STARKVILLE — Only one gift Tuesday night seemed appropriate for Starkville Academy girls basketball Glenn Schmidt to give her five seniors: a hug.
After a round of a applause from the capacity crowd at Starkville Academy’s gym, each of the seniors on the team taken out of the team’s 67-32 victory against Heritage Academy.
They also received an embrace from Schmidt.
Brittany Jacks, Julianne Jackson, April Burney, Anna Prestridge, and Lauren Atwell all started in their last regular-season game at the school, and were a huge reason the Lady Volunteers (28-3) took a 12-4 lead after eight minutes.
After a long Senior Night celebration, the five seniors combined for 21 points, 14 rebounds, 13 steals, and seven assists.
“They have been with us since seventh grade, except for Julianne Jackson and Anna Prestridge,” Schmidt said. “Anna came in from Parklane her 10th-grade year. Julianne came in from home school her 10th-grade year. I have got a lot of history with them. We have been up and down the road a lot. They have come a long way. They can all play.”
Junior forward Anna Lea Little was left open from the perimeter and hit four 3-pointers en route to a game-high 16 points.
“Starkville just has so many weapons, and then they just got hot shooting,” Heritage Academy coach Yandell Harris said.
The Lady Volunteers’ victory completed a silent goal of going undefeated at home (12-0) in the regular season.
“I didn’t talk to the players about it,” Schmidt said. “I don’t talk to the players about winning and losing anything. But when we beat Presbyterian Christian here a couple of weeks ago, I mentioned to them they had a chance to go undefeated on their home floor.”
Starkville Academy allowed only two points in the third quarter and forced Heritage Academy into 30 turnovers.
Sophomore Sallie Kate Richardson added 12 points and was a major
reason Starkville Academy dominated the offensive glass 13-5.
“Glenn does a great job of understanding what you’re trying to take away because once we decided (Little) beat us from outside she just had her guards pound it inside,” Harris said.
Heritage Academy 50,
Starkville Academy 44
Starkville Academy coach Mark Alexander could see the issue coming again.
The third-quarter issues the Volunteers have experienced this season made him not want to take his team into the locker room at halftime.
“We didn’t stay in the locker room but 30 seconds (and) I just said, ‘Hey let’s get back out there,’ ” Alexander said. “Other than that third quarter, I thought we played great.”
Heritage Academy use a dominant eight minutes in that quarter rally to earn a road victory against its biggest rival.
“I thought we started off with a lot of effort, but Starkville was switching off screens and it took us about two and a half quarters to figure that out,” Harris said.
The Volunteers took a 25-21 halftime lead, but turnovers and quick shots on offense allowed the Patriots to outscore them 18-9 in the third quarter. Cade Lott’s 12 points paced Heritage Academy.
“Kind of the same old story,” Alexander said. “We came out in the third quarter and just fell apart. We looked like a whole different team.”
Carnail Minor led Starkville Academy with 14 points off the bench.
With 19 seconds remaining, Alexander called timeout to get senior Calvin Young in the game. The transfer from Starkville High School, who suffered a season-ending knee injury early in the season, was inserted into the game and allowed to score a layup in his final prep basketball game. It was an idea Young and his family didn’t know was going to happen until the final moments.
“It was something I thought about last night,” Alexander said. “I didn’t tell anybody. I didn’t tell coach Schmidt and I didn’t tell him. I agreed with (Harris) before the game and he agreed to let me do it. I just wanted to do that for him. A kid that transferred from Starkville High. Season lost, I just thought it was the right thing to do to let him get in and score a basket.”
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