TUESDAY HOOPS: STJ girls hold on for win over trinity

St. James’ Ava Card drives on Trinity’s Lilly Smith in the Lady Trojans’ win on Tuesday. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

In the battle for city supremacy, the St. James girls jumped out to a huge lead over Trinity in a 3A Area 6 contest, but the Wildcats wouldn’t go quietly.

The Trojans owned an 18-point lead at halftime, but a 23-point fourth quarter brought Trinity back to within a basket with 40 seconds left before St. James held on for a 60-57 win in the St. James gym on Tuesday night. 

The loss snapped a 12-game winning streak for Trinity (16-4) and an 11-game winning streak in the series between the two teams -- including a four-game winning streak by the Wildcats on the Trojans’ home floor.

“I’m smart enough to know that (St. James) is a good enough team and she’s a good enough coach that at some point, that ain’t going to keep happening,” Trinity coach Blake Smith said. “Our state championship team won in overtime here last year. I’m not so sure in the second half we didn’t play better tonight than we did then.” 

The Wildcats used 3-pointers by Maddie Smith and Mya Moskowitz to break a 6-6 tie, but then the Trojans went to work, using the play of senior Ava Card and eighth grader Kaitlin Mitchell in the paint to take command of the game.

Ignore Card and the 2,000-point scorer would carve up the Wildcats for three consecutive baskets to turn a deficit into a 22-17 lead midway through the second quarter. Concentrate on Card and the Trojans responded with eight points from Mitchell in the first quarter and seven more in the second, part of a 19-point performance by the eighth grader.

In the fourth quarter, seventh grader Morgan Lilly scored eight of her 15 to help the Trojans hold off the Wildcats down the stretch. Clearly, there’s more to St. James than simply guarding Card and keeping an eye on the others. 

“Last year with that philosophy, we were good enough to beat them,” Smith said. “That is not the case. They’re improved and they’ve got more people who can put the ball in the basket. I think it took us feeling that out, seeing that and figuring out how we want to handle that. At the end of the day, a few of their players were definitely better on the varsity floor than maybe I anticipated they would be.”

 Moskowitz, whose 3-pointer was her only basket in the first half, spent much of the first half in foul trouble as Mitchell helped the Trojans to a 36-18 halftime lead, but scored 11 points in the second half to help the Wildcats rally. 

“Mya got in foul trouble and that always affects her,” Smith said. “Then you have to figure out how hard do you play, I don’t want to foul and I’m guarding that player, so maybe that player scores a little more because you don’t want to pick up a foul. 

“Some of (the Wildcats’ first-half performance) was nerves. Some of them haven’t played a major role in these games. Three of them have, but the others haven’t played a significant role. I don’t think our spacing was quite right, our movement was quite right.”

Maddie Smith scored 18 of her 24 points in the second half as she teamed with Moskowitz and Francie Morris, who finished with 15, to rally the Wildcats. Trinity would trim the deficit to eight points early in the fourth quarter, then use a 7-0 run late to cut it to 58-56 on a Moskowitz basket with 40 seconds left. 

Card, who finished with 18 points, added a free throw with 4.4 seconds left, but Smith countered with one a second later. Lilly added another with 1.7 seconds left before Smith took an in-bounds pass from Moskowitz and launched a 37-foot shot at the buzzer that banked off the glass, hit the front of the rim and bounced away.

Barton wasn’t pleased at Trinity’s 23-point fourth quarter, but was happy with the win.

“I think I would have done a few things differently, offensively, in the fourth (quarter) and I think I would have made some different adjustments, I didn’t like a few of the things I did on the defensive end in the second half,” Barton said. “Credit to them, they hit shots in the second half. I knew Blake’s team would make a run -- and they did -- and we did enough to hang on and win the game.

“Hopefully, we can play well enough where we have to play them three more times.”

The two teams will play at Trinity next week, then are expected to meet again in the area tournament final and perhaps -- as they did last year -- in the Central Regional final in Birmingham. 

“I’m really happy for the girls,” Barton said. “I think Trinity is a high caliber team. They’re the defending state champs. He’s got everyone back healthy and they’re a really, really good team. So I’m really happy with the win and I want my girls to celebrate it and feel good about it but we’ve still got a lot of work to do because we’re going to have to play them multiple times.”   

BOYS: Trinity tops St. James

A strong first-quarter performance led St. James to a surprising lead over Trinity in the 3A Area 6 matchup between the two teams in the St. James gym on Tuesday. 

At halftime, Trinity had struggled to find any offensive consistency and the winless Trojans maintained a four-point lead heading into the locker room. 

“Credit to them,” Trinity coach Matt Arrighi said. “They have a way of playing their style that is so effective, year after year. It was a dogfight early. We had an unbelievable amount of turnovers in the first quarter. That was the message at halftime -- stay the course and clean up the ball security and it will be fine.”

