CLINTON — When he heads off to Jackson State next fall, Hinds AHS guard Keeslee Stewart can boast he owns wins over all three of the Mississippi Independent School Association’s top basketball powers, Madison Ridgeland, Jackson Prep and, now, Jackson Academy.

Stewart helped fuel a fourth-quarter surge that buried the Raiders 72-59 in Monday’s Martin Luther King Day’s Rumble in the South at Mississippi College’s A.E. Wood Coliseum.

Stewart was glad to finish his War Dawg career with a 3-0 mark in the Rumble in the South and against the elite three from the MAIS to go with the Class 2A title Hinds won last year.

“It’s a good way to celebrate Dr. King’s holiday, but it was a lot of pressure on us to play against these private schools. They can sure shoot. But we were able to pick up our pressure on them. We had some lock up ‘D’ at the end,” Stewart said.

JA had pulled to within three at 55-52 with 3:05 to play after Andrew Iupe’s 3-pointer.

Two free throws by Trevis Thomas put Hinds (18-3) back up five with 2:38 left. Then the War Dawgs swiped three straight steals that led to two layups and a free throw to make it 62-52 with 1:54 to play.

Iupe hit the last of the Raiders’ six 3-pointers in the game for a 62-55 score. The War Dawgs then overcame an illegal screen call when  Eric Christmas came up with another steal that led to a run out by Stewart to seal the win with 43 seconds left.

The War Dawgs forced 26 turnovers in the game, including 10 in the fourth quarter. The last five miscues came off steals for which JA coach Bill Ball gave all the credit to Hinds.

“We had cut it to three, but in those last 3 minutes they went on that big run because we didn’t get the ball past mid-court. I thought we played them pretty well the other 25 minutes. Still, you have to credit them for us being careless with the ball,” Ball said.

War Dawg coach Keith Williams was glad to see some other players step up instead of his big three of Stewart, Thomas and Cornelius Harris.

“Eric Christmas came in and became the pest we need him to be and Jalen Price came in and gave us some good minutes,” Williams said. “At the end we executed the press like it should be.”

Hinds had to overcome six charging calls but did so by shooting just under 60 percent (23-of-37) over the last three quarters. Stewart finished with 22 points, six steals and three assists.

Thomas ended with 15 points and nine rebounds. Price had 12 points off the bench while Harris had 10 points, five steals and five assists.

Clayton Dufrey led JA (12-10) with 18 and Iupe and Colin Applewhite had 11 each.

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Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vcksburgpost.com