CHAPMAN TIPOFF: PCA girls slip past Catholic; MA boys surprise Autaugaville
PCA’s CoCo Thomas blocks the show of Andy Aiken in the Panthers’ win over Catholic Tuesday in the Chapman Tipoff Classic. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
Prattville Christian erased an early Catholic lead and appeared to take charge of the semifinal matchup in the Coach Larry Chapman Foundation Tipoff Classic on Tuesday, But the Knights wouldn’t go away.
Catholic fell behind by nine points on several occasions, then fought back to take a brief lead before the Panthers scored late and held on for a 66-64 win.
PCA (5-1) will play Brew Tech in the championship game of the tournament on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m., while Catholic (5-2) will play Loachapoka in the consolation finals on Wednesday at noon.
“We were a little outsized but I’m very proud of the way our kids played and battled today,” Catholic coach Jill Clark said. “We had a chance to win it and that’s all you can ask for. You’re playing the two-time defending state champions and you’re right there with them. That’s what I was looking at today, how close are we? And playing like that today makes you feel good.”
The Knights would have two chances late but a pair of turnovers allowed PCA to score the last four points of the game, scoring on a CoCo Thomas free throw, a game-winning putback by Hannah Jones with 23 seconds left and an Avery Rogers free throw for the final margin.
PCA played well in stretches, but could never sustain the defensive effort to put away the Knights.
“At halftime, I was just telling (the players) this is not who we are,” PCA coach Jason Roberson said. “Catholic is a very good team, they played really good, but we just take a little more pride in our defense than what we were doing today. I don’t know what the reasons were -- part of it is Catholic playing great and having really good players, part of it is maybe we lost our focus on how important every defensive stop was.”
The Panthers owned a five-point lead by the end of the first quarter and extended that lead to double digits despite losing the team’s leading scorer, Hannah Jones, for a long stretch in the second half with four personal fouls. During that time, Thomas took control of the paint and held off the Knights until Jones returned to the floor early in the fourth quarter.
“This summer, with Hannah being an unbelievable volleyball player as well, she was on some volleyball trips and a lot of our summer games were played without Hannah and CoCo dominated those,” Roberson said. “CoCo is the type of person and type of player that will do whatever it takes to make her team successful. She kind of took over there for us and helped us find a way to win that game. It was not pretty, but again, I think you have to give a lot of credit to Catholic. We might not have played our very best, but sometimes that’s due to the opponent you’re playing.”
Jones finished with 27 points, six rebounds and five blocked shots, so Clark was happy to see her head to the bench, but it didn’t help a lot as Thomas stepped in with 19 points and 17 rebounds.
“It’s always easier when one of them is not on the floor,” Clark said. “But (Thomas) stepped up and did a good job.”
Still, the Knights would find a way to climb back into the contest after several missed shots on PCA’s end of the floor turned into baskets on the other end.
“They got after us a little bit,” Roberson said. “We had way too many turnovers and when you turn the ball over, it leads to easy buckets.”
“We settled down and slowed the pace and little and started finding the open person and getting the shot,” Clark said.
In the end, with the game on the line, the veteran Panthers made the plays, while the inexperienced Knights made the turnovers.
“A lot of that is confidence, having been there and done that,” Clark said. “Them believing and us being young and not realizing we’ve got this. This game should help us mature and learn how to handle those situations.”
Hannah Smith had 29 points to lead Catholic, followed by Allyse Rudolph with 20 and Heaven Bailey with 10.
Rogers followed Jones and Thomas in scoring for PCA with nine points, seven assists and four steals, followed by Baylee Rogers with six.
BOYS - MA surprises Autaugaville
Montgomery Academy coach Jeremy Arant got a glimpse of his team’s promise in a season opening win against Notasulga on Monday, but he knew what was waiting for the Eagles on Tuesday.
Montgomery Academy would face Autaugaville, a guard-oriented team that had won 62 of its last 65 games over a two year-plus span.
“That team is always very,very talented,” Arant said. “They always have length, size and guys who just know how to play the game. They put a lot of pressure on you in the halfcourt and in the fullcourt. That was what we were worried about, coming into the season, was how our guards would handle that and they did a really good job.”
DJ Vinson drives to the basket in the MA Eagles win over Autaugaville on Tuesday. (Tim Gayle)
Montgomery Academy raced out to a quick lead, lost it in a sluggish second quarter, played evenly over the last half and finally pulled out a surprising 64-60 win in overtime in the semifinals of the Coach Larry Chapman Foundation Tipoff Classic at Montgomery Academy’s Joe Mooty Court on Tuesday.
