By Robert Wilson
FLOWOOD – Madison-Ridgeland Academy girls basketball coach Stephen Force calls his sophomore guard Anna Morgan Anderson probably the most competitive player he has ever coached in his 29 seasons.
The 5-foot-9 Anderson showed that competitive attitude Tuesday night when she put her team in her back in the fourth quarter and carried them to their 15th consecutive regular season conference victory.
Anderson scored 10 points in the final five minutes to lift MRA to a come-from-behind win over defending MAIS Class 6A state champion Jackson Prep 43-39 in a battle for first place in the league, in a rematch of last year’s state championship game and between two of the Top 13 teams in Mississippi at Prep’s Patriot gym.
MRA – ranked No. 10 in Mississippi in the latest MaxPreps ratings – improved 22-5 overall, 5-0 in league play and won its eighth straight game. The Lady Patriots haven’t lost to a MAIS team since falling to defending Overall Tournament champion East Rankin Academy and Overall contender Leake Academy in back-to-back games in their own Madison Madness tournament in early November.
Prep – ranked No. 13 in Mississippi by MaxPreps – dropped to 18-6 overall and 3-2 in league play, in third place behind MRA and Jackson Academy, which has a 4-1 league record. The Lady Patriots, after losing to MRA in both regular season games, upset MRA 45-41 in the 6A state championship game last season.
And it looked like Prep was going to end MRA’s consecutive regular season conference winning streak before MRA had its comeback. After a back and forth first half, Prep led 24-19 going into the third quarter and took control of the game, leading as much as eight points and took a 32-26 lead going into the fourth quarter.
But Anderson – a member of the Tatum and Wade/Mississippi Scoreboard Preseason Metro Jackson Elite 11 Team – wasn’t going to let Prep win this one. She hit a 3-pointer to cut the Prep lead to 34-31 with 4 minutes, 45 seconds to play. And after a basket by teammate Annie Toler, Anderson made one of two free throws for a 34-34 tie with 3:50 play. Anderson connected on another 3 with 2:50 to play for a 39-36 MRA lead – the first MRA lead since the second quarter – and Prep never recovered.
Anderson clinched the win with two straight free throws with 9.1 seconds to play for the final margin.
She finished with 19 points (6 of 9 from the field, 4 of 5 from 3-point range and 3 of 4 from the free throw line), the fourth consecutive game Anderson has scored 17 or more points. She is averaging 19.2 points over the past nine games, including a career-high 36 points (tying for third best in school history) against Memphis East in the Dragon Fire Classic in Collierville, Tenn., during the Christmas holidays. She scored her 1,000thpoint during that stretch and if she continues this pace could possibly break Rivers Futral’s career school scoring record of 2,200 points. Futral graduated in 2020.
This wasn’t the first time Anderson has played in big games. As an eighth grader, she started and helped MRA win the state and Overall championships, the first eighth-grader to start for Force in his coaching career.
MRA junior guard Presley Hughes – daughter of Whit Hughes, former Jackson Prep star and sixth man on Mississippi State’s 1996 Final Four team – had 7 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 blocked shot and senior guard Allie Redding had 6 points.
Senior guard Ann Magee Stradinger and 6-1 junior center Meg Barbour had 12 points each. Barbour also had eight rebounds and four blocked shots. Claire Crosby, daughter of Prep athletic director Will Crosby, had eight points.
“I had a talk with Anna Morgan at halftime about moving without the ball,” said Force, who has won 768 games in 29 seasons, 628 wins in 23 seasons at MRA, and three Overall championships. “When you have someone like Torrie Polk guarding you, you’ve got to move and work your way to get open. She did better in the second half and that’s why she was able to get some open shots. We made our free throws and some shots in the fourth quarter. Prep had a lot of second chance points in the first half off of beating us to loose balls and us standing around. But we did better in the second half. Allie did a great job on Meg and rebounded well.”
Anderson was outstanding Tuesday. Not only did she have a tremendous finish in the fourth quarter, but she also made a 45-foot shot from just beyond halfcourt at the end of the first quarter to give MRA an 11-9 lead.
“Anna Morgan is maybe most competitive person I’ve ever coached,” Force said. “One of the hardest workers I’ve ever had. She is an incredible practice player, bringing it every day. Anna Morgan has a very high motor on the floor and never slows down, which makes her dangerous on both ends of the floor. She worked hard this off season in the weight room. Anna Morgan led the team in steals in both her first two varsity seasons as an eighth and ninth grader. She cares only about winning when she steps on the floor. Anna Morgan is a stud. If you want somebody to go to war with, Anna Morgan is your girl.”
“We all knew that a six-point lead is nothing and it can be reversed in just a second,” Anderson said. “We all had to play smart while all looking for shots. We never really thought that game was out of hand and that we couldn’t come back so I feel like that helped us a lot in being aggressive offensively and defensively.
“As a team, we knew how big winning this game was and how the last game went for us last year (in the state championship). I think that really changed our mindset and made us play for an even bigger purpose.”
“I thought our team competed hard tonight throughout the game,” said Prep coach Michael McAnally, who has won 655 games (442 girls and 213 boys), and five state titles, two Overall titles and two Overall runner-up finishes, in 24 seasons, the last 11 at Prep. “For three quarters, we defended with great discipline and hit some timely shots. Give MRA credit for a clutch fourth quarter. They went 4 for 5 from the field, made both threes they shot, and went 7 for 8 from the line. We’ve got to improve on finishing games and that falls on me. I’ve got to do a better job of having our team prepared to finish games against good teams.”
