PREP HOOPS: Catholic tops Pike Road; MA girls win in Schweers tourney
Montgomery Catholic tops Pike Road in boys’ basketball action. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
PIKE ROAD – It wasn’t quite the marquee matchup you would have expected before the season started and it showed early as Catholic and Pike Road struggled to find a rhythm on the basketball court.
Both teams continue to adjust with players who made a late run in the football playoffs and without key personnel in Friday’s game in the Pike Road gym.
“We’re slowly getting there,” Catholic coach Mike Curry said. “It’s been a process. Every day has been a little bit better. We’ve just got to stay in the gym and keep working. I’m pleased with the direction we’re heading, still knowing we’re a long way from where we need to be.
“We’re fumbling and bumbling around. That being said, we still did enough to come out and get a good quality win. They’re missing two guys, just like we’re missing two guys.”
Catholic (3-3) was playing without Myles Butler, who was participating in the North-South all-star football game in Mobile, and without DJ Carter, who continues to rehab from injuries sustained during football season.
Pike Road (7-7) was playing without its leading scorer, Trey Wallace, also in the North-South game, and without its second leading scorer, Blake Durham, who turned an ankle in Thursday’s game with Booker T. Washington.
“I’m not going to sit here and lie and say I don’t miss them, but I don’t feel like we gave the sustained effort (we needed),” Pike Road coach Robb McGaughey said. “I think we gave it early, got down a little and folded.”
Without the normal lineup, that left it up to Catholic’s DJ Jamerson to put on a clinic with 27 points and 15 rebounds in a 65-43 rout of the Patriots, using a little help from teammate Matthew Reardon to turn a comfortable lead into a runaway.
“I thought he played well,” Curry said, “but me being the coach, I was like, you should have had 35 or 40. He understands that and he’s not satisfied, either. I like the fact that he wants to get better and wants to get pushed. He played an OK game and had 27 and 15. We’re not as cohesive as we need to be.”
While much of the Patriots’ game runs through Wallace, much of the Catholic attack is directed by LJ Green, who finished with 11 points after a slow first quarter that saw the Knights clinging to a 10-8 lead. Catholic pulled away a little for a 26-15 lead at the half, then scored 27 points in the third quarter to finish off the Patriots.
A lot of that offense came from Reardon, who hit four of his six 3 pointers in the third quarter and finished with 18 points.
“He can shoot it,” Curry said. “He’s just got to be more consistent.”
KJ Westry led Pike Road with 13 points, followed by Mike Williams with 13 as the Patriots now get a week off from basketball before hosting a tournament after Christmas.
“I think we need a break,” McGaughey said. “We need to defend better. We’re giving up too many points. We need to rebound better. On the offensive side, we need to come together as a team and play as a team. I think early on (in the season) guys were relying too much on Trey and Blake to make things happen.”
The Knights play Booker T. Washington in the Eufaula tournament on Monday at 10:30 a.m. Pike Road returns to action against Wetumpka in the first round of the Patriot Invitational on Dec. 28.
BOYS BASKETBALL
Trinity 51, Alabama Christian 41
The Wildcats turned up the defensive pressure in the second half to beat Alabama Christian and advance to the finals of the 26th Jack Schweers Capital City Conference Tournament at Trinity.
The Wildcats will face either Autaugaville or Prattville Christian in the championship game on Monday at 6 p.m., while ACA will face the Autaugaville-PCA loser at 1 p.m.
Beau O’Ferrell scored eight of his team-high 15 points in the third quarter as the Wildcats rallied from a one-point halftime deficit by outscoring the Eagles 13-6 in the third quarter and 10-6 in the fourth, holding ACA to three field goals in the third quarter and two in the fourth.
Pruitt Lee and Andrew McNees each added 10 points for Trinity.
Caden Perry scored 14 of his game-high 18 points in the first half as the Eagles fought their way to a 29-28 halftime lead. Avery Stuart added 11 points and Hayes Hunt had nine.
Montgomery Academy 48, LAMP 30
In only their second game of the season with a full roster, the Eagles struggled to a 18-18 halftime tie but then outscored the Golden Tigers 30-12 in the second half of Saturday’s game in the 26th Jack Schweers Capital City Conference Tournament at Trinity.
Britton Kohn led Montgomery Academy with 16 points and eight rebounds, followed by James Snead with 10 points and 10 rebounds and Thomas Kirkham with seven points and seven rebounds.
Nigel Walker chipped in 10 rebounds and four steals to go along with four points.
Montgomery Academy (1-2) will play St. James for fifth place in the tournament on Monday at 2:30 p.m. LAMP will play BTW Magnet for seventh place at 11:30 a.m.
