Back-to-back: Holmes County Central dominates New Hope to repeat as 5A State Champions (photos)
JACKSON — Holmes County Central couldn’t have asked for a better start. Now they are back-to-back state champs.
The Jaguars built a huge first-half lead and cruised past New Hope 76-61 to claim their second consecutive MHSAA Boys Class 5A State Championship at the Mississippi Coliseum on Friday night.
It’s Holmes County Central’s (23-8) second state title in school history.
“The guys did what they had to do and follow the game plan. They bought in to what I told them and executed,” said Holmes County Central coach DeAngelo Priar. “I’m happy for these guys. They’ve put in a lot of work in, I put them through a lot in practice and conditioning. This senior group was a special group and I’m glad I can be part of the legacy with those guys.”
The first quarter started back and forth with New Hope leading 9-8, but the Jaguars ended the first quarter on an 11-3 run to take a 20-11 lead at the end of the opening period highlighted by a buzzer beating three-pointer by Jabarious Landfair.
In the second quarter, Holmes County Central outscored 13-8 to extend their lead to 33-19 at halftime.
To begin the third quarter, the Jaguars on a 11-7 run to take a 44-26 lead and at the end of the quarter Landfair hit another three-pointer at the buzzer to give Holmes County Central a 54-37 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Malik Crigler hit back-to-back three-pointers and South Alabama football signee Ricky Fletcher made a posturizing dunk to give the Jaguars a 64-44 lead midway through the fourth quarter to put the game away.
“We had to contain their two best scorers in Hackman and Parr, and we did a pretty good job and don’t let anyone else get going and kept limiting them to one shot on each possession,” Priar said. “Back-to-back is hard to do, it puts Holmes County on the map. Now we got to work on getting back here next year.”
Louzavious Thomas had 24 points and 11 rebounds to lead Holmes County Central, and was named the game’s most valuable players.
“We executed our game plan and crash the boards, guards did their thing and we played solid on defense. Everybody did their job,” Thomas said. “We’ve been here before, we played relaxed and patient and let the game come to us. Back to back champs is an amazing feeling especially my senior year.”
Caleb Parr had a game-high 33 points and 10 rebounds to lead New Hope, while L.J. Hackman added 10 points for the Trojans (23-5).
“We got behind in the first half and didn’t play very well,” said New Hope coach Drew McBrayer. “We couldn’t make enough shots and they did and we had to play catch up the whole game.”
PHOTO GALLERY
(All photos by Austin Frayser)
