CLASS 3A AREA 6 SEMIS: Lindsey leads Montgomery Academy to win over Trinity; Catholic advances
MA’S Walton Norrell and Seth Edwards defend against Trinity’s Norris Pemberton in the Eagles’ win on Wednesday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
Trinity had managed to send Montgomery Academy’s best player to the bench with two personal fouls and had the upper hand on the Eagles throughout the first half of the 3A Area 6 tournament at Catholic.
The Wildcats came out with a defensive scheme designed to hold in check Jamal Cooper and Cole Caddell, the two players who had inflicted the most damage in three earlier losses during the regular season.
They never considered Judson Lindsey, the senior who had missed all but the final eight games of the regular season with a knee injury.
Lindsey torched the Wildcats with three consecutive 3 pointers to open the third quarter, helping to turn a three-point halftime deficit into a 10-point cushion as the Eagles went on to win 58-50 on Wednesday night.
“Even though (the previous regular season meetings) were tight games, we felt like we needed to do something different,” Trinity coach Matt Arrighi explained. “When you evaluate them, two guys do all their scoring, unless it’s inside eight feet. So we did all we could early in the game to take Jamal and Caddell out of the game. In the first half, I thought it went well. The problem was we didn’t have enough offensive firepower to push us ahead. The biggest thing was we got whipped on the glass.
“Then in the second half, when Judson hit those three big 3s … the game was wrapped up in those big 3s -- which we were trying to make somebody other than those two guys beat us and we give Judson credit for stepping up and doing that -- but at the same time, you’re not in that situation if we can handle our own and rebound the ball.”
With Cooper held scoreless and on the bench for virtually the entire first half, Trinity had a 17-10 lead at the end of the first quarter before the Eagles started chipping away at the lead.
“It was very similar to our second game against them, at their place, when he picked up two quick fouls,” Montgomery Academy coach Jeremy Arant said. “It’s kind of ironic. It may have helped us because the way they were playing us was giving us trouble at the beginning of the game. It allowed some other guys to find their rhythm because once he went out, they went back to their normal (defensive alignment), which allowed us to exploit some other matchups.
Trinity went back to the triangle-and-two defensive alignment when Cooper entered the game for the start of the second half, but got out of it after Lindsey fired up three long-range bombs on three consecutive trips down the court.
“I knew they were going to leave me open when they were in that (defense) and I tried to knock some down to get them out of it,” Lindsey said. “Finally, I did in the second half.”
The senior guard finished with a game-high 18 point and also had six rebounds and three assists, but was just as important down the stretch as the Eagles tried to milk the remaining time off the clock and fight off Trinity’s fourth-quarter rally attempts with the combination of Cooper and Lindsey handling the ball against the Wildcats’ pressure.
“It’s huge, I can’t express how big, to have a secondary guy that has been a point guard for three years that you can fall back on when your starting point guard gets two fouls in the first quarter,” Arant said. “Obviously, he was huge for us, just controlling the game with his leadership.”
“We knew they were going to pressure us when they were down and they were going to foul,” Lindsey said. “We just had to control the ball and make our free throws and we knew we would pull it out.”
Nigel Walker added 13 points and 11 rebounds for Montgomery Academy (10-10), followed by Jashawn Cooper with nine points and nine rebounds. The win sends the Eagles into the area tournament championship game against Catholic on Friday at 6 p.m. Win or lose, the Eagles will be making their first trip to the sub-regional round since 2016. The Eagles finished as the runner-up in the area that year and went on the road to Hale County in the sub-regional, losing to Herb Jones and the Wildcats.
“I can barely remember the game,” Lindsey said. “I remember watching the game, probably in the sixth or seventh grade. It’s been a long wait but we finally made it. I’m excited.”
Trinity, meanwhile, ended its season at 12-11. Mac Stewart and Cal Bennett led the Wildcats with 11 points each.
“We only had two varsity players returning from last year, so basically we had a JV team that moved up (to varsity),” Arrighi said. “I thought our guys played hard all year, I thought we did a lot of good things, but our Achilles’ heel has been consistent scoring and rebounding the basketball. I’m proud of them. I think we played better than people probably thought we would. We were in most of our games, had a chance to win most of them, but struggled to put the ball in the basket and rebounding the ball.”
Cade Segars moves past Catholic defenders LJ Green and Matthew Reardon in Wednesday’s battle between the Knights and PCA. (Tim Gayle)
Catholic eases past PCA
Catholic jumped out to a huge early lead over Prattville Christian and the top-seeded Knights won 63-51 in the opening round of the 3A Area 6 tournament at Catholic on Wednesday, but it was never a comfortable feeling for head coach Mike Curry.
“You’ve got to give credit to (PCA),” Curry said. “They didn’t lay down. They weren’t going anywhere. Every time we got up 15 or 20, they’d make a run and cut it back to 10. Then we’d make a run and they’d cut it back. We relaxed too much. But I told the guys, ‘They’re not going anywhere’ and they’ve always got a puncher’s chance because they shoot the 3 ball. I don’t know if they shot it great tonight, but they some shots that kept it close and kept us on our toes.”
Catholic (13-9) did its job in advancing to the area tournament finals against Montgomery Academy on Friday at 6 p.m. The winner of the Catholic-Montgomery Academy game will remain home and play Reeltown in the sub-regional round on Tuesday at 6 p.m. The loser will travel to play Dadeville.
And for a team that lost much of its star power from last year’s 3A runner-up squad but still entertains hopes of returning to the state tournament to finish what it started, Catholic can complete its area slate with an 8-0 record with a win over the Eagles on Friday.
“At this point in the year, we take them any way we can get them,” Curry said. “I’m proud of my guys and proud of the effort. I thought that second bunch with (Jayden) Phifer and (Miles) Hannah, their defensive effort really gave us a boost going into halftime. It was really their defense that did it. They were on top of everything and ran them off the (3-point) line. They set the tone. It was a total team effort. Everybody that touched the floor contributed.
“Every game is important, but home court advantage (is huge). It was important that we had it tonight. If we had been somewhere else, it might have been a different outcome with them shooting those 3s. Friday night is very important. MA has really been playing well down the stretch.
Catholic’s defensive intensity was a force in the early moments of the game and the Knights raced out to a 20-5 lead before settling into a routine that alternated between stretches of shots by the Panthers, countered by the Knights converting turnovers into layups to extend the lead.
“Our young guys, I guess, were a little nervous,” PCA coach Jason Roberson said. “We have struggled to execute all year long. We got a little better toward the end of the season but you are who you are. Hopefully, our young guys coming back will execute from the very beginning, from the first day of practice in the summer and we’ll be a team that can do what we’re supposed to do next year.
“But we’re not athletic enough, big enough, good enough to not play a lot harder than the other team and a lot smarter than the other team and we didn’t do either one of those tonight.
LJ Green led Catholic with 20 points,scoring 11 of those in the final period, along with six assists, six rebounds and 10 steals. Phifer and Matthew Reardon added 13 points each.
Cade Segars led PCA (11-19) with 19 points and nine rebounds, followed by Carson Roberson with 17 points and four assists. Roberson ended the season with 126 made 3 pointers, tied for 11th in Alabama High School Athletic Association history.
The Panthers, which started three freshmen on Wednesday, will return all five starters next season and will lose just three seniors.