JACKSON – In playoff basketball, you need talent, experience and especially a little bit of luck – and after 49 years, Hattiesburg finally had the perfect blend as the Tigers walked away from Jackson with a state championship.
Hattiesburg coach Ernie Watson may know better than anyone that it's not enough to just be good. In 31 years of coaching, Watson has made 19 trips to Mississippi Coliseum, with his 2023 championship team being the fourth to reach the finals.
"I'm more happy for the community," Watson said. "Since the Purvis Short days, they haven't done anything. It's (been) 49 years. Then in 2004, with Yama Jones being the great coach that he is, he got them here, and they got beat by a good Biloxi team, and they haven't been back since. To me, that just bothered me to see those banners up there, and we don't have one. But we have got one now."
But as the final horn blew, Watson was overcome with emotion as he immediately thought of what his late wife, Rennee Rhodeman Watson, had told him back in 2010 when he first took the job at Hattiesburg.
"My late wife of 26 years, who has four beautiful babies," Watson. "She told me that when I took this job, she had cancer, then told me this is the place that you will build a championship. You will build a program, and you will win a championship. We were at the bottom.
"When that horn went off, the first thing I thought about was her and what she said."
Those words proved true as 1972, and 1974 Hattiesburg state championship teams will have company after the Tigers defeated Picayune 55-50.
However, in years past, Hattiesburg has had numerous teams worthy of state titles, including the 2001 and 2004 state-runner-up squads. But even in the last four years, they have arguably more overall talented teams than the 2023 squad.
In the last four seasons, the Tigers' largest loss in the playoffs was a mere five points:
2022 Third Round – Florence 44, Hattiesburg 41
2021 Final Four – Lake Cormorant 56, Hattiesburg 51
2020 Second Round – Wingfield 61, Hattiesburg 56
2019 Final Four – Center Hill 73, Hattiesburg 69
So what was the difference for this year's team? Well, that was summed up best by senior Darrian Johnson, who scored nine of his 13 points in the second half.
"This year's group is more of a team than individual players," Johnson said. "We combine more as a team instead of just relying on talent. We work hard.
"From people doubting us to being in the (gym) every day with blood, sweat, and tears and us getting into it arguing and all and then come back and play as a family every single week."
Even Watson admitted that the love his team has for one another was unlike anything he had been a part of before.
"It's the togetherness," Watson said. "They fight for each other. They love each other. They understand that if one gets down that I have to pick the other one up. I cheer for you. I do what I have to do. There is nobody who leads the team game in and game out is our leading scorer. It's not just one guy that says I'm going to get 20 tonight. It's a shared event."
If you look at Hattiesburg's team stats, nobody's numbers exactly pop out, with their leading scorer averaging 11 points per game. It's the fact that Hattiesburg can reliably turn to any member of their team in any game and at any moment to be the difference maker. On Friday night, that distinction belonged to the game's MVP, Stephen McCullon, who scored a team-high of 14 points. McCullon is one of three players that average seven points per game for Hattiesburg.
"We wanted it very bad," McCullon said. "It was the thought that we can do something that no one else did in a long time. It's very special…We all take knowledge from each other. We listen to each other.
"We finally did what we had to do. Coach Watson is a great coach. He taught me a lot of stuff… It's one of the greatest feelings, especially to be his first team to do it."
And so now Hattiesburg and Watson's will walk away with the sought-after golden ball as both of their championship droughts are finally over.
