PREP PLAYOFFS: St. James girls wins area tourney; Valiant Cross boys advances to Final 4
St. James center Ava Card shoots over Trinity’s Mya Moskowitz in Tuesday’s Class 3A, Area 6 championship game. (Tim Gayle)
COMBINED REPORTS
Without Trinity guard Francie Morris in the starting lineup, Tuesday’s meeting between the Wildcats and St. James for the 3A Area 6 Tournament championship had a different feeling.
The two teams engaged in an intense physical battle for four quarters, but without Morris, the Wildcats didn’t have the offense to keep up, falling to the Trojans 55-42 in the St. James gym.
“It changes a lot,” Trinity coach Blake Smith said. “There are a lot of things that go through your head. You’re going to have to put your other two (scoring) players (Maddie Smith and Mya Moskowitz) through a lot to try to win the game. In some ways, we get conservative.
“But I’m super proud of my team. We learned a lot. I feel as confident as I’ve felt yet, to be perfectly honest. Some girls that may have roles (in the postseason) did some good things and put themselves in some spots offensively and defensively they haven’t been. We’re excited about the upcoming few weeks.”
Morris missed her second consecutive game recovering from an ankle injury, Moskowitz limped off the court midway through the first quarter before returning for the final three quarters and Smith rarely took a shot in the first half.
“I thought that we tried to mix it up a little bit defensively,” St. James coach Katie Barton said. “It helps, of course, when you aren’t having to scheme against Francie because Francie is an outstanding player. When you’re having to scheme against Francie, Mya, Maddie and then they’ve got some really good shooters on the team, it makes it a little more challenging.
“But we approached the game as if Francie was playing, so our scheme, going in, is what we would have done. I asked the girls to go out and get after it and take it more as a business trip.”
St. James (25-5) will play host to either Monroe County or Thomasville in the sub-regional round on Friday at 6 p.m., aiming to make a fourth straight trip to the regionals for the first time in school history. Defending 3A state champion Trinity (22-6) will travel to face the winner of Wednesday night’s Monroe County-Thomasville game in the sub-regional round on Friday at 6 p.m.
“Sometimes, people will say this (area tournament championship) doesn’t mean a lot, but I think it means something to have home-court advantage on Friday night and not have to be on the road on a two-hour trip,” Barton said.
St. James defeated Trinity for the second time in three meetings, winning both games at home. The focus for girls’ basketball fans now shifts to Feb. 21 at Birmingham’s Bill Harris Arena where the 3A Central Regional final may offer a fourth meeting this season between the two teams, just as it did a year ago.
The two teams battled evenly for a quarter before Trinity switched to a zone defense, allowing Kaitlin Mitchell and Morgan Lilly open looks. Both Trojans hit a pair of 3-pointers, allowing St. James to grab a 33-21 halftime lead.
In the third quarter, the Trojans got eight points from Ava Card, who aggressively battled in the paint for each point. She finished with a game-high 17 points, going over the 2,200 career point total in the process.
“Early in the game, the way the game was being called, they set a tone where they were going to make us play through some stuff,” Barton said. “I thought we attacked the basket pretty hard in the first quarter, but we didn’t get any calls and get sent to the (free throw) line. So that was a halftime adjustment I talked about. Don’t fall away on your shot, go in, keep the ball high and see if we can force them to send us to the line a little more and I thought she went in there pretty aggressively with it.”
Lilly added 15 points, followed by Mitchell with 13.
For Trinity, Maddie Smith fired in a 3-pointer late in the third quarter and two more in the fourth to finish with nine points on a night where she was more comfortable passing the ball to teammates than taking shots.
“You never know what she’s seeing,” Blake Smith said. “You want to learn things, what’s open and what’s not open. She made some unbelievable passes tonight. But there were probably four or five more times where I wanted her to be aggressive, maybe even more than that as far as catching and shooting 3’s.”
Moakowitz added eight points, followed by Lizzy Cauley with seven, Ellie Causey with five and Emory Causey with five.
Card was named the tournament’s most valuable player. Joining the senior on the all-tournament team were teammates Lilly, Mitchell and Natalie Barton, Trinity’s Ellie Causey, Moskowitz and Maddie Smith, Montgomery Academy’s Sophia Cho and Alabama Christian’s Jaide Newkirk.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Prattville Christian 62, Wilcox Central 21
PRATTVILLE -- Area tournament MVP Kayden Carr had 15 points and 16 rebounds to lead three-time defending state champion Prattville Christian to a 62-21 win over Wilcox Central in the championship game of the 4A Area 5 Tournament at Prattville Christian on Tuesday.
Prattville Christian (24-7) will remain home in the sub-regional round on Friday, playing host to Northside at 6 p.m. PCA will be making its sixth consecutive trip to the sub-regional round, the longest streak in program history.
Avery Rogers added 14 points, eight rebounds and five assists for the Panthers, while Ally Blankinchip scored 14 points. Both Rogers and Blankinchip were named to the all-tournament team.
Baylee Rogers added 11 points, Leah Cate Wilson grabbed 14 rebounds and had five steals, Laura Beth NeSmith had three points and Reagan Houston had three points.
BOYS BASKETBALL
Valiant Cross Academy 58, Fort Dale Academy 39
GREENVILLE -- Deshawn Hall had 22 points, 16 rebounds, six blocked shots and four steals to lead Valient Cross Academy to a 58-39 win over the Eagles in the AISA Class AAA quarterfinals on Tuesday night in the Fort Dale gym.
Valiant Cross, now in its fourth year as an AISA program, will be making its first-ever trip to the AISA semifinals. The Warriors reached the Elite Eight at the Multiplex in 2022 before losing to Morgan 45-44.
Valiant Cross (22-5) will face Lee-Scott Academy in the AISA semifinals on Thursday at 4 p.m. The two region rivals will be meeting for the fourth time this season. Valiant Cross swept the home-and-home series before losing in the semifinals of the Region 1 Tournament 60-57 a week ago at Lee-Scott.