MA girls post win over St. James
By TIM GAYLE
Both teams came out and applied good defensive pressure in the early moments of Friday’s game at Joe Mooty Court.
Unfortunately for St. James, the Trojans couldn’t manufacture enough offense to keep pace with Montgomery Academy.
The Eagles went on a 9-0 run midway through the first quarter to break open a tight game, then held the Trojans without a field goal in the third quarter on the way to a 52-30 win.
“MA has a lot of experience on the court and those players play really hard and with a lot of passion and desire and grit, on like every play,” St. James coach Katie Barton said. “They’ve gone deep in the playoffs the last three years, so they have a lot of seniors that have a lot of court experience.
“I thought in the first quarter we came out a little timid. Just basic offense we would normally run and look to execute on, everybody was deferring.”
The Trojans got a pair of perimeter baskets by KK Hall and a runner in the lane from Hannah Grace Griggs, but the Eagles’ defense made the St. James players work for every shot. Montgomery Academy, on the other hand, got a trio of post shots from Ann Cobern Chapman and Anaya Thomas and some transition baskets from Leighton Robertson to pull away from a 6-4 lead midway through the quarter with a quick burst for a 12-point cushion by the end of the quarter.
MA led 26-13 at the half, then held St. James to a pair of Maddox Trumbly free throws in the third quarter on the way to a 38-15 advantage.
Robertson had 20 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals, while Thomas had nine points and five rebounds and Chapman had eight points. Point guard Chloe Johnson took few shots in finishing with five points, but led her team in all other categories with eight rebounds, three steals, three assists and three blocked shots.
“I thought defensively we were probably better than we’ve been lately,” Montgomery Academy coach Reg Mantooth said. “I think we really did a good job defensively and we did a good job offensively, but I don’t know if we made one or two 3-pointers all game. We got a bunch of good kickoffs and good looks, it just wasn’t going in the basket for us.”
Madi Caddell made a 3-pointer in the first quarter run but the Eagles wouldn’t get another until the final four minutes of the game, when Gabby Ramirez countered Hall’s second 3-pointer with her only basket of the game.
Hall finished with eight points to lead the Trojans.
St. James (5-4) will return home to play Loachapoka on Saturday, then take a few days off before facing Montgomery Academy (6-1) again in the opening round of the Jack Schweers Capital City Conference Tournament on Friday afternoon at Trinity.
“We just have to keep growing,” Barton said. “MA is one of the toughest opponents on our schedule, so this is good for us. It helps us get ready for the playoffs and exposes weaknesses that we need to work on in practice.”