Fans in attendance at Tupelo High School on Tuesday night got to go home with some pride no matter which school they supported, as the Starkville girls defeated the then-No. 1 ranked Tupelo 51-48 while the Tupelo boys downed Starkville 53-43.
Tupelo’s girls entered the night 18-1 on the year, and left with its first home loss in 15 games. Olivia Smith led all scorers for the Golden Wave with 15 points, while star forward Zariyah Edwards finished with 20 points for the Yellowjackets. Edwards’ fourth quarter surge propelled the team into the lead and kept them there until the final buzzer.
Starkville high school GIrls basketball head coach Matt Wilbanks spoke about Edwards’ efforts postgame.
“[Edwards] did awesome, man,” said Wilbanks. “She’s a great kid, so I’m just happy for her to get the recognition that she’s been getting this year. It’s well deserved…We haven’t played anybody, really, that can handle her one-on-one, and then Jada Gay stepped up as our other post, made a couple of mid-range shots, made some good passes, opened it up for [Edwards], and Zariyah just kept going to work.”
Edwards holds multiple collegiate offers to junior colleges around the state as well as several other universities at varying levels of competition.
Starkville’s girls team (16-5, 5-0) now take to the road to face Murrah (4-14, 0-4) while Tupelo’s girls (18-2, 3-1) next visit Madison Central (4-10, 1-2).
Tupelo’s boys squad made its presence felt early on with its physicality, but according to head coach Robert Green, that’s exactly what 7A basketball requires.
” If you want to win 7A basketball games, you’re going to have to play that way,” said Green. “And it’s not overboard. It’s clean basketball. It’s hard basketball, and I feel like both teams, for how intensely they play each other, I think both teams really handled it well. There were some opportunities out there to really check each other hard and undercut each other, but they played it well. They played a clean game.”
The Golden Wave’s Jamarion Jones led all scorers with 19 points, but it was a thunderous two-handed slam by Tupelo forward Demetrius Duffy that lifted the roof off of Tupelo’s domed gym. That play, according to Green, lifted his team in ways only a big time play can.
“Any time any one of [the players] can get a dunk, that definitely takes it up to the next level,” said Green. “…All of that helps our offense, helps the guys and helps us get a little bit of energy.”
Starkville guard David Washington attempted to lead his team to a victory in the fourth quarter with 11 of his 15 points on the night coming in the final quarter, but the rest of the Yellowjackets couldn’t manage to find the bottom of the net, which sealed the deal on a win for the Golden Wave.
Both teams have more divisional action ahead, as Starkville (18-5, 3-2) takes to the road yet again to take on Murrah (4-13, 0-3) on Jan. 17 while Tupelo (12-4, 3-1) hosts Clinton (11-7, 2-2) on Jan. 21.
