By By Marty Stamper/The Meridian Star
Frb. 9, 2001
Wayne County boys' basketball coach Geary Jackson recently reached a milestone in his 22-year career as he posted his 500th win.
Jackson has coached 14 years in Wayne County (at Waynesboro Central and now at Wayne County High) and eight years at Meridian High School.
Jackson led Waynesboro Central to Class A state championships in 1981 and 1983.
The 1981 Panthers went 37-2 and beat Lafayette County 65-61 in the state championship game.
In 1983, the Panthers went 32-3, beating Mendenhall 60-56 in the state title matchup.
Good stuff: Basketball coaches might want to get some of the finish that Lake used last season when redoing the gym floor at LHS.
Since the work was done, the Lake girls have yet to lose a home game. They are 11-0 this year with impressive home wins over Scott Central, Morton, and Forest.
Lake will host next week's Division 6-1A Tournament.
Colemon's crew looking tough: The Noxubee County Lady Tigers used to be a fixture at the Big House for the state basketball tournament.
Narvel Colemon's team may be getting ready for a return to the capital city this spring. The Noxubee girls improved to 24-4 with Saturday's win over Starkville and entered this week with a 10-game win streak.
White gets 3,000: Tupelo's Tan White, considered to be the top female high school basketball player in the state this year, reached the 3,000-point mark for her career with a 32-point effort in Friday's 95-31 rout of Shannon at Tupelo.
The Tupelo fans waved yellow and black signs with 3,000 printed on them. White also received a basket with 3,000 pieces of candy from her teammates.
Needing 31 points to reach 3,000, White scored the magic basket on a layup with 2:39 to go in the third quarter and then exited the game.
Blame it on the Grinch: The Clarkdale girls and Carthage boys must have stayed up to catch Santa Claus coming down the chimney or something like that.
Neither team has won since Christmas with Clarkdale's girls losing eight games in a row since yule time and Carthage's boys dropping 11 straight after the holidays.
Don't overlook us: The Southeast Lauderdale Lady Tigers have won 16 of their last 17 games with the lone loss coming at Choctaw Central where nobody beats the Lady Warriors.
Southeast will host next week's Division 5-3A Tournament that features five girls' teams with at least 20 wins to their credit.
No quitters here: It would have been hard to fault the Sylva-Bay Academy Lady Saints if they had thrown in the towel on their season after losing leading scorer Katye Tubb to a knee injury on Dec. 28 against Jackson Prep and then Summer Tyson to a knee injury in early January, ironically on the day that Tubb had her surgery. They were the lone seniors on coach Jody Rowell's squad.
The Lady Saints were 14-5 when Tubb went down and finished with a 20-12 mark after a 45-43 loss to Sharkey-Issaquena in the first round of the Academy A Central Region Tournament at University Christian at Flowood on Tuesday.
Keeping the ship afloat were Ingrid Norvell, Jane Thompson, Ashley Green, Megan McNeil, Lauren Husbands, and Amber Carlisle.
Still rolling: The defending Class 2A state champion South Leake Wildcats used wins over Philadelphia and Carthage last week and one at Ackerman on Tuesday to extend their win streak to 25 and up their record to 28-1.
The Wayne County War Eagles knocked off Heidelberg and Moss Point last week and Meridian on Tuesday to improve to 23-2 and extend their win streak to 17.
Busted: The Kemper County Wildcats had a 10-game win streak snapped in Tuesday's 68-48 loss at West Lauderdale.
You're number what?: The Leake Academy boys entered the Academy 3-AA Tournament at East Rankin Academy last week with the top seed after going 9-1 during the regular season.
But during the tournament, the Rebels lost 61-58 to East Rankin and 46-44 to Canton Academy to take the league's No. 4 seed into this week's Academy AA South State Tournament at Brookhaven Academy. The host Cougars ended Leake's year with a 25-10 mark after a 56-36 spanking on Tuesday.
Joy at Nanih Waiya: There was plenty of happiness for the Nanih Waiya girls' basketball team following their Jan. 30 win over rival Noxapater. The Lady Warriors haven't had much success against the Lady Tigers in recent years.
The Noxapater boys earned a little feel-good time too last week. After winning only three of their first 15 games, the Tigers beat Nanih Waiya and Edinburg last week to improve to 5-12.
Still looking: A loss to Pelahatchie Tuesday night dropped the Scott Central boys' basketball team to 0-19. The Rebels' best hope for avoiding an 0-fer season comes today when they travel to Jackson to take on Mississippi School for the Deaf.