PREP HOOPS RECAP: MA teams get key wins over PCA

Montgomery Academy celebrates the win over Prattville Christian Academy on Friday. (Tim Gayle)

Compiled by TIM GAYLE

PRATTVILLE – Montgomery Academy girls’ 60-59 win in overtime over Prattville Christian Academy had a déjà vu feel on Friday night.

It was late November when Montgomery Academy’s Gabby Ramirez stepped to the free-throw line with six-tenths of a second left, getting some encouragement from fellow senior Madi Caddell before sinking both free throws to beat Prattville Christian 48-47.

It was only fitting that as Caddell stepped to the free-throw line with 1.7 seconds remaining on Friday night against the Panthers, facing the exact same situation, Ramirez stepped between Caddell and the other players on either side of the lane for a quick word of encouragement that elicited a brief smile from Caddell. 

“She came up to me and she was like, ‘Exactly what you said to me last time,’” Caddell said. ‘“Think about exactly what you said to me last time because now it’s you.’ It honestly did (help). I knew it would help her if I encouraged her when it was her doing it. Her coming up to me and saying the same thing really helped me. It was so nerve wracking.”  

To make matters worse, as Caddell drained the first attempt to tie the game, Montgomery Academy coach Reg Mantooth called timeout. 

“I just wanted to make sure we weren’t going to foul on a miss,” Mantooth explained. “Sometimes when you’ve been fouling and trying to get the ball the whole time and you finally tie it up, I just wanted to make sure they knew that even if she misses, we don’t have to attack the ball again and foul them.”

Caddell stepped back to the line and knocked down the second attempt as well.

The win gave Montgomery Academy (15-2) a 3-0 record in 3A Area 5, with each area victory coming in their opponents’ gyms.

“It was a big win,” Mantooth said. “It took a lot of heart and a lot of fight and a lot of effort. It wasn’t real pretty. We just kept fighting to get the win.”

It didn’t come without difficulty or controversy. The two teams, as they did earlier this season in a pair of tournament meetings, battled evenly through the first quarter before PCA forged ahead, fell behind, then took the lead in the final minute of the game. 

MA, which had led by six points with 3:30 left, trailed by five with 57 seconds left as Ramirez made her only shot of the game, a 3 pointer to trim the deficit to a basket. A foul called against Leighton Robertson on a scramble for a loose ball sent Ella Jane Connell to the line with seconds remaining. Connell made the first attempt to put PCA up by three, but missed the second.

Robertson rebounded the miss, sprinted downcourt and pulled up for a shot as the horn sounded. Her shot came after the horn sounded and her right foot was over the 3-point arc, but officials counted the shot as a 3 pointer, sending the game into overtime.

PCA coach Jason Roberson lobbied the officials to overturn the call, to no avail, but neither coach wanted to offer an opinion on whether the shot left Robertson’s hands in time to count. 

“I’m not going to say,” Mantooth said.

“I’ll just say it’s unfortunate,” Roberson said.

In overtime, the Panthers surged back ahead with a pair of baskets by Hannah Jones in the paint, but connected on just 3 of 7 from the free-throw line, leaving the Eagles within striking distance.

MA got a basket in the paint from Ann Cobern Chapman and went 6 of 6 at the free-throw line, using four free throws from Robertson and the game-winning pair from Caddell. 

The Panthers (17-3) have now lost all three meetings with Montgomery Academy, but defeated everyone else on their schedule. 

“They’re competitive,” Roberson said of his players, “but MA is a different level of competitiveness. They have six seniors who know it’s their last go-round. They want to win a state championship really bad. I think our girls want to win a state championship, I’m not sure we want to win it as bad as MA. We had a good lead, up double digits in the first half, and we tend to relax instead of continuing to do what we’re supposed to do 

“It’s kind of like the big sister and the little sister. Sometimes, as a big sister, you let the little sister get the best of you, then you say, ‘I’ve had enough.’ I kind of felt like that’s what was happening (when MA took control midway through the fourth quarter). I was really, really proud of our girls for how they responded to that. I wasn’t sure they had that in them.”

The Panthers kept MA off balance with a triangle-and-two defense that assigned two defenders to Chloe Johnson and Ramirez, the Eagles’ primary ball handlers. Ramirez finished with three points, taking just two shots, while Johnson managed just one field goal and finished with six points, two steals, three assists and two rebounds before fouling out in overtime.

“It was definitely not what we were expecting,” Caddell said. “We prepared for the defenses they could have come out with, but we were not expecting that. But we all have trust in the rest of our teammates. Even though Chloe and Gabby are both central to our team, everyone else on the team plays a huge role and we knew it was going to be OK.”

Robertson had 27 points, nine rebounds, four steals, two assists and two blocked shots, followed by Virginia Meacham with eight points.

And while Johnson’s exit in overtime hurt the Montgomery Academy offense, the Panthers suffered a similar blow seconds later when Connell fouled out, leaving the game after scoring 19 points, six rebounds, five assists and four steals. 