Message received. The Trojans suddenly hit a stretch of shots that failed to connect and a 17-5 run by the Wildcats put them in control on the way to a 70-51 win.

St. James (0-9) got 18 first-half points from Tabor Offord, which offset the short-handed Trojans having to play without injured starter Paxton Wingard. And while the Trojans eventually wilted in the second half as Trinity got points from six of its seven players off the bench, Arrighi said he didn’t think his team’s struggles in the first half were a result of taking the Trojans lightly. 

“I would like to think our guys are not looking at records and are looking at the fact it’s an area game and an in-town rival,” he said. “Despite what their record is, you turn on the film and they have guys that can make plays and they have guys that can score so you’d better be ready to go.”

Trinity (13-5) improved to 2-1 in 3A Area 6 play heading into Friday’s game at Montgomery Academy, a game behind the 3-0 Eagles and a game ahead of Alabama Christian (1-2). St. James dropped to 0-3 in area play and will face Alabama Christian on Friday. 

John Morris led Trinity with 18 points, followed by Cooper Bernier with 15 and Perrson Clements with 12, including eight in the second half. 

“In the second half, we did a much better job of not turning over the ball,” Arrighi said. “Perrson Clements came off the bench and gave us a huge spark, particularly when John got in foul trouble, and did a great job of playing in the middle of that zone and making some good plays. Cooper hit some big shots, particularly in the first half when we got down and needed to keep it at bay so that we went into the locker room only down a possession or two.”

Offord led St. James with 19 points, followed by Clint Houser with 11.  

GIRLS BASKETBALL 

Montgomery Academy 40, Alabama Christian 13

Montgomery Academy snapped a 10-game losing streak in area games dating back to 2022 with a win over Alabama Christian in the ACA gym on Tuesday night.

Kaci Armistead led Montgomery Academy with 13 points, followed by Sophia Cho with 12 points and Olivia Smith with 10 points as the Eagles won an area game for the first time since their last regular-season area game against Catholic in 2022. The Eagles lost in the first round of the area tournament that year to Prattville Christian, lost all seven area games last year and the first two this season. 

Montgomery Academy defeated ACA earlier this year, but it was a non-area tournament game. 
Montgomery Academy (5-12) improved to 1-2 in 3A Area 6 play and will play host to Trinity on Friday in an area contest.

Lakeside School 51, Abbeville Christian 31

EUFAULA -- Chloe Helms scored 21 points to lead the Lakeside girls to a 20-point win over the Generals on Tuesday night in Pitts Gymnasium. 

Addysen Ericksen added 10 points for Lakeside, followed by Dylin White with seven as the Chiefs won their area opener.

Lakeside remains at home to play Chambers Academy in an area game on Wednesday. 

BOYS BASKETBALL

Montgomery Academy 64, Alabama Christian 46

Montgomery Academy used a 28-point second quarter to overcome Alabama Christian’s quick start and secure a 64-46 win in a 3A Area 6 game in the ACA gym on Tuesday. 

ACA jumped out to a fast start, ending the first quarter with a 15-7 lead, but Montgomery Academy responded with a 28-14 run to take a 35-29 halftime lead. Montgomery Academy secured the victory with a strong fourth-quarter effort that held ACA to three points. 

Seth Edwards scored a game-high 23 points, grabbed seven rebounds and had four steals and a blocked shot defensively to lead Montgomery Academy. Skyler Stoval chipped in 16 points, grabbed seven rebounds, had three assists and three steals, followed by Brewer Welch with 12 points, six rebounds and four assists and DJ Vinson with eight points and 12 rebounds. 

Montgomery Academy (16-6) improves to 3-0 in Area 6 play and continues area play on Friday at home against Trinity in the annual “Coaches vs. Cancer Classic.”

Lee-Scott Academy 55, Macon East Academy 48

AUBURN -- Jacob Johnson had 17 points, five rebounds and four assists, but the Knights came up short in a 55-48 loss in the Lee-Scott gym on Tuesday night.

Macon East dropped to 1-5 in AAA Region 1 play.

Keagan Roney had 13 points, 10 rebounds, a steal and a blocked shot for the Knights, followed by Omarion Wilson with eight points, two rebounds and three assists and Jackson Todd with seven points, eight rebounds, two steals and an assist.

Macon East (5-12) returns home to play host to Glenwood School on Thursday.  

Valiant Cross Academy 74, Evangel Christian School 72

Deshawn Hall had 22 points, 14 rebounds and six blocked shots to lead the Warriors to a 74-72 win over Evangel School of Alabaster on Tuesday.

Letwan Hall Jr., added 14 points and nine rebounds, while John Cosby also had 14 points along with four steals.

Valiant Cross (16-4) returns to AAA Region 1 play on Friday with a big game at home against Lee-Scott Academy.