Last season, Southeast Lauderdale’s boys basketball team lost 47-35 to Booneville in the MHSAA Class 3A State Championship. Current Southeast senior Demondre Graham saw how the loss affected the seniors on last season’s team, and he is determined to not feel the sting of defeat in his final season with the Tigers.

“We don’t want to have that feeling again,” Graham said. “We pushed each other every day at practice, and then outside of practice to get the main goal. That’s to win a state championship.”

The Tigers have a collective chip on their shoulder this season after they failed to win the state championship last season, according to Graham. It has shown in the playoffs.

Southeast entered the state playoffs with a 19-4 record, and the Tigers immediately beat Franklin County 65-38 in the first round. The Tigers then went to Tylertown to beat the Chiefs 67-55 in the second.

Graham said Southeast could have played better against Tylertown, which means the Tigers’ best game may still be ahead of them. Southeast Lauderdale coach Centel Truman said he was proud of the way his players fought through the adversity of playing a playoff game on the road against a good team.

“It’s a smaller gym in a smaller town, so a lot of people show up to watch the game. We found a way to push through. The game was tied at one point in time, and our guys made a run at the end of the game to put the game away,” Truman said.

Southeast (21-4) will face Magee (17-6) at Clinton High in Saturday’s quarterfinal matchup. The Trojans advanced to the quarterfinals with a 58-50 win over West Marion and a 69-61 win over Hazlehurst.

Graham, who won this season’s 3A Mr. Basketball award, is averaging 22.2 points per game, 4.4 assists per game, 5 rebounds per game and 1.3 steals per game. The matchup to watch in this game is Graham against Magee guards J’Kwon Gregory and Jeremiah Cole.

“They play very very hard. They do a good job playing with each other. They’re not as big as we are, but they’re very scrappy, so we’re going to have to do a good job of rebounding, eliminating shots to one shot per possession, and not turn the ball over and give them easy baskets. I think if we can do that, and play our very best, I think we can be successful,” Truman said.

Reaching the quarterfinal round of the playoffs is no easy task, but Truman has bigger expectations for his team. The Tigers set the standard last season, and they need to get back to the state championship game again for this season to be a success, according to Truman.

“Every day you’re playing with a target on your back,” Truman said. “In every gym that you go to … now you are everybody’s state championship game. So they have handled it well so far, and I pray that they continue to handle it well as we go forward in the season.”

If the Tigers can beat Magee, they will face the winner of the quarterfinal matchup between Byhalia and Nettleton. Southeast would face either Port Gibson, Morton, Thomas E. Edwards or Booneville in the championship game if the Tigers can make it back to the final.

“We lost a few key pieces in our lineup from last year, but this year we got some more weapons, and I feel like we are still talented and have the team to win a state championship game,” Graham said.