STARKVILLE — Myah Taylor doesn’t need any encouragement to “push and look.”
Olive Branch High School girls basketball coach Jason Thompson uses those words to stress the importance of pushing the basketball to keep pressure on the opponents. Those words rang out Monday afternoon in Humphrey Coliseum as Thompson implored Taylor and the rest of the Lady Conquistadors to get the ball as quickly as possible to try to beat Raleigh Egypt (Tenn.) down the court.
Taylor won a lot of those sprints with the ball, driving and darting in and out of traffic to propel Olive Branch to a 76-31 victory in the seventh-annual Travis Outlaw Slam Dunk at the Hump.
“It felt like home,” said Taylor, who signed in November to play at Mississippi State. “I love this school. We have been here ever since I was a freshman every time they have the tournament.”
Taylor, a five-star 5-foot-7 point guard, only had nine points, but her scoring wasn’t needed on a day the Lady Conquistadors improved to 14-1. The two-time Gatorade Player of the Year entered the game averaging 21.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 7.3 assists, and 6.8 steals per game. Scoring is the only statistical category she has a lower average than last season, when she averaged 26.1 points, 4.1 rebounds, 7.0 assists, and 5.8 steals.
Don’t worry about Taylor’s scoring touch, though, because she poured in 28 points and had seven rebounds, nine assists, and seven steals in a 73-70 victory against nationally ranked North Little Rock (Ark.) High on Dec. 16 in the Magic City Classic. Olive Branch suffered its only loss the next night in a 65-54 setback to White Station (Tenn.).
Olive Branch coach Jason Thompson, who is in his first season at the school after coming over from H.W. Byers, said the loss was the third game of a stretch of four games in five days. Still, Thompson is pleased with what his team has accomplished as it prepares to take on Grenada at 1 p.m. today in its final game at the Slam Dunk at the Hump.
Thompson said Taylor has helped fuel the Lady Conquistadors’ success by running the point and directing an offense that showed plenty of options Monday.
“She is one of those guards that when she gets out in transition she really has you at her mercy,” Thompson said. “I am just trying to let her use her great skill set to help us be more successful as a team.”
Taylor also displayed a knack for feeding teammates in a number of ways. Showing a deft handle with either hand, Taylor delivered one- and two-handed diagonal passes for scores as well as a more conventional two-handed bounce pass and a one-handed wrap-around pass to a teammate on the right block for a layup. She saved one of her best — a one-handed bounce pass across her body to a teammate on the left wing — for late in the game in one of her final moves before she watched the rest of the rout from the bench.
Taylor said she has worked with Scotty Mason, a trainer in Memphis, Tennessee, for the last six years. Her work started after she picked basketball over softball and decided to focus on one sport. Since then, Taylor’s game has blossomed and helped her attract national attention. In addition to being a member of The Clarion-Ledger’s Dandy Dozen, which recognizes the state’s top players, she is ranked 49th in the Class of 2017 by Dan Olson, a national recruiting analyst for espnW’s HoopGurlz and Dan Olson’s Collegiate Girls Basketball Report.
“(Her passing) is a true testament to how hard she works and how much she puts focus and emphasis on doing the little things,” Thompson said. “Those passes are not easy to make, but kids of her caliber, they tend to know how to find a way to make it happen.”
MSU junior point guard Morgan William was one of several Lady Bulldogs on hand to watch Taylor. She has watched William play at the Hump for the last three seasons. She said she is excited about the prospect of having Taylor join a guard rotation that also figures to include senior Roshunda Johnson and junior Jazzmun Holmes for the 2017-18 season.
“That is a lot of speed and a lot of versatility,” William said. “Each one of us can do something differently. We are all fast. Ro is probably the best shooter. I am not sure about Myah because I don’t see her every day. Jazz and I come in and make plays when we need to.”
William said Holmes might be faster than her in the long run, but she believes Taylor might be able to give both of them a run. She said what she has seen of Taylor gives her confidence she will be exactly what MSU coach Vic Schaefer wants in a point guard — someone who can run the show and “drop dimes,” or give assists, to her teammates.
“You have to get the pass if you see somebody open,” William said. “In high school, it is pretty easy, but when you get to college, people play the passing lanes a little bit bigger, and she is not as tall, so there is a height issue, but she is doing a good job.”
Taylor hopes to continue to develop. She said she is pleased with the progress she has made from a player who had “raw” basketball skills in the seventh grade. She said training five days a week helped her become a point guard who feels comfortable with the basketball in her hands and is ready for the challenge of playing for a program that is ranked No. 5 in both national polls.
“Seeing myself develop makes me eager to train more and work on different things more and become very dominant in every aspect of the game,” Taylor said. “It makes the game really easy and fun.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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