Blue Devils starting to turn a corner

The Booneville Blue Devils boys basketball team is starting to find its groove.

Booneville has won six of its last seven games, including its biggest win of the season on Saturday night, 66-44 over last week’s No. 2-ranked Baldwyn in the Prentiss County Tournament final.

Baldwyn had one loss entering the game, but Booneville defeated the Bearcats without Cole McGrath, one of the Blue Devils’ top players.

McGrath was injured earlier in the tournament, where Booneville also defeated Jumpertown, 73-51, and Wheeler, 68-61.

He will be back from injury in the coming weeks.

“The kids came out with the intensity and focus that we haven’t seen in a long time,” Booneville coach Michael Smith said. “It feels like it’s been years since we played that well on defense. I hope we are turning the corner and starting to gel as a team.”

After the three wins in the tournament, Booneville is sitting with a 11-7 overall record and a 1-0 record in Division 1-3A. The 11-7 record can be deceiving, as Booneville has played arguably the toughest schedule in the area.

Smith’s team has losses to No. 2 Ripley, No. 6 Okolona, No. 8 Saltillo, and No. 10 Nettleton, but also has a win over No. 7 Tupelo and a win over Tishomingo County, which has a 14-5 record.

“I think losing all those games earlier in the year humbled us and brought us together as a team,” Smith said. “Those losses helped us realize what we were at the time and showed us how much better we had to get. I think the last few weeks we are starting to get everybody on the same page and figuring out what we can do.”

Coming out of the tournament, Smith is hoping his Booneville squad can learn and mature from the environment that it played in all weekend and can turn that into more wins, especially in division play.

This week, Booneville will host both non-division Walnut and division foe Mantachie before traveling to Ackerman for a matchup with No. 1 Starkville in the Mid-Mississippi Classic at Choctaw County High School.

“This was probably the first time all year where you have a playoff level intensity,” Smith said. “This county tournament is hard to win. We won the state tournament three times and we’ve struggled to win the Prentiss County Tournament.”