Harrison Central caught a bad break on the way to the Final Four. Here’s what happened.
At full strength, the Harrison Central boys basketball team looked like a state title contender throughout the 2019-20 campaign.
With star forward Carlous Williams hobbled badly with a heavily taped left knee, the Red Rebels were far from their best in their biggest game of the season — a 70-53 loss to Starkville on Wednesday in the Class 6A semifinals at the Mississippi Coliseum.
Williams was injured when he banged knees with a teammate during practice on Tuesday, but he tried to give it a go and play through the pain. The 6-foot-6, 240-pound junior was clearly limited during his six minutes of playing time, even wincing in pain when he took a knee in front of the scorer’s table before checking back into the game.
“It’s unfortunate that it happened,” Harrison Central coach Boo Hardy said. “He tried to give it his best, but he couldn’t go. He was hurting, but I’m proud of the effort he put forth.”
Following a failed attempt at a layup early in the second quarter, Williams crumpled to the floor after a hard landing. He stayed down the court, writhing in pain before he slowly walked off the court and did not return.
Williams sat on the bench for the rest of the game, often with a bag of ice on his knee. He finished with no points on 0-for-2 shooting with one rebound.
“He’s a tough kid. We had the trainer check him out (before the game) and she felt like everything was good,” Hardy said. “Like I said, he tried to go, but he couldn’t put any pressure on it.”
With the Red Rebels (26-5) considered a serious contender to claim the program’s first state championship in 20 years, the setback for Williams came at an awful time. Harrison Central had as much depth as any team on the Coast this season, but it could not afford to be without its best player against a team the quality of Starkville.
Starkville (28-2) held a 37-22 lead at the half and the Red Rebels never could quite mount a rally.
Demarius Coleman was by far Harrison Central’s most productive player, hitting eight of 16 attempts from the field, including six 3-pointers, on his way to a game high of 25 points.
“Demarius is a tough young man,” Hardy said. “He’s only a 10th grader, but he’s been playing since he was only a 10th grader. The future looks bright for Demarius.”
While Harrison Central struggled to deal with Williams’ absence, Starkville seemed as if it could do no wrong in the first half. The Yellow Jackets hit 15 of 24 shots from the field in the first 16 minutes — a clip of 62.5.
Starkville senior forward Coltie Young took advantage of Williams’ absence in the post, putting up 17 points and eight rebounds. Ed’zerick Cook added 12 points and five rebounds. Jamarvious Phillips pitched in 11 points and six boards.
Starkville will play the winner of Murrah-Biloxi at 7 p.m. on Saturday in the state title game.
Wednesday’s contest was a deflating outcome for the Red Rebels, but there’s good reason for hope for next season with only one starter set to graduate — senior point guard Mikel King.
“We return four starters and some more role players so we should be right back in the mix next year,” Hardy said. “I told the seniors that we appreciate everything they did. They laid it on the line. I told the underclassmen, ‘Next year, we don’t want to feel this way.’ They’re going to come back and go to work. We’ll take a run at this next year.
“Game after game, we had a great year. We won the Forrest County tournament, the (Gulfport) Holiday Classic, won the division and we got to this point. I didn’t have nothing but good things to say to my kids. We won 26 games and lost five. You can’t go in and fuss at them.”
This story was originally published March 4, 2020 at 9:27 PM.