“I think the difference is MA has multiple ball handlers,” Roberson said. “That’s not to take anything away from Chloe, who is an unbelievable player. And, of course, they’re better when she’s on the floor. But I think they’re better suited to play without somebody like that than we are to play without Ella Jane.”

Jones added 17 points and 12 rebounds for PCA, followed by Avery Rogers with 13 points and CoCo Thomas with eight points and 12 rebounds. 

PCA travels to Trinity on Tuesday while MA returns home to play Catholic as both teams continue their quest for the Area 5 regular-season title while trying not to look ahead to the Jan. 26 rematch in the MA gym.

“Our two teams are so competitive with each other,” Caddell said. “They beat us once last year and ever since then, it’s been so competitive. Both teams just really want it bad.”

MA boys overcome poor first half to beat PCA

Montgomery Academy trailed by 21 points at the half of Friday’s area matchup with Prattville Christian, managing just one field goal late in the first quarter and two more in the second.

Montgomery Academy coach Jeremy Arant had a few choice words for his players in the locker room.

“If you don’t want to come out and play with great effort and the pride that it takes to wear that uniform, then we’ll find somebody else who will,” Arant said. 

The Eagles responded with an intense and determined effort in the second half, but the halftime deficit was too great to overcome as the Panthers won their first area game with a 58-42 victory in the PCA gym.

“When you put yourself in a hole like that, you basically have no room for error the rest of the game,” Arant noted. “You chip away, chip away, chip away and feel like you’ve played pretty good and get it down to 11 (by the end of the third quarter), make one mistake and it’s back to 14.”

On the other hand, Prattville Christian started out slow on the offensive end, but caught fire in a 23-point second quarter, making transition baskets off the press, finding players in the paint and bombing away from the perimeter to open up an insurmountable lead.

“I feel like we’ve gotten better as the season has gone on,” PCA coach Jason Roberson said. “We started the year 1-7 and we played some good competition. The guys have bought in that this is a process. We’ve lost a lot of games but through that we’ve grown and gotten better. I felt like in our first two area games, we played better than we had played before, but Catholic and Trinity are good teams. MA is a good team. Our area is tough.”

PCA (7-12) won its first area game with a strong second-quarter performance from Jacob Comer and Carson Roberson, but also with its trapping defense that turned Montgomery Academy into a more deliberate half-court offense, which isn’t its style.

“We’ve gotten better at it,” Roberson said of his team’s defensive pressure. “Every team is different. You can be really good at pressure and when you play a team that’s really good at breaking pressure, it doesn’t work as well. They’ve got some guys that can break the pressure but I feel like we’ve just gotten a little better. Our rotation is getting a little quicker and a little faster.”

MA (5-6) fought back to within 11 points on a pair of occasions with a strong second-half shooting performance from Britton Kohn, who finished with 26 points and six rebounds, but couldn’t sustain the effort long enough to cut the deficit to single digits as the Panthers scored 19 points in the final quarter.

“We came out really, really flat,” Arant said, “but I don’t want to take anything away from them. They played really good early. They’re a well-coached team and were obviously well prepared.

Comer led the Panthers with 29 points, five assists and four rebounds, followed by Roberson with 12 points.

In the junior varsity game, MA held on for a 44-41 victory over PCA (3-7) despite 23 points and four steals by Brady Roberson and 10 points and four rebounds from Collier Connell.

MA returns home for area games next week against Catholic on Tuesday and Trinity on Friday, while PCA travels to Trinity on Tuesday and plays host to Catholic on Friday.

BOYS BASKETBALL

Catholic 56, Trinity 44

DJ Jamerson had 15 points and 15 rebounds as the Knights pulled away in the fourth quarter to win a battle of area unbeatens on Friday night in the Catholic gym.

Myles Butler added 13 points, 10 rebounds and five steals as the Knights (10-5) outscored Trinity 19-12 in the fourth quarter to improve to 3-0 in area play. 

Ben Easterling led Trinity (11-6) with 10 points, followed by Beau O’Ferrell with nine and Jon Cole Portis with eight as the Wildcats dropped to 2-1 in area play. 

Catholic will play host to Robert E. Lee on Monday night before resuming area play with a game at Montgomery Academy on Tuesday.

Trinity returns home to play host to Prattville Christian in an area game on Tuesday.

LAMP 62, BTW Magnet 61

Felix McGhee scored 26 points as the Golden Tigers rallied from a 10-point deficit in the final three minutes to edge BTW Magnet 62-61 in a 4A Area 5 game on Friday night. 

Jordan McKenzie added 11 points for LAMP, which travels to Alabama Christian next Friday for another area game. 

Bryce Brown led BTW-Magnet with 14 points. 

Pike Road 59, Tallassee 44

PIKE ROAD -- Blake Durham and Trey Wallace each had 23 points to lead the Patriots to a 15-point win over the Tigers in a 5A Area 5 matchup in the Pike Road gym on Friday night.

