The Starkville Academy Volunteers raided the Lamar Raiders’ court on Thursday night, and they came away with two tight victories in the end. Their boys beat the Raiders 54-47, and the girls took home a 36-33 victory over Lamar.

Starkville Academy boys 54, Lamar boys 47

When these teams matched up earlier this month, Starkville Academy ran away with a 70-33 victory. Lamar was able to keep it much closer this time around, but the Raiders could not get revenge after giving up a late lead.

“The last couple weeks, I thought we’ve been trending in the right direction overall. Energy was good. We were pretty disciplined for the most part. I thought we played great,” Lamar coach Seth Cheatham said.

The Raiders jumped out to a 7-0 lead to start the game, and they retook the lead in the second and third quarters before entering the fourth up 37-35. Then Starkville rattled off a 15-2 run early in the final quarter to put away Lamar for good.

“I thought our guys hit their shots early in the game. I thought we were pretty balanced offensively,” Cheatham said. “Most of our offense came off our defense, and that’s what we’ve been preaching. We’ve been preaching that your offense is dictated by your defense. We had a bunch of steals, we got some baskets off early to get the momentum going in our favor.”

Sophomore Salone Elliott hit four free throws and six shots, including two 3-pointers in the third quarter that helped Lamar build a small lead. Cheatham said Elliott distributed the ball well and made his shots.

“We had a mismatch with him that we tried to take advantage of, and I thought he did a great job running the offense and doing what we needed him to do. When they backed off, we know he can step back and he can shoot it,” Cheatham said. “He plays a lot of basketball. He does a lot of AAU, so he’s got a lot of basketball minutes under his belt.”

Seniors Addison Clodfelter and Spence Hannigan combined for 25 points to give the Raiders three players who had double-digit scoring efforts.

“Especially late in the game when we have a lead, we need to be hunting a little bit more for our shot and work the clock a little bit, but I thought we did a great job overall,” Cheatham said.

Starkville Academy girls 36, Lamar girls 33

Lamar was down two of its best defensive players against Starkville Academy, but the Raiders were still able to hold the Vols to just six points in the fourth quarter. After entering the fourth down 24-30, nine points in the final quarter was not enough to top Starkville.

“We did a decent job on defense. We did a terrible job on offense,” Lamar coach Joe Miller said. “I’m disappointed. I’ve always had teams that can score, and we’re not scoring well, and we’ve got people that can score. I don’t know if it’s nerves, just pressure, because we should be putting up 60 a game.”

Part of Lamar’s offensive issues came from the loss of top offensive threat Aryah Grace early in the second quarter. Grace contributed four points in the first quarter before going down with a lower leg injury. Grace put up 26 points when Lamar beat Starkville earlier this season.

“With her, we’d probably win, but she wasn’t playing, so you can’t take it away from Starkville,” Miller said. “Other kids have got to learn to step up. I’m happy with the hustle. We always hustle. I’m just not happy with our mental aspect of the game.”

Erica Smith, a key defensive force for the Raiders, was already out for the game with an illness. Without Smith’s quickness and Grace’s length, Lamar’s full-court press defense was not as effective as usual.

“As far as stealing, the key players are usually Aryah and Erica Smith. With both of them out, the press wasn’t the same,” Miller said. “I did think, out of all of us, Sarah Pierce Swift had a good ball game. She guarded their best player.”

Swift mustered five points on the offensive end while filling in for Smith. Carley Rolison managed to sink two baskets coming off the bench after Grace went down.

“Carley is going to always give you hustle,” Miller said. “The defense we were running, she hadn’t run it a lot, and she struggled with it some. Carley can really jump for a small kid. She was in volleyball right up until about a week before the season started, so she’s still picking up and learning a lot coming in late.”

After not making any shots in the first quarter, Reece Shaffer stepped up for the Raiders by hitting two 3-pointers and two free throws. However, it was not enough to pull out a win.

“We’re just missing too many free throws and missing too many put-backs, and when you get beat in a three-point game, that’s the difference. We’ve got to learn to play with pressure,” Miller said.