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Biggersville High School – 2022 Class 1A Girls State Basketball Champions

Randy J. Williams

Biggersville basketball: Is the job finished?

Is the state sweep of 1A titles just the beginning?

By TANNER MARLAR

For Crossroads Magazine

There is always the ultimate goal of attaining excellence in sports.

The exact definition of that goal differs for many, but not the Biggersville basketball program. Excellence, for them at least, is climbing the mountain top and bringing home the gold ball – nothing more, nothing less. In 2021, head coach Cliff Little and his boys squad took home the gold ball, while the girls team fell short. This year, though, Little and his teams achieved their ultimate goal – utter dominance on both sides of 1A basketball in 2022. The season was filled with magical moments, from the boys making a road trip all the way to Kentucky to beat a perennial power Webb School of Knoxville, Tenn., to the epic comeback ability of the girls’ squad led by Division 1-1A Girls Basketball player of the Year Hannah Seago, and according to Little, it all started after last year. Cliff Little is a huge Kobe Bryant fan, and that mentality tends to trickle down into his teams and practices. Bryant was once asked after a playoff game in which he led the Los Angeles Lakers if he was happy that his team went up 2-0 in the seven game series. His answer? “Why should I be happy? Job’s not finished.”

Little and his teams used this motto all season.

Biggersville High School – 2022 Class 1A Boys State Basketball Champions

Randy J. Williams

After they won the first one with an extremely young roster last season, Little had to figure out a way to motivate his boys team to climb the mountain-top yet again, and he used Bryant’s words of competitive spirit to do just that.

All season long, Little reminded the players that the job wasn’t finished. They still had to do it once again and prove to everyone else and themselves that 2021 was no fluke – they were here to stay.

This past winter, they did just that, hoisting the coveted golden ball high in the air for a second straight season and solidifying themselves as quite possibly the premier program in Mississippi 1A basketball.

When asked about everything that has and will continue to go into a program with such a winning tradition, he attributed it to the community and culture around the Lions basketball program as a whole.

“I don’t think we would be where we are right now without (the coaches before me) and their starting of the foundation, but as far as the consistency of where we’ve been the last 11 years, it’s a lot of hard work,” Little said. “A lot of sacrifice from a lot of kids, a lot of parents, a lot of the community. You know, parents have to sacrifice a lot for these kind of things.”

Little knew he had the talent, experience and competitiveness on the boys’ roster to make a deep run in 2022, and quite possibly repeat, but according to him, it didn’t really hit him until the second game of the season in which the Lions met up with the Tupelo Golden Wave.

Tupelo is a 6A school, the highest ranking in the state, and with Biggersville being a 1A school, the expectations might have been that Tupelo would walk in the gym, get an easy win and leave. That was not the case.

When Little saw his team holding future division one athletes to less than 10 points in a single

contest, when they had averaged near 20 their whole career, it finally hit that this group was something he had never seen before.

“I knew we could be pretty good, but when we held Tupelo, who was averaging like 90 points a game to 44 and they had to change to a zone to slow us up, you know, that would have been the time when I was like ‘woah okay, hold up, we’re pretty freaking good’,” said Little.

“You just knew man, you just knew,” the head coach said.

When they reached that point where Little just knew that he had the right team, there was no looking back. The Lions went on to dominate or compete with teams across the entirety of the north half of the state.

Not only did they complete a clean sweep of the county tournament, winning both varsity boys matchups handily, but they also went on to make light work of their division tournament. When asked about who stood out for his team during this stretch of the season, Little gave a very different answer than most coaches.

“That’s the thing, there was no superstar. The closest thing would be Zae (Davis), and even on certain nights, it was different kids,” Little said. “The only thing I’ve ever known this crew to argue about, and this should tell you a lot, is who can guard each other better.”

As for the girls team, this was their first taste of the sweet feeling of being a state champion, and boy, did they relish in it. Don’t be fooled, though, it did not come without sacrifice.

