AHSAA AREA FINALS: ACA girls top LAMP for first area title since 2010
The Lady Eagles of Alabama Christian won the Class 4A, Area 5 tournament Friday, defeating LAMP at the ACA gym. (Graham Dunn)
By GRAHAM DUNN
Forgive the Alabama Christian Academy Lady Eagles for being a little emotional prior to their game with LAMP in the Girls Class 4A, Area 5 tournament final on Friday.
For starters, their coach, Mike Anderson, was not on the sideline due to health reasons. Acting coach Leah Hunt was dealing with her own nerves with an area tournament title on the line and that it was her first time to coach in post season.
Plus, it didn’t help that the Lady Eagles got off to a rough start.
No problem. ACA shook off the jitters to earn a 46-31 victory over LAMP for the program’s first area tournament title since 2010.
“No, not old hat…. It was a lot of pressure,” Hunt admitted. “It’s hard to beat someone three times in a row. Dealing with overconfidence… The girls were nervous to start. All night I kept telling them to play their game.”
Despite a first quarter in which ACA scored a meager 10 points, the defense did enough work to hold the Golden Tigers to just six in the same frame. That lead held for most of the half until Hunt could get her team into the locker room.
“We went in at halftime and I said, ‘we got that mess out of us,’” she said. “I thought we handled it well after that. We got in there and battled hard.”
“I think it was nerves,” added ACA guard Michaelyn Manning. “We didn’t play well all around but we turned it around in the second half.”
It helped that LAMP hit a shooting slump in the third quarter, allowing ACA to extend its lead eight points. The Tigers managed just two made field goals in the period.
That drought continued through the fourth while ACA found its shooting touch. The Eagles found their drives to the basket a little easier as the second half continued, which led to as much as a 16-point lead in the quarter.
“Missing shots, turning it over too much in the first quarter, it was the difference,” LAMP coach Michael Thornton said. “Lately we’ve made shots and playing our best ball. I think we can bounce back for Monday.”
Prior to Friday, ACA had played in just three area tournament finals since 2010. The last came two years ago when the Eagles lost to Headland.
After their first win in 11 years, the confidence is high heading into Monday’s Class 4A Southeast Sub-Regional round.
“We think we can go farther,” Michaels said. “It was hard (tonight) but we did it for (Coach Anderson). We are trying to go as far as we can for him.”
Manning led all scorers with 23 points and was named the tournament MVP. Katie Chappell added nine points for the Eagles, who improved to 10-13 on the season.
Caitlin Russell led LAMP (6-10) with 11 points. She was named to the all-tournament team along with teammates Ariana Cannida and Elizabeth Albrecht. ACA played four players on the team including Manning, Chappell, Heather Ford and Sarah Johnson.
Next, ACA will play host to Montevallo while LAMP will travel to Bibb County. Both games are scheduled for Monday at 6:30 p.m.
Friday’s boys area tournament final between ACA and BTW Magnet game was rescheduled for Saturday afternoon at 12.