2A SW BOYS FINAL: Faulk leads Highland Home to regional title
Keldric Faulk runs over Greene County’s Brandon Pack on the baseline in Highland Home’s win in the Class 2A Southwest Regional final at the Multiplex on Monday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
Keldric Faulk has played in the Class 2A football semifinals twice for Highland Home, but the junior has never experienced an event like Monday’s Southwest Regional championship game at the Multiplex at Cramton Bowl.
“This isn’t like a fourth-round football game,” Faulk said. “To me, this is bigger than that. Because nobody had any faith in us. We were the underdog in every game. And just to prove people wrong, to go up there (to the state tournament in Birmingham) and showcase our skills is a great feeling.”
The Flying Squadron (28-5) advanced to the state tournament for the first time in school history with a 50-40 win over Greene County on Monday. Highland Home will play the winner of the Sheffield-Mars Hill Bible game in the 2A semifinals on Monday at 7:30 p.m.
“We’ll have to be prepared for whatever we see and hope we can be mature enough to prepare for the moment,” Highland Home coach Jonny Mitchell said. “I’ve got kids who have never even been to Birmingham, much less been in the civic center (BJCC Legacy Arena) to play a game.”
Highland Home jumped out to a 17-5 lead in the first quarter and held the Tigers (17-11) at bay the remainder of the game, relying on a strong rebounding effort led by Faulk and some clutch outside shooting by the Flying Squadron.
“No. 4 (Allen Pelt) is a really good basketball player,” Mitchell said. “We wanted to keep him in front of us, close out on him. And No. 1 (Akeem Edmonds) is a good guard, so keep them in front of us, make them jump-shoot it and then we’ve got to put a body on their big guys because they’re very tenacious rebounding the basketball.
“Early on, we had to rebound the basketball and we had to make some outside shots to make them come out of that (zone) and make them play ‘man’ and we were lucky enough to do enough.”
Pelt finished with 13 points, but Edmonds and Pelt combined to hit just 7 of 26 shots (27 percent), while the rest of the Tigers shot 50 percent (9 of 18).
“Great ‘man’ defense, that’s what we’re good at,” Faulk said. “We’ve always had the philosophy that defense helps us score on offense, gives us fastbreak opportunities, and so far this year, that’s what we’ve been good at.”
Faulk led the Squadron with 16 points and was credited with just 10 rebounds, with Terrin Brown adding 12 points and Latregan Cooper had 11. So far, the players have adjusted to each stage of the march through the playoffs.
“I worried about that in the first half against St. Luke’s (in the regional semifinals),” Mitchell said. “We tried to play a tough schedule. We came up here and played all the private schools (in the Jack Schweers Capital City Classic), we played Hillcrest-Evergreen, we played in Florida, we played Greenville. We tried to prepare for it, but I don’t think you can prepare for the weight on your shoulders in one of these games. But a lot of our guys have been in big football games before.”
And while Faulk, one of the state’s top football recruits, noted that “football is my heart,” he’s having fun with each game in this year’s playoff run.
“I’ve always loved to come out and compete in basketball,” he said. “I’ve been playing since I was in the seventh grade and I haven’t stopped since. This is unbelievable. Last year, we lost in the (sub-regional) round to Thorsby. Ever since then, we’ve been working hard to get past that first level. Once we got past the first level, we figured that we can pull this off, doing something our school has never done.”
The next stop on the Flying Squadron’s tour is the Legacy Arena.
“I had Kel and K.D. (Kendarious Shepherd), who comes off the bench, and Terrin in the seventh grade,” Mitchell said. “I was teaching history class and we were coming off a three-win season. For us to go where we were to here, it’s huge. It means a ton to our community, it means a ton to our kids.”