Mississippi’s All-Star boys snapped a two-game Alabama winning streak Saturday to escape with a 78-77 win in the 34th meeting of the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Classic played at A.E. Wood Coliseum on the campus of Mississippi College in Clinton.

Mississippi got two clutch 3-pointers from St. Patrick’s Matthew Krass to erase a 7-point Alabama lead. Mississippi MVP Dorian McMillian of Pascagoula High School scored 14 of his team-high 18 points in the second half and had some clutch play inside to help seal the victory.

With the loss, Alabama’s boys hold an 18-16 lead in the series which was first played in 1991.

The Alabama boys’ team trailed most of the first half but rallied late thanks to some clutch play by Austin’s Jordan Johnson to go in at halftime tied at 41. Johnson scored 6 of 8 points in the final three minutes before intermission. Huntsville High School’s Caleb Harrison also had 7 defensive rebounds in the physical first 20 minutes of the game.

Alabama’s defense had trouble slowing Krass in the first half. He had 12 points before intermission and finished with 18, his two final buckets securing the victory for the home team.

McAdory’s Tristan Gilmore had a huge blocked shot on defense at the 13-minute mark of the second half and drilled a 3-pointer at the other end to give Alabama a 51-59 lead. He followed with an inside bucket to extend the lead to 63-59 just 20 seconds later.

Alabama got a big boost offensively from the 6-foot-10 Harrison, a Samford University signee. With only 1 point in the first half, he scored 17 in the final 20 minutes to finish with 18 – showing some strong moves inside to earn MVP honors for Alabama, coached by Buckhorn’s Patrick Harding and Valley’s Marshon Harper. Harrison also had 8 rebounds in the loss.

Krauss came back to life with a 3-pointer cutting Alabama’s lead to 77-74 with 1:35 to play. The visitors went into a four-corners keep-away offense, but Mississippi’s Avery Thomas produced a steal and McMillian made a spectacular tip-in of a missed Mississippi shot to cut the lead to 77-76 with 57.5 seconds remaining.

Krauss put Mississippi back on top with 33.4 seconds left with another clutch trey.

Alabama went inside with 7 seconds left, but DeAndrew Lewis of Canton blocked the shot out of bounds.

With one last chance, Alabama tried to go inside again but the Mississippi All-Stars sealed off the lane and the final shot did not make it to the basket as the buzzer sounded.

Adrian Wooley of Paul Bryant had 15 points and 4 assists for Alabama, including some clutch buckets in the final minutes. Johnson had 10 points, Gilmore finished with 9 and Ty Davis of Mountain Brook had 8 points and 5 assists.

McMillian and Krass had 18 each for Mississippi and Thomas has 14 with a team-high 10 rebounds. Eric Payman also had 11 points and 9 boards for Mississippi, coached by Tony Tadlock of Raymond and Lorenzo Wright of Pascagoula.