanders(10.6 points), 5-10 sophomore forward Marian Jenkins (6.6 points, 5.9 rebounds) and 5-10 eighth-grade forward Alana Rouser (9 points, a team-high 9.3 rebounds). The top two players off the bench are 5-8 senior guard Claire Applegate (7.5 points) and 5-7 junior guard Hannah Duran (1.7 points).
HINDS COUNTY:
Callaway’s Daeshun Ruffin is considered one of the Top 25 junior boys basketball players in the country. The 5-10 Ruffin and his Charger teammates have been playing across the country showing off Ruffin’s game skills to college coaches and high school fans. Playing in these showcases will help come playoff time, Callaway coach David Sanders said.
“We been on planes together and in very crowded environments together far away from Mississippi so having to make a trip in the playoffs will be a lot easier because of where we have been this season,” Sanders said. “We have played 10 games against out of state competition (with a 5-5 record) and 12 against Mississippi teams and haven’t lost any of them. It’s been a great experience for our guys to see other parts of the country and see how much passion other parts of the country have for high school basketball.”
Despite playing against great competition and facing double and triple teams almost every game, Ruffin is averaging 26 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists for Callaway, which has a 17-5 record this season. Ruffin scored 40 points in a 102-51 victory over Ridgeland Tuesday night. He scored a career-high 50 points in three quarters against Grenada last season as a sophomore.
“Daeshun could play college ball right now. He’s that good,” said Sanders, who was an All-State performer at Provine High and a three-year starter at Ole Miss, a part of the Provine Posse of Justin Reed and Aaron Harper, whohelped the Rebels reach the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in2001. “He has offers from practically every school in the South. Daeshun has had a great season. He isn’t forcing shots. He’s becoming a better leader, getting a better basketball IQ and having better shot selection. He needs to keep on working on those areas of his game to get ready for college.”
RANKIN COUNTY:
Northwest Rankin boys soccer team gets a chance to avenge last year’s loss in the Class 6A state championship game when the Cougars play host to Gulfport Saturday at 2 p.m. in the second round of the playoffs.
Northwest Rankin has a 20-0-1 record with only a tie with Ocean Springs blemishing a perfect record. The Cougars’ last loss was a 2-1 decision to Gulfport.
“We have nine of our 11 starters back from last year and have a senior dominated team,” NWR coach Chris Gardner, who has won four state titles and three runner-up finishes in his 23 years as head coach and also won a state title as a player at Brandon as a senior in 1989. “We are a big team. We have five players who are 6 feet or taller, and that’s pretty much for soccer players. And we are fast, too.”
NWR is led by senior midfielder Santiago Diosa, a Mississippi College commitment who is the only player left on the team who started on the Cougars’ 2017 state title team. Other key players are senior midfielder Andrew Craig, the team’s leading scorer and a Jones County Junior College committment, junior center back and Andrew’s brother Samuel Craig, and senior center back Caden King. The Cougars have allowed only six goals this season.
If NWR gets by Gulfport, the Cougars will play the winner of Ocean Springs and Brandon Tuesday at NWR. A win Tuesday will put NWR in the championship game next Saturday at Ridgeland. Tupelo, Clinton, Madison Central and Oxford are the remaining teams playing in the other bracket.
