NATCHEZ — The night Devin Spear found out he was named to the MAIS 3A/4A all-star team, the Adams County Christian school senior had other things on his mind

ACCS was facing Columbia Academy in a South State semifinal game.

“I was just trying to focus on the game,” Spear said.

The Rebels won the game 49-48 to move on to the South State finals. Spear had a game-high 24 points.

This wasn’t the first time Spear led the way for the Rebels in a come-from behind win.

Just one week earlier, Spear scored 22 points and hit 11-of-13 second-half free throws in leading ACCS to a district tournament title as a No. 4 seed. Spear said he thinks his 3-point shooting and free throws are the reason he was recognized as an MAIS all-star.

“I knew I had to lead the team,” Spear said.

Rebels head coach Richie Spears said his senior guard has confidence in his 3-point shot from the hours he puts in at the ACCS gym and in his free time.

“He goes home and shoots,“ Spears said. “In the summer, he plays pickup games. That’s all he’s wanted to do for four years.”

Spear and Brody Cole have been starting guards for the Rebels since their junior seasons.

Cole, however, suffered a mid-season shoulder injury, that sidelined him for most of the second half of the year.

“We’ve been playing together since we were in third grade,” Spear said. “It hurt us when he was out.”

The first game ACCS would have to play without him was a district game against Cathedral School. The guard-heavy Rebels, who usually run a man-to-man defense, switched to a zone defense in that game. The result was a loss, and Spear said the team had to regroup.“If we were going to make a run, somebody had to take over,” Spear said. “Andrew (Ratcliff) knew I was going to shoot, and he knew he could rebound.”

“We matured, we kept going,” Spear said. “We knew we weren’t supposed to be there.”

The matured and determined Rebels seemed to keep winning when the odds were stacked against them. ACCS won the District 4-AAA title over cross-town rival Cathedral, and had to go through a 30-0 Simpson team in the semifinals.

“We jumped up with a big league at the beginning, and every time they would challenge us, we’d answer right back,” Spear said. “They were 30-0, we hurt them.”

Spear was a freshman on head coach Spears’ first team.

“(The 2016 senior class) was a coach’s dream,” Spears said. “They love to play, they don’t miss practice, they do what you ask them to do. They’re coachable.”

Spear was unable to play in the all-star game on March 4 due to an illness, but Spears acted as a coach on the team. His squad lost 108-104.