PREP HOOPS: MA takes two from LAMP
LAMP’s Felix McGhee goes up for a shot against Britton Kohn and Thomas Kirkham of MA in Saturday’s game between the Eagles and Golden Tigers. (Tim Gayle)
Compiled by TIM GAYLE
Both teams played intense area basketball games on Friday night, so coaches from Montgomery Academy and LAMP probably were a little uncertain of what to expect from their teams in Saturday afternoon’s matchup in the LAMP gym.
Both the Montgomery Academy girls and the boys took advantage of extended scoring droughts by their LAMP counterparts to coast to easy victories, with the girls setting the tone early in a 62-25 win.
Gabby Ramirez hit six of her eight 3-point shots to finish with 20 points as the Eagles jumped out to a 15-4 lead at the end of the first quarter, then scored the first 17 points of the second quarter to remove any doubt.
“I thought Gabby shot it really well,” Montgomery Academy coach Reg Mantooth said. “I thought we did a better job moving the ball. These games are sometimes hard to play, but hopefully we got better.”
The boys followed the same script, snapping a five-game skid by jumping out to a 16-7 lead at the end of the first quarter, then scoring the first 15 points of the second quarter on the way to a 70-38 win.
“I think that was important for us, to get a win,” Montgomery Academy coach Jeremy Arant said. “I thought our guys played really, really well in the first half defensively. They’ve got three guys who can really get hot and make shots from anywhere on the court and I thought we did a good job making them shoot contested shots and playing with great intensity and great effort.
“It’s really easy after a game last night and another on Tuesday with area rivals to come in here midday on Saturday and not play real hard. Our guys did a great job responding to it.”
In the girls’ game, the suspense didn’t last long as the Eagles pulled away from a 3-2 lead with a 29-2 run, taking advantage of a LAMP team that hasn’t played many back-to-back games all season and were not ready for the speed of the Eagles.
“It doesn’t matter what’s written across the other team’s jersey,” LAMP coach Michael Thornton said. “They’ve got a great program over there, they have for a long time and I very much respect them, but we never go into a game doing anything other than competing for a win.
“We did get a lot out of today. I thought we played very well in the second half. We just made way too many mistakes and made it too easy for them in the first half. We dug ourselves a hole we couldn’t get out of.”
Julia Williams had nine points, nine rebounds and four steals for MA (18-2), while Chloe Johnson had nine points and five assists and Anaya Thomas had eight points for the Eagles, which play host to Prattville Christian on Tuesday.
Arianna Cannida had 10 points to lead LAMP (4-7), which plays host to BTW Magnet in an area game next Friday.
“The games we have played, we haven’t all been together for them,” Thornton said, “so that’s another obstacle to overcome. We haven’t had an opportunity to all be together at practice, to all be together on the court since the beginning of the year. I’m missing two today. That’s just the nature of this season, so we’ve got to take every game as an opportunity and a blessing.”
In the boys’ game, a similar scenario played out as Britton Kohn had 21 points and five rebounds, including four 3 pointers in the second quarter.
“We’re a very inexperienced team,” LAMP coach Marcus Townsend said. “We’re just working from scratch and trying to put everything together and we were really impatient on offense. When you’re playing against a well-coached team like MA, you’ve got to play to your strengths. Running up and down the floor is not our strength.”
When MA (6-8) wasn’t running, they controlled the paint and the boards with James Snead and Thomas Kirkham, who had 10 points and 10 rebounds. Even reserve center Hudson Whitt managed six points in the fourth quarter as the Eagles controlled everything near the basket.
“You can’t coach size,” Townsend said. “We’re giving up almost a foot and probably 70 pounds. But I get a chance to coach my guys to fight, no matter how big guys are, because if you develop that fight you will get better each time and you’ll be better prepared for teams that you should beat. Hats off to my guys for not giving up.”
Felix McGhee led LAMP (3-8) with 13 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter, while Landon Lockwell added eight.
“COVID has definitely put its mark on this group,” Townsend said. “We’re just coming back off a quarantine period and we’re really trying to get ourselves together. We’re getting better, we just got outplayed today. It was not our day.”
Judson Lindsey had nine points, 11 rebounds and seven assists for MA and Ridge Lindsey added eight as plenty of players from both teams saw action on Saturday.
“We got to play everybody, which is always good,” Mantooth said. “We’ve got girls who need more experience and we get to play them and play people in a couple of different positions. It’s just another chance to try to get better.”
