MIDWEEK PREPS: Catholic girls clinch Area title; Evangel boys take Area title

COMBINED REPORTS

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Catholic 68, Booker T. Washington 31

Catholic jumped out to a 30-5 lead in the first quarter and cruised to a 37-point win over Booker T. Washington on Tuesday in the Catholic gym to clinch the 4A Area 4 regular season championship and earn the host site in the upcoming area tournament.

Andy Aiken hit four 3 pointers in the third quarter to give the Knights (20-7) a 64-25 lead as they improved to 5-0 in area play with a game remaining at Bullock County on Friday.

Hannah Smith led the Knights with 18 points, nine rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals, followed by Allyse Rudolh with 16 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and four steals and Heaven Bailey with 12 points, five assists and eight steals.

St. James 57, Montgomery Academy 18

St. James tuned up for Friday’s area showdown with Trinity in a 57-18 win over Montgomery Academy on Tuesday, working on some defensive issues that plagued the Trojans in their loss to the Wildcats last week.  

“We got a chance to work on a few different defenses,” St. James coach Katie Barton said, “a chance to try and fix some of the things we’ve been having trouble with in regards to defensive concepts. We were able to move the ball well on offense and had a couple of different people score, so that’s always good.”

The Trojans jumped out to a 17-7 lead at Joe Mooty Court on Tuesday, then used a 14-2 run in the second quarter to put away the Eagles.

Ava Card and KK Hall combined to score 25 points in the first half, but much of Card’s work came early in the paint. As the game progressed, more of the Trojan forward’s shots came from behind the 3-point arc,

 “She’s been expanding her game,” Barton said. “She’s been doing a little bit all year long. She hit five 3s the other night against ACA and will play inside-out for me a bunch.”

St. James improved to 4-1 in 3A Area 6 play and returns home to host Trinity on Friday in a battle for first place. Montgomery Academy dropped to 0-5 and will travel to Alabama Christian (1-4) on Friday.

Hall led St. James (18-6) with 18 points, followed by Card with 13 and Natalie Barton with eight.

Claire Gary led Montgomery Academy (1-17) with six points, including five in the third quarter. 

Trinity 71, Alabama Christian 28

Mya Moskowitz had 19 points and four steals to lead the Wildcats to a share of the 3A Area 6 regular season title with a 71-28 win over Alabama Christian in the ACA gym on Tuesday night.

Trinity improved to 5-0 in area play, while ACA dropped to 1-4. The Wildcats can clinch the regular season title and the host site for the area tournament with a win at St. James (4-1) on Friday.

Emma Kate Smith added 17 points, six assists, five rebounds and four steals for Trinity (21-2), followed by Maddie Smith with 14 points, 10 assists, four rebounds and four steals and Francie Morris with 10 points.

Jaide Newkirk led ACA (8-12) with 10 points and three rebounds, followed by Rachel Rine with nine points and seven rebounds and Izzy Warrick with five points and four rebounds. The Eagles will play host to Montgomery Academy on Friday.   

Prattville Christian 67, Wilcox Central 27

PRATTVILLE -- Avery Rogers led the Lady Panthers with 18 points and five assists to capture the regular season 4A Area 5 title with a win over Wilcox Central on Tuesday night.

PCA improved to 5-0 in area play and will host the area tournament on Feb. 6 and Feb. 9 in the PCA gym.

Hannah Jones added 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Panthers, followed by CoCo Thomas with 14 points and 13 rebounds, Jenna McClendon with eight points and nine rebounds, Kayden Carr with three points, seven rebounds, six assists and five steals. LB NeSmith with four points and Baylee Rogers with three points. Ally Blankinchip dished out four assists.

PCA (22-2) will close out area play at home against Dallas County on Thursday.

Lowndes Academy 63, Meadowview Christian 7

SELMA -- Haley Briggs had 17 points, three rebounds, an assist and three steals and Molly Powell added 16 points, three rebounds, 10 assists and eight steals in a 63-7 romp over Meadowview Christian on Tuesday.

Lowndes improved to 4-0 in area play and wrapped up the top seed in Class A Region 2 Area 2.

Cameron Hess helped the Rebels with 10 points, nine rebounds, two assists, a pair of steals and a blocked shot, followed by Harley Hooper with four points, an assist and a pair of steals, Haylon Self with four points, three rebounds and a steal and Abby Lovell with four points, a rebound and an assist.

Catie Wallace Self had three points, a rebound, two assists and seven steals for the Rebels, Sara Murchison added three points and Riley Lane had two points, two rebounds, an assist and three steals. Kinley Dismukes had three rebounds and a blocked shot, Alice Murchison had two rebounds and an assist and Addi Bridges had a pair of rebounds.

