CAPITAL CITY CLASSIC GIRLS FINAL: Trinity topples Pleasant Grove
Pleasant Grove’s Keyarria Stokes looks for room against Trinity’s Francie Morris (5), Lilly Smith, Maddie Smith (15) during the championship of the Capital City Classic at Trinity. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
On Wednesday, Pleasant Grove’s relentless defensive pressure and offensive rebounding helped the defending 5A state champs to a 10-point win over the defending 4A state champs, Prattville Christian.
On Thursday, Trinity turned the tables on the Spartans, pressuring Pleasant Grove into mistakes and converting miscues into points as the defending 3A state champs sent a message to the rest of the state with a resounding 61-33 win in the finals of the 29th annual Jack Schweers Capital City Classic at Trinity’s Captain Jack Court.
“The start of our season has been a little slow and we’re still trying to figure out our chemistry,” Trinity forward Mya Moskowitz said, “but I feel like the talk that we’ve heard about that team and the way we competed with them kind of made us feel like we’re ready.”
Maddie Smith scored all 19 of her points in the first half to stake the Wildcats to a shocking 15-point lead, but it was Moskowitz’s steady play in the paint that served notice Trinity would be able to match the intensity on the glass that was necessary for Smith and the other guards to take command with a strong offensive attack from the perimeter.
And as the second half unfolded, Moskowitz scored 15 of her game-high 23 points to turn what was supposed to be a quality matchup into a rout, with a running clock the only thing that kept it from being worse.
“When I watched (Pleasant Grove on Wednesday), they’ve got some good girls, they all get rebounds, so I’m going to have to put a body on them and rebound as well,” Moskowitz said. “It was a challenge because they’re bigger, but I went into the game knowing I had to rebound.”
Trinity opened the game by using the Spartans’ best weapon, a fullcourt press, against them as Maddie Smith hit a pair of 3-pointers to help the Wildcats open up a 19-11 lead.
“That’s some of what we’re saying we want to be,” Trinity coach Blake Smith said. “We would like to be able to make teams feel uncomfortable. Humbly I’m saying this, but I felt at times we made them feel uncomfortable.”
Maddie Smith’s 28-foot jumper at the buzzer gave the Wildcats a 33-18 lead over the shell-shocked Spartans from which they never recovered.
When the all-tournament team was announced at the end of the game, it wasn’t surprising to find Moskowitz, Smith and Francis Morris on the all-tournament team, but Blake Smith declared Maddie Smith and Moskowitz as co-most valuable players for their role in routing the Spartans.
“We’re not a three-headed monster in that we have other people who can make you pay,” Blake Smith said, “but we want those three going at people. And you have those three, all different styles, going at people, that’s a difficult thing.”
Smith said Maddie Smith’s command of the court both offensively and defensively was crucial in holding Pleasant Grove (10-5) in check.
“She’s the coach and the energy,” said her father, the head coach. “She knows what everybody is supposed to be doing, she’s telling everybody where they’re supposed to be, yet she’s still doing her thing. The level of deflections that she gets and being in the right place defensively, yet in the midst of that taking the ownership of running the team and scoring on top of that.”
Ellie Causey added 10 points for Trinity, while Tamya Smith led Pleasant Grove with 20 in her one-on-one battle with Moskowitz.
“Mya’s energy and effort around the basket is growing,” Smith said. “And it opens up so much for our team. The part that we’ve kind of been missing is that grittiness around the rim where she’s relentless. It makes her into a complete player.”
Trinity (12-4) returns to action on Dec. 30 at Catholic.