While the boys knew exactly what they had from the offset of the season, the girls team started off on much shakier ground.

“We started the season off a little rocky. We won, we were winning, but I thought our girls lacked a little bit of toughness down the stretch,” said Little, “and we kind of challenged them really all the way up to the night before the championship game. We just saw some things that we really thought we needed to do better in order to win.”

All five starters from this past season’s team were selected as members of the Division 1-1A all-division team, showcasing just how well-rounded this group of girls was on the floor.

Hannah Seago found herself leading the charge more often than not, though, and truly emerged as the team’s fourth quarter backbone during the county tournament, in which they completed the sweep of the varsity championships by beating the Kossuth Lady Aggies in the championship round.

Their defining moment came much further away from home, though. It happened on the same aforementioned road trip to Kentucky, in which the girls matched up with Henderson County,Ky., a perennial power on the Kentucky high school basketball scene. After losing 64-11, Little and the rest of his staff met with the girls after the game and, essentially, put the season in their hands, and boy, did they run with it.

“They left Princeton, (Kentucky), with a chip on their shoulders,” said Little, “They realized what was going to have to take place.”

The girls returned home to face the Walnut Lady Wildcats, where they found themselves facing a late-game deficit yet again.

“I don’t think we would be where we are right now without (the coaches before me) and their starting of the foundation, but as far as the consistency of where we’ve been the last 11 years, it’s a lot of hard work. A lot of sacrifice from a lot of kids, a lot of parents, a lot of the community. You know, parents have to sacrifice a lot for these kind of things.” CLIFF LITTLE

Biggersville basketball head coach

This time, though, the Lady Lions would not be denied. They clawed their way back into the game and managed to pull off a much needed win.

“That is what I would say was our defining moment,” said Little, “and shortly thereafter we played the county tournament.”

After that, the girls went on to play against Booneville (eventual 3A 2022 state champ) and Tishomingo County (eventual 4A 2022 state runnerup). They trailed at one point in both of those games and, yet again, found ways to win. They established their identity. They had to be beaten for four full quarters – any less, and the Lady Lions were going to walk out victorious.

“When they were able to come back against Booneville and Tishomingo County, that gave them the confidence to say ‘yeah, we can do this’,” Little said.

They went on to do it. They hoisted a gold ball of their own at the end of the 2022 season, further solidifying the fact that Biggersville basketball isn’t just about the boys squad – the girls can hoop themselves.

Obviously, there always comes the question of next season: Who’s graduating? Is anyone transferring? Who’s coming back? Little knows this, and according to him, preparation has already begun in the form of some intrinsic motivation.

Originally, Little wanted to put “Job Finished” on everyone’s rings in order to pay homage to the team’s year-long motto, but athletic director Pete Seago gave him another idea.

“After we had won and we sat down to talk about our rings, I’m geared up about putting ‘job finished’ on there, because I love it so much. I wanted it to be on there, and coach Seago said ‘Hold on now, you get most of these guys back ... Why don’t you tell them if they win it next year, they can put job finished,” Little said.

“We challenged them right then and there,” Little added.

There are several members from both squads that will be making their presence felt on the hardwood next season (202223) for the Lions. They’ve climbed the mountain, some of them more than once already, but that’s not stopping them. It’s hard to win one, it’s even harder to win two, but even more rarely does a program win three straight state titles.

If the Biggersville Lions and Lady Lions can pull it off, not only will they cement themselves in the record books of Alcorn County, but they’ll have no choice but to put the entire state on notice that the Lions are here to stay – they’re the kings and queens of the basketball homecoming court – and they don’t plan on going anywhere for a long time.

Photos by Randy J. Williams

The Biggersville Lady Lions celebrate their 2022 state basketball championship.

Biggersville basketball players storm the court to celebrate their state championship.

Photos by Randy J. Williams

Biggersville basketball players celebrate their state championship.

Biggersville players accept their 2022 1A state championship trophy.

Biggersville players accept their 2022 1A state championship trophy.