Lowndes Academy (12-5) returns home to host Ezekiel Academy on Thursday before traveling to Edgewood Academy on Monday.

Lakeside School 44, Chambers Academy 15
EUFAULA -- Lakeside broke open a 25-15 halftime lead by holding the Rebels scoreless in the second half on the way to a 44-15 victory that clinched the Class AA Area 1 Region 1 championship on Tuesday.

Chloe Helms led the Chiefs with 13 points, followed by Jayden Green with 12, Addy Helms with eight and Sophie Seaborn with six.

BOYS BASKETBALL

St. James 52, Montgomery Academy 41

Montgomery Academy came into Tuesday’s game with St. James determined to shut down the Trojans’ primary scorer, forward KJ Jackson. What the Eagles didn’t count on was a barrage of 3-pointers by the Trojans that kept them in the game.

St. James got 3-pointers from five different players to keep pace with the Eagles early, then pulled away late for a 52-41 victory at Joe Mooty Court that gave St. James the area title and the right to host the upcoming area tournament.

“We couldn’t get the ball inside much and when we did, we couldn’t get good looks because of the double team (on Jackson),” St. James coach Nigel Card said. “We had to rely on some ‘out’ shooting and we hit a few. We were lucky to keep pace and not let the game get too far out because we didn’t play well at all in the first half.”

St. James improved to 5-0 and clinched the 3A Area 6 regular season title and will host the upcoming area tournament in early February. Montgomery Academy dropped a 2-3, a game behind Trinity (3-2) and two games ahead of fourth-seeded Alabama Christian (0-5).

St. James (10-5) returns home to host Trinity on Friday, while Montgomery Academy (10-10) travels to Alabama Christian on Friday.

“KJ hurt us really bad last time so we were trying to focus on that a little bit,” Montgomery Academy coach Jeremy Arant said, “and they made I don’t know how many 3s, but were probably 70 percent on 3s, so that was a big deal for them, being able to make those shots from the perimeter.”

Paxton Wingard hit a 3-pointer in the first quarter, but then the Trojans got some unlikely help from Ziggy Holloway, Taber Offord and Evan Richardson in the second quarter to trail just 25-22 at the half before Ethan Beard hit a pair of 3-pointers in the second half to take some of the pressure off of Jackson.

Another factor for the Trojans was their ability to switch to another offense, causing the game to evolve from a half-court defensive struggle to more of a full-court game that got small forward Matt Middleton a little more involved on both ends of the court.

“He was huge,” Card said. “He made some really good plays, then he had some plays that he should’ve made and would have made it a lot easier, but he stepped up and was aggressive. We had to go back to a different style of play with our offense because they had scouted us so well and took away our inside game by the way they were double-teaming the post on the strong side.”

The Trojans scored eight straight points midway through the fourth quarter, part of an 18-5 run that turned a back-and-forth battle controlled by the Eagles into an eight-point lead controlled by the Trojans.

“We didn’t really execute all that well down the stretch,” Arant said. “There was a period there where we didn’t score for several minutes. They started sagging off some of our guys at the top and clogging up the driving lane, which was bothering us late.

 “We started trying to pressure them a little bit and we missed some rotations and gave up some easy baskets. They do a good job running their stuff, so when you’re down on them late, even if it’s six or seven points, it can feel like 14 or 15 because they run their stuff so well.”

 Skyler Stovall led Montgmery Academy with 19 points, four rebounds, two steals and two blocks, followed by Brewer Welch with eight points, five assists and three steals and DJ Vinson with seven points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots.

Trinity 56, Alabama Christian 33

Cal Bennett scored 12 points and John Morris had 11 points, seven rebounds and four blocked shots to lead Trinity to a 56-33 win over Alabama Christian in the ACA gym on Tuesday night.

The Wildcats improved to 3-2 in 3A Area 6 play, while ACA dropped to 0-5.

For the Eagles, Jayden Jones had 11 points and three steals, Mac Moorer had nine points and Sam Davidson had seven points.

Trinity (16-7) will play at St. James on Friday, while ACA (5-17) will remain at home to play host to Montgomery Academy on Friday. 

Jackson led St. James with 12 points, followed by Wingard with 11 and Beard with 10.

Wilcox Central 50, Prattville Christian 46

PRATTVILLE -- Conner Williams led the Panthers with 19 points but PCA fell in a hard-fought loss to the Jaguars in the PCA gym.

Wilcox Central clinched the 4A Area 5 title with the win and will host the upcoming area tournament. PCA fell to 3-2 in area play and will be the second seed in the area tournament, playing a semifinal game on Feb. 7. The winners advance to the area tournament finals in Camden on Feb. 10.  

Cade Segars added 13 points, four rebounds and took two charges for PCA, followed by PJ Evans with eight points. Brady Roberson grabbed five rebounds and Carson Roberson grabbed four.