Pike Road (13-7) improved to 3-0 in area play with the win and remains home to play Bullock County on Tuesday and area rival Beauregard on Thursday.  

GIRLS BASKETBALL

LAMP 46, BTW Magnet 37

Mackenzie Lewis scored 24 points to lead LAMP to an area victory over BTW-Magnet on Friday night. 

Amiya Cleveland led BTW with 19 points.

Pike Road 1, Tallassee 0 (Forfeit)

PIKE ROAD -- Pike Road remained unbeaten in area play on Friday with a 5A Area 5 forfeit victory over the Tigers.

After a brawl against Calhoun resulted in ejections for both teams on Thursday, the Tigers didn’t have enough players to compete in the area contest on Friday.

Pike Road improved to 3-0 in area play with the win and returns to action on Tuesday against Bullock County.

EARLIER THIS WEEK

PCA girls 48, Trinity 43

After allowing Prattville Christian’s Ella Jane Connell to put on a shooting display that staked the Panthers to an early lead, the Trinity girls fought back into the contest, only to allow PCA’s inside game to take command in a 48-43 win on Tuesday night.

Connell had nine points in the first quarter, helping PCA to a 17-10 lead. But with Connell facing a double team the remainder of the game and sharp shooter Avery Rogers managing just a quiet first-quarter basket, the Wildcats were able to claw back to within one point midway through the third quarter.

That’s when the inside duo of Hannah Jones and CoCo Thomas, particularly Thomas, took command of the game. Jones finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds, but had just two points in the third quarter. Thomas finished with 12 points and eight rebounds, with eight of those points coming in the third quarter as the Panthers extended the lead to 39-30 heading into the fourth quarter.

Emma Kate Smith led Trinity with 12 points, followed by Mary Alice Sasser with 10. Maddie Smith had eight before limping off the court with a twisted left ankle in the fourth quarter.

Connell finished with 11 points and five rebounds to follow Rogers and Thomas in scoring for PCA.

Trinity 53, PCA 44

Jacob Comer scored eight of his game-high 18 points in the first quarter as the Panthers led 14-13. Trinity heated up a little in the second quarter and grabbed a 26-24 lead at the half, but extended the lead to 10 points (34-24) three minutes into the second half as Parker Hughes hit a pair of 3 pointers and Pruitt Lee added another to give the Wildcats some breathing room. 

PCA would keep pace for much of the remainder of the game but couldn’t cut into the lead.

Hughes led Trinity (11-5) with 15 points, including eight in the decisive third quarter. Jon Cole Portis added 12, followed by Sam McKee with nine.

Comer had five assists to go with his 18 points, while Coleman Hunter had 11 points and five rebounds and Carson Roberson had nine points for PCA. 

In the junior varsity game, Trinity defeated PCA 48-41. PJ Evans led the Panthers with 15 points, six rebounds and four assists, followed by Brady Roberson with 11 points and six rebounds and Collier Connell with nine points. 

BOYS BASKETBALL

Catholic 68, Montgomery Academy 47

Catholic connected on seven 3 pointers in the first half to build a 10-point lead at halftime, then went on a 21-12 run in the third quarter to defeat Montgomery Academy in an area game on Tuesday in the Catholic gym.

Myles Butler led the Knights with 20 points, followed by DJ Jamerson with 14 and Patrick Ryan with 11.

Jamal Cooper and Britton Kohn each had nine points to lead the Eagles, followed by Nigel Walker with eight points and six rebounds and Judson Lindsey with seven points, six rebounds and six assists. 

Catholic (9-5) improved to 2-0 in area play and will play host to Trinity in another area game on Friday.

Chambers Academy 62, Macon East Academy 61 (OT)

CECIL -- Payton Allen had 26 points, eight rebounds and seven assists as the Rebels edged Macon East in overtime to improve to 3-0 in region play. 

Kross Colley had eight points and 11 rebounds for Chambers (8-1), while Noah Freeman had eight points and nine rebounds.

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Montgomery Academy 69, Catholic 31

Chloe Johnson hit four 3 pointers in the first quarter to wipe out a quick 8-0 deficit and help the Eagles to an area win over the Knights on Tuesday night in the Catholic gym.

Johnson finished with 17 points and seven assists, helping Montgomery Academy to a 26-point first quarter and a 14-point lead in the first eight minutes.

Madi Caddell added 16 points for the Eagles, followed by Gabby Ramirez with 13 points and five assists.

Julienne Pharrams led Catholic with 18 points.

Alabama Christian Academy 53, Highland Home 33

Sarah Johnson and Michaelyn Manning each scored six points in the first quarter as the Eagles jumped out to a quick lead and cruised to a win over the Flying Squadron on Tuesday in the ACA gym.

ACA led 26-14 at the half and maintained that lead through the third quarter before extending the lead to 20 points in the final quarter.

Manning finished with 17 points while Johnson had 10. Katie Chappell scored 12 points -- 10 in the second half -- and Izzy Warrick added 10. 

Ayden Reese led Highland Home with 20 points, followed by Janya Foster with seven.