CLASS 3A BOYS CENTRAL SEMIS: MA falls in two-OT thriller; Trinity wins over Southside
Brewer Welch drives past defenders in Montgomery Academy’s battle with Sumter Central on Friday at the Bill Harris Arena. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
BIRMINGHAM -- Montgomery Academy coach Jeremy Arant couldn’t help but feel disappointed after watching the Eagles’ season come to a close in a double-overtime loss to Sumter Central, but he also couldn’t help but express the thought of anyone in Bill Harris Arena on Friday afternoon.
“You’re not going to find a better basketball game than that,” Arant said.
The Eagles missed two opportunities to close out the game, watching Sumter Central force an overtime period and escape two wild finishes as the Jaguars won a double-overtime thriller, 87-85, in the 3A Central Regional semifinal.
Sumter Central (21-3) will face Trinity in the Central Regional championship on Wednesday at Bill Harris Arena at 2:15 p.m., while Montgomery Academy ends the season at 24-8.
The underdog Eagles climbed out of a deep hole with a late flourish, taking a 74-72 lead on a Cole Caddell 3-pointer with 11 seconds left, only to have Dekarius Freeman tie it up with a driving layup to force overtime.
“The one thing I would change,” Arant said, “if I could go back – and I told the guys right after it happened it was my fault – is we were up by two, 74-72, with eight seconds left and we played a little three-quarter court zone. I’d like to go back and play soft man pressure right there.”
Montgomery Academy fell behind in the final minute of the first overtime period, but had five opportunities to tie or take the lead. Skyler Stovall made the first of two free-throw attempts with 21.5 seconds left and rebounded his own miss, setting up a frantic finish as Brewer Welch passed to DJ Vinson, who was fouled with 1.9 seconds left.
Vinson made the first free throw to tie the game, then missed the second attempt following a Sumter Central timeout.
“They told me before I made the shot, ‘You’ve made the hard one, now make the easy one,’” Vinson said. “After I missed the easy one, they said, ‘We’ve got a whole other four minutes to play, the game’s not over yet.’”
Montgomery Academy fell behind in the second overtime by three points with a minute left, but came charging back one last time. Stovall missed, Caddell missed a 3-pointer and Welch wasn’t able to make a contested shot in the lane fall. After Freeman was fouled with 8.4 seconds left and hit a free throw to make it 87-85, Stovall drove the length of the court but his jumper in the lane wouldn’t fall as time expired.
“He got a heck of a look at the basket,” Arant said. “He makes that shot nine out of 10.”
The disappointing finish overshadowed the incredible rally by the Eagles, who fell behind by nine points in the first quarter, trailed 44-32 at the half and stared at a double-digit deficit for much of the first three quarters as a faster trio of Sumter Central standouts made it difficult for Montgomery Academy to keep pace.
“It’s hard to really see how fast they play,” Arant said. “We just see it on film, we don’t see it in person, so it takes a little while to adjust. They do a really good job of pushing it up the floor. Even when you score, they’re back on the other end of the floor really quickly.
“I think their athleticism may have caught us slightly off guard from what we’re used to seeing. I thought we were playing fine offensively the whole game. Really, the difference in the game is our transition defense got better as the game went on and that slowed them down a little bit and made them play a little more in the halfcourt than what they were doing early.”
Jonathan Fitch had 21 of his 29 points in the first half and he also finished with 12 rebounds. Emmanuel Clarton had 36 points and seven assists and Brandon Robinson added 15 points to account for 80 of the Jaguars’ points.
“We started off too slow,” Vinson said. “Their athleticism showed. We started to get used to their tendencies, blocking out better, what guys to guard, what guys to get up heavy on them. And once we limited that, we started coming back.
“I always thought we had enough to get back into it, it was just getting to that point. Everybody said we need one stop at a time, one play at a time, guard their best players, get down the floor, run the floor, get the ball out.”
Stovall finished with 30 points, six rebounds, eight assists and four steals, while Vinson had 21 points and 12 rebounds, Welch had 15 points and five assists and Caddell had nine points.
“We grew as a team throughout the season,” Vinson said. “We had a lot of team chemistry build throughout the season. The start of the season was a little shaky, but come playoff time (with area play), you could see the team come together as one. You could see an unstoppable force out there.”
Trinity’s Cayson Keller is double-teamed by Southside defenders during the Wildcats’ win on Friday. (Tim Gayle)
Trinity advances with win over Southside-Selma
BIRMINGHAM -- It was ugly, but who cared?
Certainly not the Trinity Wildcats, who were making their first regional appearance since 2012.
Certainly not Matt Arrighi, the Trinity coach who stepped into big shoes to replace Jack Schweers six years ago and on Friday picked up the Wildcats’ first regional victory since 2011.
John Morris scored 20 of his 22 points in the second half and the Wildcat defense forced 20 turnovers, helping Trinity to a 45-37 win over Southside-Selma in the 3A Central Regional at Bill Harris Arena on Friday night.
Trinity (18-9) will face Sumter Central for the regional championship at Bill Harris Arena on Wednesday at 2:15 p.m.
“There are so many amazing things about coaching,” Arrighi said. “You love being around young people, you love being a part of their lives. But, yes, winning is fun and postseason basketball is so much fun. So you dream about making runs. This is my sixth year and we haven’t been here -- we’ve been close -- but to get here and then to move on, it’s one of the major reasons you coach.”
It might have looked unlikely early. Morris picked up two quick fouls, both on charging calls, and went to the bench for much of the second quarter.
“That’s a huge deal,” Arrighi said. “It shrinks our playbook a little bit but we have guys that we know will get in a scrap and hold their own. (Southside’s) No. 2 (Erick Smith) is really long, so when John’s not in there, you’re a little worried but I thought Thompson McNees and Jackson Randall and Cayson (Keller) did a really good job of holding their own when John was out.
“We could never really push forward but I felt like we controlled most of the game. They had to work for most everything they had. One of the major points of the game plan was making them earn everything and not giving them everything.”
The Wildcats scored just two points in the second period, but that basket gave them a 16-15 halftime lead. Morris came back and immediately scored the game’s first five points to give the Wildcats a 21-15 lead. Southside scored the next seven points to take a brief lead before a Morris putback gave Trinity the lead again.
Trinity took its biggest lead on a Morris basket for a 34-27 lead but an Akhilles Davis 3-pointer with 4:17 left tied the game at 34-34. From there, Morris hit a pair of baskets, Brady Bennett drove the lane for an uncontested layup and Morris had two more baskets to send the Wildcats to the regional finals for just the sixth time in school history.
“I’m just so happy for the guys and proud of them,” Arrighi said, “because they found a way to scrap out what I thought was an ugly game at times and just stay with it. What a great win for Trinity.”
Morris finished with 22 points, nine rebounds and five blocked shots. Seven other players scored for Trinity but none had more than five points.
Davis led Southside (15-12) with 11 points, followed by Marquarius Reese with 10 points, six assists and three steals.