The Montgomery Academy Lady Eagles topped PCA in the Jack Schweerss Capital City Conference Tourney on Saturday. (Tim Gayle)
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Montgomery Academy 60, Prattville Christian 51
It probably wasn’t the type of game that Montgomery Academy coach Reg Mantooth or Prattville Christian Academy coach Jason Roberson wanted, but Mantooth is certainly happy with the results.
Neither MA nor PCA played their best brand of basketball on Saturday in the 26th Jack Schweers Capital City Conference Tournament at Trinity, but Mantooth’s team found enough defense in the fourth quarter to pull away from the Panthers 60-51 and advance to Monday’s championship game against Trinity.
Chloe Johnson had eight assists for the MA girls, but none were bigger than the two in the final minutes that led to baskets by Leighton Robertson and Ann Cobern Chapman before Gabby Ramirez closed it out with six free throws to account for the final margin.
It was the second matchup between two of the state’s best 3A teams and both came in tournaments. The area rivals will have to play each other at least two more times in the regular season and a third meeting in the area tournament is a possibility. And that’s not counting postseason play.
MA (8-1) won last month 48-47 on two Ramirez free throws with six-tenths of a second left. Saturday’s meeting had the same feel as the two teams entered the fourth quarter with the Eagles clinging to a one-point lead.
“I don’t know if we did a better job defensively on them or not,” Mantooth said. “We definitely couldn’t stop No. 2 (Ella Jane Connell). They isolated her and we couldn’t guard her. But we learned a little bit more about how to attack them and I’m sure they learned a little more about how to attack us as well.”
Roberson spent most of the game challenging his squad to play better defense, particularly in the paint and in transition, where a poor-shooting MA team overcame its shooting deficiencies on the perimeter.
“Fortunately we were a little bit better shooting it today than we were (on Friday),” Mantooth said. “We try not to talk about it. I think we’ve got some good shooters that will hit shots as we go forward.”
The Eagles got a couple of 3s from Madi Caddell and another from Johnson, but continued to struggle from the outside and needed help from Robertson and Chapman in the paint. The seniors finished with 14 points and 12 points and five rebounds, respectively, to offset the struggles.
“We tried a couple of times to get the ball inside a little bit more,” Mantooth said, “but we don’t want them to stop shooting. We want them to shoot with confidence.”
PCA (11-2), whose only losses this year are to MA, came out with an offensive plan that challenged the Eagles as Avery Rogers poured in 17 points from the perimeter and Connell shook off a sluggish start with 16 points in the final three quarters.
Whenever the post game clicked, the Panthers threatened to pull away as Hannah Jones scored five of her seven points in the second quarter and Coco Thomas scored seven of her nine in the third, but the Panthers relied too much on Rogers and Connell down the stretch against the Montgomery Academy defense.
In addition to Robertson and Chapman, Caddell had 13 points and Johnson had eight.
Alabama Christian 66, BTW Magnet 38
Michaelyn Manning scored 24 points and Sarah Johnson added 21 as the Eagles raced out to an early lead and coasted to a 28-point win over BTW Magnet in the 26th Jack Schweers Capital City Conference Tournament at Trinity on Saturday morning.
ACA will play St. James for fifth place on Monday at 2:30 p.m.
Manning scored nine points in the first quarter and six more in the second, with Johnson adding 14 second-quarter points as part of a 24-point outburst that gave ACA a 40-23 lead at the half. ACA had just six points in the third quarter but was never threatened by BTW and scored 20 more points in the final eight minutes.
Katelyn Sutton added eight points for ACA.
Amiya Cleveland had 23 of BTW’s 38 points, scoring 15 in the second half. BTW will play LAMP for seventh place on Monday at 11:30 a.m.
St. James 57, LAMP 29
Ava Card led three players in double figures with 15 points as the Trojans cruised to an easy win over the Golden Tigers in the 26th Jack Schweers Capital City Conference Tournament on Saturday at Trinity.
Danielle Green added 12 points and KK Hall had 11 as St. James will battle ACA for fifth place in the tournament on Monday at 2:30 p.m.
Elizabeth Albrecht and Mackenzie Lewis each had seven points to lead LAMP, which will play BTW Magnet on Monday at 11:30 a.m. for seventh place.
Trinity 66, Catholic 32
Emma Kate Smith hit eight 3 pointers to finish with 28 points and lead the Wildcats to an easy win over the Knights and into the finals of the 26th Jack Schweers Capital City Conference Tournament.
Trinity will play Montgomery Academy in the championship game on Monday at 4 p.m., while Catholic (8-2) will play Prattville Christian Academy for third place on Monday at 1 p.m.
In addition to her 28 points, Smith had six steals, six assists and five rebounds. Mary Alice Sasser added 16 points for Trinity, while Maddie Smith had 14 points and six assists.