Montgomery Academy (2-0) will play Pike Road in the championship game on Wednesday at 3 p.m., while Autaugaville (4-1) will play Prattville Christian in the consolation finals on Wednesday at noon.
While Autaugaville is still trying to replace some of the pieces from last year’s team that reached the state semifinals, Montgomery Academy has just three players who saw any varsity playing time a year ago, creating a lot of uncertainty on a team that wants to change its attack somewhat to reflect its two sophomore stars, DJ Vinson and Skyler Stovall.
“That’s kind of been our conversation the whole time, our (lack of) experience and how that was going to look early in the season,” Arant said. “Bray Renfroe made a huge 3-pointer in the corner to put us up by two and he made two big free throws in overtime. Skyler and DJ are so young and raw, but know how to play. Jashawn (Cooper) is sort of our calming presense. He doesn’t do anything flashy but he makes a steal or a rebound or an assist and just sort of calms our team.”
Autaugaville coach Darren Golson, meanwhile, spent much of the last half berating the officials, earning a technical foul and his criticism for the style of play that he said kept his players from taking charge in the four-minute overtime period.
“We couldn’t play the way we wanted to play,” he said. “We can’t play aggressive. We got in foul trouble, so we had to watch that. We just couldn’t play the way we wanted to play.”
Autaugaville is missing three players from its recently completed football season, so eighth graders Deshawn Hall and O’marion Palmer make up the starting roster, with Palmer fouling out along with Cortez Parker and three other players battling foul trouble down the stretch.
It was Jaden Nixon who hit two free throws with 33 seconds remaining to force overtime at 49-49, but the Eagles’ top player, who finished with 25 points, would have just two in the overtime period. Hall’s putback gave Autaugaville a one-point lead a minute into overtime, but Renfroe’s 3-pointer with 2:47 left was countered by Deon Steele’s 3-pointer that put Autaugaville back in front. From there, Autaugaville had a pair of costly turnovers and Montgomery Academy converted the mistakes into back-to-back baskets by Vinson and Cole Caddell to take command of the game.
“We really struggled for about five minutes, maybe more, and went in at halftime and only had 15 points,” Arant said. “And we had played really good defense, so we were still in it. We put Skyler on the ball (offensively) a little more and put DJ in the middle. That allowed us to get him the ball in a place where he could attack and really hurt them.”
Stovall finished with 25 points, including 17 in the second half, and Vinson had 22, with 16 of those coming in the second half and in overtime. Caddell added 12.
Nixon scored 12 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter to force the overtime period, with Hall scoring 16 and Steele 15.
Pike Road 56, Prattville Christian 48
Conner Williams led the Panthers with 20 points and seven rebounds as PCA fell to Pike Road 56-48 on Tuesday.
Carson Roberson added 10 points and is now one point away from 1,000 points for his varsity career.
Cade Segars added eight points, followed by PJ Evans and Brady Roberson each with three points and five rebounds. Collier Connell grabbed five rebounds.
PCA (2-3) will play Autaugaville on Wednesday at noon for third place in the tournament.
COACH LARRY CHAPMAN FOUNDATION TIPOFF CLASSIC
At Montgomery Academy
GIRLS
MONDAY’S RESULTS
Catholic 57, Pike Road 37
Brew Tech 57, Marbury 55
Prattville Christian 78, Stanhope Elmore 12
Loachapoka 43, Montgomery Academy 23
TUESDAY’S RESULTS
Prattville Christian 66, Catholic 64
Stanhope Elmore 34, Pike Road 31
Brew Tech 38, Loachapoka 30
Marbury 54, Montgomery Academy 22
WEDNESDAY’S SCHEDULE
Seventh place, Pike Road vs. Montgomery Academy, 9 a.m.
Fifth place, Stanhope Elmore vs. Marbury, 9 a.m.
Consolation, Catholic vs. Loachapoka, noon
Championship, Prattville Christian vs. Brew Tech, 1:30 p.m.
BOYS
MONDAY’S RESULTS
Pike Road 62, Loachapoka 41
Autaugaville 64, Brew Tech 58
Prattville Christian 52, BTW Magnet 40
Montgomery Academy 68, Notasulga 37
TUESDAY’S RESULTS
Montgomery Academy 46, Autaugaville 60 (OT)
Brew Tech 67, Notasulga 37
Pike Road 56, Prattville Christian 48
Loachapoka 57, BTW Magnet 40
WEDNESDAY’S SCHEDULE
Seventh place, Notasulga vs. BTW Magnet, 10:30 a.m.
Fifth place, Loachapoka vs. Brew Tech, 10:30 a.m.
Consolation, Autaugaville vs. Prattville Christian, noon
Championship, Pike Road vs. Montgomery Academy, 3 p.m.