CLASS 3A BOYS SE SUB-REGIONAL: Walker leads Montgomery Academy past Reeltown
Nigel Walker scored 25 points and grabbed 19 rebounds in MA’s win over Reeltown on Tuesday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
Maybe it just takes a while to make the transition from football to basketball.
Montgomery Academy, after all, missed the first two weeks of the basketball season while the football team was playing in the 3A state finals. The Eagles were playing just their 22nd game of the season on Tuesday in a Southeast sub-regional matchup with Reeltown.
And while the Eagles often seemed out of sync against the Rebels, Nigel Walker was a one-man wrecking crew, scoring a career-high 25 points while grabbing a career-high 19 rebounds and five steals in a 61-44 win over Reeltown at Joe Mooty Court.
It was the third postseason game for the Eagles and the third impressive performance by Walker, the tight end and defensive end on the football team who has averaged 16.3 points and 14.7 rebounds per game in the postseason.
“In the playoffs, it turned me into somebody else,” Walker said. “These were three important games (and I) started getting a lot of rebounds and a couple more points that my team needed. I guess the football is starting to get out and basketball is coming in.”
Montgomery Academy (12-10) will advance to the regionals for just the ninth time in school history and the first time since 2015, facing Houston Academy in the semifinals on Thursday at Garrett Coliseum at 4:30 p.m.
And while Montgomery Academy put on a strong rebounding performance against Reeltown (8-12), only Walker was able to finish plays around the basket, rescuing a poor-shooting offense that made just two of its 11 shots in the first quarter, both by Walker.
“Nigel was unbelievable,” Montgomery Academy coach Jeremy Arant said. “From start to finish, I don’t know the exact numbers, but he was unbelievable all night long. I thought early we were a little tight, but he was maximum energy from the opening tip. He kind of willed us through the first two quarters, then we made some shots in the second half to stretch it out a little bit.”
For Walker, it’s been a remarkable journey this season, from a player who struggled to stay out of foul trouble early in the season to one of the most valuable players in the city over the last month.
“We’ve been working hard on him being under control when he has the ball,” Arant said. “He’s always been an exceptional athlete and a really tough matchup because he’s 6-foot-4 and can handle the ball, but what plagued him early was he was out of control with the ball and when he got inside he was taking some out-of-control shots. Now, he’s playing a lot more under control.
“He’s obviously improved a great deal over the last month or so. And when he’s playing the way he played tonight and last Friday and last Wednesday, we can be really tough. It just adds another dimension to us.”
After Reeltown went on an 8-2 run to pull back into the contest, the Eagles stretched the lead back to nine points with a 3 pointer by Seth Edwards and another Walker basket. In the fourth quarter, three Cole Caddell 3 pointers finished off the Rebels, but the one constant seemed to be Walker, the calming force in a chaotic win over Catholic last Friday and the most dominant player on the court on Tuesday night.
“Every game, (Arant) reminds me, ‘Nigel, stay in control and you’ll probably take over a game,’” Walker said. “We work on it in practice every day. I used to give a lot of people charges and just run straight over them, like football, so now I start doing my stop, just shoot, watch the board -- I don’t want to get too many ‘over the backs’ (fouls). I just started playing more under control.”
Caddell added 14 points for the Eagles, followed by Judson Lindsey with nine points, four rebounds and four assists.
“I think we played well, but we could have done better,” Walker said. “We could have done way better if we blocked out. They got like 20 points off offensive rebounds, so we could have done better on the boxing out. Everybody’s got to give effort.”
Montgomery Academy is 4-4 in regional semifinal games, but has won the last two (in 2012 and 2015) on the way to the state tournament in Birmingham. These players haven’t been a part of that, however, and they would like to write their own chapter in school history the way they did on the gridiron.
“We want to keep it going, break some records again, like we did in football,” Walker said. “It’s the same people, so we’ve motivated ourselves to do it again. It’s an honor to be on this team.”