Monday’s Rumble in the South Classic, which had a pair of intra-association games between the Mississippi High School Activities Association and the Mississippi Private School Association, is looking for more similar matchups next year.

Event organizer Todd Yates said the six-game Classic was a success and the day’s third game between the Hinds AHS War Dawgs and the Madison-Ridgeland Academy Patriots was a big reason why.

“The MRA-Hinds game was the one a lot of people wanted to see. It brought in a good crowd and we had another good one for the St. Jude-Northeast Lauderdale game,” Yates said. A crowd of more than 1,000 watched the top ranked team in the MHSAA Class 2A division battle the MPSA’s defending overall champion and current No. 1 in MRA. Hinds won 62-55 behind 15 points and 11 rebounds from the game’s most valuable player, Kenderek Washington of Hinds.

Despite the loss, MRA coach Richard Duease said he is looking forward to more games like the one his team had with Hinds in the future.

“This was a wonderful experience for us to play a team like Hinds AHS. I think we showed we have good players, too. There are about six to seven teams in our league that can play at this level. We saw some of the differences, but for us, this gave us a chance to play against another team, a really athletic team,” he said.

“We went all the way to Cherry Creek, Colorado to play four games against public school teams in the Denver area. And while we went 1-3 out there, we didn’t see near the athletic ability Hinds showed us.”

Yates said the fact that MRA and Hinds played this historic game on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day made that more special.

“That was our goal as organizers to do something that 40 years ago would’ve been impossible to do. By bringing whites and blacks together, from different schools and different associations, I can think of no better way to honor Dr. King’s legacy,” Yates said.

The MPSA wound up with a split of the two games on the day as Jackson Academy beat Piney Woods. In other games, Monroe Carroll downed Callaway and Ruston, La., defeated Meridian 57-45. Carroll High School featured two Ole Miss commits in 6-foot-9 center Terrance Henry and forward Brandon Wilson.

The nightcap game between St. Jude and Northeast Lauderdale matched two McDonald’s All-Americans in Northeast’s Romero Osby and St. Jude’s JaMychal Green.

“For our first year, this went really well. From the competitiveness of the games to the crowd,” Yates said. “We’ll evaluate how we did but I do think you’ll see more MPSA-MHSAA matchups.”