The Memorial Day School girls' basketball team has everything going for it heading into the Georgia Independent Athletic Association (GIAA) Class A state tournament – except numbers.
The top-seeded Matadors have just six healthy players on their roster after highly productive junior guard/forward Raliyah “RiRi” Rivers injured her left knee on Feb. 6 in a win over Citizens Christian Academy.
Memorial Day School girls basketball players (from left) Raliyah Rivers, Johnkeria Miles, Macey King, Jalynn Brown, Kyrsten Eiland and Nyla Edwards pose for a team photo. The Matadors entered the GIAA Class A state tournament with six available players. (Courtesy Ishootvibez)
“Losing (Rivers) is a big chunk of our offense, but the girls have really stepped up in her absence,” Memorial Day’s fifth-year head coach Emon Grayson said on Thursday.
The Matadors (16-4, 3-1 Region 6-A) won the region title on Feb. 13 with a 53-48 win over Robert Toombs Christian Academy, the same program that knocked out MDS in the quarterfinals of the 2025 state tournament.
This season, the Matadors earned a bye before they face Crisp Academy (17-10, 7-1 Region 3-A) in the state quarterfinals at noon Friday at Stratford Academy in Macon.
The winner advances to the state semifinals next Wednesday -- against the winner of fourth-seeded St. George’s and fifth-seeded Fullington Academy -- at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton.
Eighth-seeded Crisp, from Cordele, defeated ninth-seeded John Hancock Academy 40-33 on Tuesday in the first round.
The Wildcats have 12 players on their roster, including six seniors. The Matadors, for comparison, have two seniors, Jalynn Brown and Macey King.
The teams had one common opponent, Citizens Christian of Douglas. The Matadors swept the Patriots 55-36 and 49-36. CCA beat Crisp 50-29 and 55-29.
“I don’t know a lot about (the Wildcats),” Grayson said. “I know they move the ball relatively well.
“As long as we show up and play the defense we know how to play, we’ll be fine,” she added.
Memorial Day School girls basketball coach Emon Grayson watches the action from the sideline during a game this season. Grayson led the Matadors to the GIAA Class A state tournament despite having just six available players. (Courtesy Ishootvibez)
Nyla Edwards, a junior forward, tops the Matadors in scoring with 14.5 points per game. Freshman guard/forward Johnkeria Miles is just behind at 14.3, and she also leads the team with 7.9 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 4.4 steals, and 1.5 blocks per game.
Rivers leads the team by shooting 47 percent from the floor. She also averages 10.7 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 1.7 steals per game.
Grayson expects Rivers to miss the state tournament, meaning more responsibility for guards Kyrsten Eiland, a freshman, and sophomore Lillie Brown, who made a big effort (game-high 15 points) after Rivers’ first-quarter injury against CCA.
“Lillie Brown is embracing the point guard position that she hadn’t been playing at the beginning of the year,” Grayson said. “I think we’ve switched them around enough to where we have a great balance.”
Memorial Day could be off balance if depth becomes an issue, but Grayson said she has talked to her players all season about playing smart and getting better in preparation for the postseason.
“We have to make sure that we master the small things,” Grayson said. “So that’s not getting the dumb fouls, and understanding how to slow your offense down when you’re tired and your resources on the bench are slim.”
Not that the Matadors will be at a slow pace all game.
“We’re going to have our spurts of running,” the coach said. “I’m not going to say we’re not going to run. We’re conditioned to run. We train to run the whole 32 minutes.”
Grayson, who has 22 years of coaching experience, has a staff that includes assistants David Grayson (her husband) and Jazmin Grayson (her eldest daughter and a former Woodville-Tompkins standout).
Emon Grayson, a former assistant at Woodville-Tompkins, has coached travel ball teams. She and David Grayson coach Savannah-based youth teams in Essence Girls Basketball, a national travel program based in Orlando, Fla.
She’s also building the program at Memorial Day, from 1-11 in her first season in 2021-22 to two wins the next two campaigns to 13-9 last year to the current 16-4 mark. The three region wins were more than the previous four seasons combined (1-15).
Memorial Day School players gather in a team huddle during a timeout as the Matadors prepare for the next possession. Memorial Day entered the GIAA Class A state tournament with just six available players. (Courtesy Ishootvibez)
“This year is just the beginning,” said Grayson, in her first head coaching position at the scholastic level. “Next year, I think everything will truly come together.”
Photos by Ishootvibez, courtesy of Memorial Day School girls basketball coach Emon Grayson.
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