Friday’s Mississippi High School Activities Association C Spire State Basketball Tournament Class 2A boys’ championship game pitting the Choctaws of West Tallahatchie High School against the Tigers of Coahoma Agricultural High School was a hard-fought affair.
West Tally won 52-43, capturing the first basketball state championship in school history — in fact, the first for any school in Tallahatchie County — and wrapping up a perfect 34-0 season, but the Choctaws had to come from behind to secure the title.
West Tally head coach Bernard Berryhill was not overly concerned that his team trailed 36-33 at the end of the third quarter.
“I expected it to be a tough, challenging game. I knew Aggie was going to be very aggressive, because that’s the way they played us all year,” he said Monday, referring to three previous meetings between the fellow Region 2-2A teams this season. “I hate it was a close game for the fans, because I’m sure they wanted a blowout, but I didn’t anticipate that from the start.”
Still, the Choctaws had been uncharacteristically sluggish — Berryhill called them “stagnant” — on the offensive side of the ball in the title game, committing 16 turnovers. Yet with eight minutes remaining, they trailed by only 3.
“I felt like my kids were tight. I felt like some of them were playing not to make mistakes, which actually led to mistakes, instead of playing loose,” Berryhill said.
West Tally’s stout play on defense had helped to keep Aggie (20-11) in check and within easy reach.
The coach’s challenge to his team at the start of the fourth quarter was simple: “I told the kids we had eight minutes to make a difference in this ballgame, and to loosen up and just play West Tally basketball.”
The Choctaws responded by reeling off 16 unanswered points to take a commanding 49-36 lead with 2:35 left in the contest. Aggie did not score a single point for the first six minutes of the fourth quarter.
Berryhill was not surprised at the turnaround, noting that his team had been tested many times during the course of the season and always found a way to emerge victorious.
“I believed we had a run in us,” he said. “I knew we had a potential to strike quickly, because we’ve done it before. We’ve taken a game that was fairly close, or tight, and opened it up in a short period of time. So I knew we had that ability to go to another gear.”
In the fourth quarter, Berryhill unleashed the firepower.
“We changed what we did offensively,” the coach said. “We didn’t settle for jump shots, we started to be more aggressive, drive the ball, attack the basket and penetrate.”
Choctaws senior shooting guard Marquis Orange Jr., who was named the “Class 2A C Spire Player of the Game” for his 11-point, 13-rebound performance, said the players persevered because they worked together.
“It took teamwork,” Orange said. “We’re brothers on this team, and we knew we weren’t going to let each other down and that we would fight until the final horn. Until the last sound, we were going to fight. That’s all we know; fight for each other.”
Junior Dan Locke IV led the scoring for the Choctaws with 14 points. Senior Frank Johnson had 11 while senior Malik Bailey added 7.
Sophomore Milton McGee scored 3 points, senior D’Andre Houston and junior Tyler Berryhill both connected for 2 points apiece, and seniors Javarius O’Bryant and Devunta Houston scored 1 each.
West Tally connected on 47.5 percent of field goals in the game, while Aggie hit on 34 percent.
Neither team was prolific from three-point range, with West Tally scoring 3-of-13 (23.1 percent) on the long ball while Coahoma made good on just 3-of-22 (13.6 percent).
The Choctaws outrebounded the Tigers, 35-29.
Aggie committed fewer turnovers — nine, versus 16 for West Tally.
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While saying that his 2015-16 boys’ basketball campaign has been “surreal” and like “a dream that you didn’t want to wake up from,” the head coach knows that 11 of the Choctaws’ 16 members are seniors and the team will be in a retooling mode next season.
“I’m very excited about it, because the kids I have returning had two years of great experience,” Berryhill said. “And the bar has been raised with my program, and those kids are determined not to lower it and not drop the ball, so to speak. ... The identity of the team may change a little, but the hunger inside of them will still be there.”
Berryhill said the culture has been changed with back-to-back appearances in the state tournament — last year’s resulting in a semifinal loss.
“I know the guys have enjoyed the feeling of winning and what came with it, so I’m pretty sure that they will work even harder to prove that this year was not a fluke,” the coach continued. “So we’re going to go to work. We won’t have the numbers, we won’t have the depth that this year’s team had, but with the experience factor and those that we will add to the ones who played, they’re going to have to really put out, and they already know that the expectations have been raised.”
IN THE PHOTO: West Tallahatchie High School senior shooting guard Marquis Orange Jr. is awarded the C Spire Player of the Game award by Don Hinton, executive director of the Mississippi High School Activities Association, following Friday’s Class 2A basketball state championship game at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson. (Photo by Clay McFerrin)