BOYS BASKETBALL
Catholic 70, Prattville Christian 54
PRATTVILLE -- T.J. Dudley had 21 points, 10 rebounds, four steals and two assists to lead the Knights to a 3A Area 5 win over the Panthers on Friday night in the PCA gym.
DJ Jamerson added 15 points, six rebounds, two blocked shots and two assists for the Knights, who improved to 5-0 in area play with the win. LJ Green had 12 points, eight rebounds and five assists while Myles Butler added eight points, three rebounds, three steals and three assists.
The Knights plays host to Reeltown on Monday before traveling to Trinity on Tuesday to determine the regular-season area championship.
Jacob Comer led the Panthers (7-14 overall and 1-4 in area play) with 15 points and four assists. Coleman Hunter added 12 points and five rebounds, followed by Carson Roberson with nine points and Brady Hughes with six points and five rebounds and Camron Coleman with five point and five rebounds. PCA will play host to Sylacauga on Monday before traveling to Montgomery to play Montgomery Academy on Tuesday to determine third place in the area.
In the junior varsity game, Catholic defeated PCA 53-40. Brady Roberson led the Panthers with 13 points and five rebounds, followed by Cade Segars with 11 points and five assists and Collier Connell with seven points. PCA (3-9) will host Sylacauga on Monday.
Alabama Christian 57, LAMP 42
Avery Stuart scored 11 of his 23 points in a 15-point second quarter that helped the Eagles extend their lead and clinch the regular-season area title with a win over the Golden Tigers in the ACA gym on Friday night.
ACA held off the Tigers at the free-throw line in the fourth quarter, sinking 11 of its 15 attempts.
Felix McGhee scored all six of his team’s points in the second quarter and added 16 in the second half to finish with 22 points to lead LAMP.
With the win, ACA improved to 3-0 in area play and will host the LAMP-BTW Magnet winner in the finals of the area tournament on Feb. 13 in the ACA gym. LAMP (1-2) and BTW Magnet (0-2) will settle second place in the area with next Friday’s matchup in the LAMP gym and will play each other again in the first round of the area tournament on Feb. 10 in the second-seeded team’s gym.
Evangel Christian 43, Crenshaw Christian 40
Marcus Townsend scored 21 points, pulled down six rebounds and handed out four assists to lead the Lions to an area victory over Crenshaw Christian on Thursday night in the Evangel gym.
Nii Addy added nine points and 10 rebounds for Evangel (4-4), which improved to 2-0 in Class A Region 1 Area 1 and will face the Cougars again on Monday in Luverne.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Alabama Christian 40, LAMP 25
Michaelyn Manning had 14 points to help Alabama Christian get off to a fast start and clinch the regular-season area championship with a win over LAMP in the ACA gym on Friday night.
Izzy Warrick, Katie Chappell and Heather Ford all added seven points for the Eagles. Arianna Cannida led LAMP with nine points.
With the win, ACA improved to 3-0 in area play and will host the LAMP-BTW Magnet winner in the finals of the area tournament on Feb. 12 in the ACA gym. LAMP (1-2) and BTW Magnet (0-2) will settle second place in the area with next Friday’s matchup in the LAMP gym and will play each other again in the first round of the area tournament on Feb. 9 in the second-seeded team’s gym.
Thorsby 59, Alabama Christian 48
THORSBY -- Emily Jones scored 19 points to help the Rebels get out to a quick lead with a 21-point first quarter as Thorsby held off the Eagles 59-48 in the Thorsby gym on Thursday.
Jones and Carlie Wyatt combined for 13 points in the first quarter as Thorsby led 21-15 at the end of the first quarter and extended the lead to 10 points, 34-24, at the half.
Wyatt finished with 15 points, followed by McKinley Turner with 10.
Michaelyn Manning led Alabama Christian with 22 points.
The Eagles return home to play LAMP in a key area matchup on Friday in the ACA gym.
Meadowview Christian 37, Cornerstone Christian 24
SELMA -- Grace Redd had 17 points, five rebounds and six steals to lead the Trojans to a 37-24 win over Cornerstone on Thursday night.
Meadowview took an 18-14 lead at the half, then held Cornerstone to just two points in the third quarter to extend the lead.
Kendra Campbell added eight points, 17 rebounds and three steals for Meadowview (7-4), which plays Lowndes on Monday.