Former Union boys basketball coach Joshua Luckett reached the top of his profession on Saturday.
Luckett took Northwest Rankin to the Class 6A state championship as the Cougars beat Brandon 66-52 in the title game on Saturday after losing twice to the Bulldogs this season.
The Cougars jumped out to a 20-8 lead on the Bulldogs and led 33-20 at the half. Brandon outscored Northwest 14-13 in the third while the Cougars took the final period 20-18 to take the win.
“It hasn’t sank in, but I knew coming today that we were going to come in here and handle business,” Luckett told Brandon Shields. “We lost four good players last year, but I knew with what we had returning we kept coming in everyday with the mentality of believing in ourselves, and we kept working and believed we could be here at this point.”
Northwest Rankin beat Horn Lake 58-46 to advance to the finals. The state championship was the first in school history for Northwest Rankin and broke a five-game losing streak to rival Brandon. The Cougars finished 26-8 on the season.