PCA (13-12) will play host to Dallas County on Thursday.

Lowndes Academy 63, Meadowview Christian 12

SELMA -- Clayton Hussey had 31 points, a pair of rebounds, three assists and five steals to lead the Rebels to the area championship with a 63-12 win in the Meadowview Christian gym on Tuesday.

Lowndes improved to 4-0 in area play and wrapped up the top seed in Class A Region 2 Area 2.

Zach Azar added eight points, eight rebounds, a steal and a blocked shot for the Rebels, followed by Will Brassell with six points, Ashton Yelder with five points, six rebounds and a blocked shot, Watters Box with five points, three rebounds, an assist and three steals, Andrew Myers with four points, three rebounds and three steals, Luke Lovell with two points and three rebounds and Tyler Hollingshead with two points.

Clay Duncan added three rebounds and three steals and Trey Thomas had two rebounds and a steal.

Lowndes Academy (15-2) returns home to host Ezekiel Academy on Thursday before traveling to Edgewood Academy on Monday.

BOYS

Prattville Christian 63, Trinity Presbyterian 37

On Monday, Carson Roberson led the Panthers with 21 points and five rebounds as Prattville Christian pulled off a surprisingly easy win over the Wildcats at Captain Jack Court in a game scheduled from Jan. 3.

Conner Williams added 15 points and five rebounds for PCA, followed by Collier Connell with 12 points, PJ Evans with 10 points, eight assists and seven rebounds and Cooper Osborne with three points while also taking two charges. Brady Roberson dished out eight assists and grabbed six rebounds.

Evangel Christian 65, Cornerstone Christian 41

Isaiah Gildersleeve scored a season high 19 points while hitting five 3-pointers to lead Evangel to the win over Cornerstone and securing the Lions the Class A Region 1 Area 1 regular season championship.

Nii Addy added 14 points and 14 rebounds, with Will McCord adding 11 points and Micah Cooley and Cyrek Smith chipping in nine points each.   

The Lions (6-13, 2-2 in area play) will host Glenwood School on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.

Autauga Academy 54, Monroe Academy 47

MONROEVILLE -- Bryant Dupree had 13 points and a pair of rebounds and Evan Peak had 12 points, 11 rebounds and three assists to lead the Generals to a seven-point win in the Monroe Academy gym on Monday night.

Autauga Academy (7-9) also got 12 points and a pair of assists from Damien Dickerson, while Dezmen Dickerson scored eight points and dished out a pair of assists and Cameron Wright had seven points, 10 assists and seven rebounds.

Edgewood Academy 77, Sparta Academy 32

ELMORE -- The Wildcats bounced back from a weekend loss to Evangel School with a 45-point win over Sparta Academy in the Edgewood gym on Monday night.

Edgewood Academy (16-4) travels to Hope Hull to play Hooper in an area game on Tuesday.

Prattville 58, South Walton 57

PRATTVILLE -- Ty Bryant scored 21 points and pulled down four rebounds to help the Lions to a 58-57 win over South Walton in Powell Gym on Saturday.

Kam Shanks added 14 points and four rebounds, Tavious Hohenberger scored 10 points and Kamran DeRamus had six points along with a team-high seven rebounds for the Lions.

Prattville (10-11) will hold a pair of important 7A Area 3 games at home this week, playing Dothan on Tuesday and Enterprise on Friday.

Autauga Academy 63, Bessemer Academy 62

PRATTVILLE -- Cameron Wright had 20 points, five rebounds, four assists and four steals to lead the Generals to a win over the Rebels in the Autauga Academy gym on Tuesday night.

Bryant Dupree added 14 points for Autauga (8-9), followed by Damien Dickerson with 10 points, five assists and four rebounds and Evan Peak with nine points, 11 rebounds, three steals and a pair of assists.

Edgewood Academy 53, Sparta Academy 43

ELMORE -- The Wildcats remain undefeated in a battle of the top two teams in the Alabama Sports Writers Association poll, defeating Sparta 53-43 in the Edgewood gym on Monday night.

WRESTLING

PCA overcomes injuries, sickness and a trio of opponents

HOLTVILLE -- Prattville Christian’s wrestling team were without a number of starters because of illness and injuries, but put together a good evening by winning a quad meet that included Holtville, Elmore County and Beulah on Tuesday night.

PCA defeated Beulah 54-22 in the first match, then came away with a 46-39 win over Holtville and a 41-33 win over Elmore County. Undefeated wrestlers on the night were Ryan Lueck, Brysen Pugh, Matthew Post, Spencer Perkins, Carter Copeland and David Tubbs-Hill.  

The wrestling Panthers travel to Piedmont High School on Saturday to take part in the Piedmont Dogfight invitational. Wrestling will start at 9 a.m.