Unlike most all-star basketball games, there will be some familiarity for Vicksburg’s Mychal Ammons when he plays in the Mississippi Association of Coaches All-Star Game today.

Ammons has played against or the same team with nearly half the players suiting up for the contest scheduled for 2:30 at Mississippi College’s A.E. Wood Coliseum. The girls’ game will start at 1 p.m.

Vicksburg High will also be represented in the girls’ game by forward Donyeah Mayfield. Mayfield was the 2010 Vicksburg Post Player of the Year.

Ammons was the co-Player of the Year along with graduated senior and Jackson State signee Kelsey Howard. Howard played in last year’s game and scored 11 points in a 107-104 loss to the South. LSU signee Andre Stringer of Forest Hill hit a game-winning shot in the final minute.

Ammons will be the third Gator in four years to play in the contest. Jonathan Phelps started for the North in the 2007 game in Clinton.

For the 6-foot-6 Ammons, he’ll see several friendly faces before the ball is tipped.

“Johnnie O’Bryant is playing and we play together on the Jackson Tigers along with Letwan (Luckett). Our teammate, Tyler Adams (of Brandon), is playing for the South. That’ll be fun playing against him again,” Ammons said.

Ammons got the pleasure twice last year and led the Gators to last-second wins in both contests against the 6-9 Adams and his Brandon Bulldogs.

Also playing for the South will be Meridian’s Rodney Hood, a 6-6 forward who is y ranked as the state’s top player along with O’Bryant, a 6-9 center from Cleveland East Side.

“Rodney has already been talking trash about how they are going to beat us, but we got him at the Mississippi State camp,” said Ammons, who led Vicksburg past Hood’s Meridian High Wildcats in the finals of the MSU team camp last month. Meridian was the Class 6A runner-up to Starkville, a team that beat the Gators in the North State 6A Tournament.

It was also during June when Ammons, O’Bryant, Luckett, Adams and the rest of the Tigers went to play in the Nike AAU Invitational in Los Angeles.

“It was a good trip. We were hoping we could get to see the Lakers and Celtics in the NBA Finals, but they were playing in Boston that week,” Ammons said.

Ammons is regarded as one of the state’s top five players by most college recruiters. Last season, he helped the Gators go 25-4, scoring 19.8 points and grabbing 9.6 rebounds per game.

Vicksburg coach Dellie C. Robinson feels those numbers will be better in 2011.

“What we need Mike to do is establish himself inside. I know that in AAU ball he plays out on the wing, but for us to be successful, we need him down low to score and rebound. If he does that, we’ve got the team that will be difficult to beat,” Robinson said.

Playing tough inside has been the trademark of Mayfield, a rising senior for the Missy Gators. She averaged 16 points and 12 rebounds per game for Coach Barbara Hartzog’s team.