Biloxi just won its 7th top-15 game and hopes the grind pays off with state title
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- Biloxi has played eight top-15 in-state games, winning seven and building resume.
- Coach Devin Hill schedules grueling non-district opponents to prepare for playoffs.
- Johnson, Carriere and Terry diversify offense and boost scoring.
The Biloxi Lady Indians are 37-2 against Mississippi schools since the beginning of last year following Monday’s 43-34 win over top-5 ranked Laurel, but only one team is responsible for those two losses.
Starkville turned an 11-1 deficit into a grinding, low-scoring 23-16 state championship win in the final game of the 7A season in February. The two met in a November rematch where the Yellowjackets led for the majority of the way and handed Biloxi its first and only loss of the new campaign.
Monday’s wire-to-wire win over a Golden Tornadoes team that toppled top-ranked Starkville just two days prior was the second such win over Laurel this year and further cemented the Lady Indians’ status as a top-tier championship contender.
“I don’t think there is a team in our region that’s as good as Laurel,” Biloxi coach Devin Hill told the Sun Herald. “And that’s no knock to the teams in our region. We hope that our strength of schedule kind of prepares us for what’s to come.”
Biloxi has burdened itself with a grueling non-district slate in response to last year’s disappointing finish. Eight of the 12 in-state games the Indians have played have come against teams inside Maxprep’s top-15.
Seven of them have resulted in notches in the win column with the lone loss coming Starkville.
And that one came with a caveat: The team bus broke down on the way to the game and stranded the Indians for three hours. When they finally arrived, they were forced to step into the gym and play the reigning 7A champions with no warmup.
The incident only fit Hill’s intention to put his roster through as many challenging situations as possible to grow from.
“That way, when we get to the playoffs, hopefully we’ve seen it all,” Hill said. “And if the bus breaks down, we’re good. We have a plan. We’re going to have parents following us from now on.”
The inside-out junior duo of two-time Sun Herald Player of the Year Zaniya Johnson and Jayla Carriere were the driving forces in Biloxi’s second win over Laurel just as they have been in countless games since the two came together as sophomores.
But joining the mix is a new starter that has helped diversify the offense.
Na’Kenya Terry has emerged at point guard and has proven to be a valuable two-way guard, leading the team in both assists and steals.
She shined in the Indians’ recent dominant two-game region swing against D’Iberville and Gulfport. Terry scored in double figures both games and logged 9 assists and 8 steals between the two contests. Biloxi won the games by a combined 92 points, including a 51-7 thrashing of a previously 9-2 Lady Admirals team.
Terry, Johnson and the sharp-shooting Carriere combine to average 35.6 points a game. That’s more than what district rival D’Iberville averages as a team.
“(Terry) is lightning quick,” Hill said. “Her evolving at point guard is just her adjusting to the game. She’s making herself more available. As she grows at point guard, we become better.”
Johnson, a 6-foot-5 force who received an offer from South Carolina last summer, may appear to be having a less-than-sensational year on paper. But it’s fool’s gold for opponents as it comes as a product of the Lady Indians playing through a number of avenues instead of relying on their superstar.
“We want to play through ‘Z,’ but a lot of the time they try and take that away,” Hill said of opponent game plans. “So instead of forcing, we tell our girls to take what they’re giving you. We’re better offensively this year because we don’t rely on just chucking it in there (to Johnson). And when we get to a place where people are respecting all five girls on the court, then Z is going to dominate the game.”
Biloxi has a difficult two-game swing through North Mississippi against Olive Branch and Tupelo before getting into the thick of the district schedule.
Region 4-7A won’t be a cakewalk, either, despite what recent scores may suggest. The historic Harrison Central program is enjoying a revival under second-year coach Sandra Rushing.
The Red Rebelettes are undefeated and have been shelling opponents behind the play of forward Saniyah Murray. The younger sister of former HC standouts Sam and Shaun, Murray is rapidly gaining popularity on the recruiting trail as 247sports.com composite’s top-ranked prospect in the state.
“We’re not playing our best basketball, that’s the beauty of it,” Hill said. “I think we’re growing. We just want to be in the Coliseum at the end of the year with a chance.”
