South Side girls basketball finishes perfect season with first TSSAA state championship

MURFREESBORO – A year after finishing with silver, Brent McNeal and his Jackson South Side girls basketball team had their perfect, golden moment.

South Side beat Livingston Academy 62-52 Saturday at Middle Tennessee State's Murphy Center in the TSSAA BlueCross Girls Basketball State Championships Class 3A title game.

It came a year after the Lady Hawks finished runner-up to Upperman in 2022. South Side hasn't lost a game since, finishing 34-0 this season for its first state championship.

They are the first Tennessee high school girls basketball team to go undefeated since Ensworth went 28-0 and won the Division II-AA title in 2020 and the first public school to go unbeaten since Upperman (37-0) in 2018.

"This is an absolutely indescribable feeling," McNeal said. "Even when we are not playing in it, I come up here every single year. To be down there on that floor, to grab that (gold) ball is an absolute indescribable feeling."

South Side had been to the state tournament six times prior to this run. McNeal has led the Lady Hawks to three of those appearances. His 2017 South Side entered state with an undefeated record and lost to Upperman in the Class AA quarterfinals.

This year, the Lady Hawks beat the Lady Bees to open the Class 3A tournament and followed it up with a double-overtime win against Elizabethton where the Lady Hawks were down 15 points before winning.

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"It wasn't easy at all," South Side guard Albany Collins said. "Our toughest battle was the second round, Elizabethton team. We showed everybody why we should have that gold ball in our hands.

"We fought all the way back. Oh, it was a game, but we showed everybody why we (are) undefeated."

Last year's TSSAA runner-up finish helped fuel this year's season.

"We already know what it's like to get the silver ball," said Ti'mia Lawson, the Class 3A state tournament MVP. "We just wanted to get the gold ball. We just had to take the next step."

That next step came thanks to full-court defensive pressure that led to 15 points off 19 Livingston Academy turnovers.

Jaidynn Askins scored 19 points and grabbed nine rebounds with three blocks. Teammate Abby Collins had 18 points and was 4-of-4 from the 3-point line. And Lawson added 15 points with seven rebounds, seven assists and three steals.

McNeal was well aware of what to expect from Livingston Academy. A former Tennessee Tech football player, McNeal said he used to watch girls basketball on the Upper Cumberland as a college student. It allowed him to have an idea what to expect in regard to style of play.

"It wasn't easy," South Side's Jakarrah Anderson said. "I've been here for four years. All the years add up to now. It took hard work and time. We're state champs now."

Reach Tom Kreager at 615-259-8089 or tkreager@tennessean.com and on Twitter @Kreager.