By Laurence Hilliard
As the number two MHSAA basketball seeds from Region 5-1A, McAdams boys and girls teams opened the playoffs at home and came away with victories. But they had to go on the road for the second round and both ran into very strong opponents.
The result was losses to end their seasons.
The Bulldogs were defeated by Piney Woods 70-26 and the Lady Bulldogs by West Lincoln 44-21. With their victories, Piney Woods is 21-1, unbeaten against Mississippi competition, and West Lincoln 26-4.
Both McAdams coaches gave credit to their opponents. “I’m not going to lie to you. They are very good,” Bulldog coach Kyeson Jackson said of Piney Woods.
Lady Bulldogs coach Kenyon Ross said, “Look at their record. They’re good. We held them to one of their lowest (point) totals of the year. On offense a number of things came back to haunt us where I knew we had a weakness.”
Ra’kesha Greer led McAdams with nine points and Taliah Gadson had six. Chloe Gadson scored 28 for West Lincoln.
The season was a similar story for both McAdams teams. They struggled during the 2025 portion of the season playing teams from larger classifications including 4A Kosciusko, then hit their strike when the calendar turned to 2026 and 5-1A competition commenced. The Bulldogs won only once in 2025 but were second in the region for the regular season and tournament with a 9-3 overall record.
The Lady Bulldogs won twice the first half of the season, then were regular season region champions at 9-1 before losing to Sebastopol in the tournament final.
The Lady Bulldogs struggled the first half of the season with health and injury problems. “Once all of them got healthy we could make a run,” Ross said. “We overseeded expectations. I’m proud of the young ladies for the work they put in.”
The good news for McAdams fans was the opening round. The Bulldogs defeated West Bolivar 65-54 and the Lady Bulldogs downed South Delta 55-30.
“My kids played hard,” Jackson said. “They rose to the occasion of a first round playoff game at home. We shot the ball really well inside.”
The Bulldogs used balanced scoring. Lucas Honesbuger had 14 points, Joshua Atterberry 13, Gavin Brown 11, Caden Smith 10, Darrin Fleming 9 and Andre Brown six.
The Bulldogs reached the Jackson Coliseum four straight years, losing in the semifinals in 2021 and ’22 and the championship game in 2023 and ’24. Getting back is the goal each season. The goal was not achieved this season, but Jackson noted improvement from a year ago.
“I will take it as a learning curve from being knocked out in the first round last year.”
Both teams will have a summer program to prepare for the 2026-27 season. Ross will emphasize skill development. Jackson wants to improve team speed to become a fast defensive team.
“We just have to come in this summer and put in the work and see how it goes next year,” Jackson said.
The Bulldogs will be without this season’s beat shooter, senior Gavin Brown, but a solid nucleus will be back. Fleming, Atterberry and Hornesbuger are juniors, Smith a sophomore.
Circling back to Piney Woods and West Lincoln, the records only tell part of the story of how good those teams have been. Piney Woods has won 14 in a row since a loss to Lausanne Collegiate of Memphis by an average margin of 43.5 points. West Lincoln has won 15 in a row with a average margin of 34 points while holding opponents to 18 a game.
