Excessive joy and ecstasy, tears and joy, and sometimes the unexpected are all you see. Let’s take Wednesday afternoon’s State Class 3A semifinal match between undefeated and seldom challenged Yazoo County and traditional hoops powerhouse Velma Jack. Rahim Lockhart, former Ole Miss star and Yazoo Panthers coach, brought a perfect 30-0 record to Jackson, hoping to be the second boys team to win a championship season. Velma Jackson arrived with a record of 23-6. The undefeated team should be able to overcome the six losses, right? It’s not true. Velma Jackson, school of the talented Weatherspoon brothers from Mississippi State, won the first quarter and defeated Yazoo 72-61. Velma Jackson will now play Holly Springs, a 67-64-6 winner over St. Andrew’s Episcopal in Madison for the State 3A championship Saturday afternoon at 3. Chris Love, Velma’s second-year coach, said that “it was a huge win, but it hasn’t been done yet.” They must complete the deal on Saturday. Don’t underestimate them. After a demanding schedule that included games against larger schools, the Falcons have won 17 consecutive games. Lockhart stated that “We didn’t shoot the ball as good as we normally do” but she must give credit to Velma Jackson. You would expect a Velma Jackson team to play with them. They have the same level of confidence. They have won many championships and they also have the motivation of everyone telling them that they are the underdogs. Velma Jackson won the game by handling Yazoo’s wicked full-court press. The Yazoo players were often shooting at a moving basket. Only 7 of 26 3-point attempts were made by the Panthers. This is 26.9 percent, which is not enough to beat a very good team like Velma Jackson. Velma Jackson had six players for almost the whole game. However, four of them scored in double figures led by Joshua Lee, a sophomore who scored a game record 25 points. He looks like the next big star from the Camden school located 20 miles northeastern of Canton. Velma Jackson’s recent seasons have produced players like Moses Greenwood, who plays at Southeastern Louisiana and Q and Nick Weatherspoon, who play at Mississippi State. Love stated, “I’ll be truthful with you.” Josh Lee is my favorite underclassman in the state. Lee, a 6-foot-2 guard who hit three of the four 3-pointers and eight of fifteen field goals, was able to rebound five rebounds and help the Falcons defeat Yazoo’s press. Lockhart described Lee as “solid”. Lee is a solid player,” Lockhart said of Lee. The eight top Lockhart players are all underclassmen, who did more than anyone could have expected this season. This is what happened last season: They won six games and lost 16. Enter Lockhart. He was Andy Kennedy’s assistant at Ole Miss. It is quite an accomplishment to go from 6-16 to 30-1. Lockhart stated that he enjoys coaching high school basketball after three years of success as the head coach at Jones Junior College. He said that high school basketball is more pure. The players listen more.” It is hard for this writer not to believe that Lockhart, who was a member of Ole Miss’s Team of the Century, turned 40 years ago and has a record of 243-81 as a head coach at various stops. Lockhart stated, “Give Velma Jackson credit but give our guys credit too.” “I prefer to talk about the progress they have made, rather than what happened today. “I told them to feel this feeling and to use it to motivate themselves to finish the deal next year.”_x000D