CAPITAL CITY CLASSIC FINAL: Trinity wins in easy fashion over PCA
PCA’s Cade Seagers pulls up for a 3-point shot in the Capital City Classic championship game, won by Trinity. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
In a battle of offensive perimeter shooters, Trinity’s post presence was the game changer.
Both Trinity and Prattville Christian combined to hit 11 3-pointers in their Thursday matchup for the championship of the Jack Schweers Capital City Classic, but the Wildcats had a decided advantage in the paint as John Morris scored 35 points to give Trinity a surprisingly easy 75-51 win.
Morris actually hit five of the Wildcats’ 11 3-pointers, providing a challenge for the undersized Panthers in guarding the Trinity senior.
“They definitely have the best player on the floor,” PCA coach Jason Roberson said. “He was unreal today.”
The Wildcats jumped out to an early lead by keeping the Panthers out of sync offensively, but gradually pulled away as Morris scored 20 of his 35 points in the first half.
“John’s a special player,” Trinity coach Matt Arrighi said. “He got off to a slow start outside, but he’s starting to find his rhythm there a little bit. Just as a team, I think we’re a good-shooting team but we haven’t shot it great this year. I keep feeling like it’s coming at some point and tonight we started hitting some shots from the outside.”
Cayson Keller added 13 points and Perrson Clements had nine as the Wildcats continued to pull away in the second half. Prattville Christian, which had advanced to the finals with strong fundamental play against Catholic on Tuesday and Wetumpka on Wednesday, didn’t bring the same defensive intensity to the floor on Thursday.
“I don’t know if being in a championship game was too big for them,” Roberson said. “Some of them thought you win a championship playing offense, but every single one of my players got out of defense, playing help defense, fronting the post, blocking out, all the little things that we have to do to give ourselves a chance to win. We didn’t do any of them today.”
Collier Connell led PCA with 21 points and Cade Segars added 16 points and seven rebounds, but the Panthers didn’t look like the same team on Thursday.
“We have the benefit of playing them on the third day,” Arrighi said. “They’re not a very deep team. It’s their third game in three days so the game plan was pretty simple -- try to make it an up-and-down game, maybe their legs will get tired. At the end of the day, you’ve got to stay out on their shooters and I thought our guys did a great job of that. You’ve got to make them earn their points and make them make contested shots.”
Trinity (11-3) returns to action on Dec. 30 at Catholic, while PCA (7-8)will play Southside-Gadsden in the first round of the Supreme Courts Tournament in Guntersville on Wednesday.