3A SE GIRLS SEMIS: Trinity makes quick work of Houston Academy, turns attention to defending champs
Mya Moskowitz finds the lane in Trinity’s win over Houston Academy Thursday at Garrett Coiiseum. (TIm Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
It didn’t take long for the focus to turn to Tuesday’s regional final matchup with an old familiar foe.
Trinity scored the first eight points of the game, took a 25-5 lead into the second quarter and coasted to a 75-38 win over Houston Academy in the Southeast Regional semifinals at Garrett Coliseum on Thursday afternoon.
Next up for the Wildcats (26-5) is Area 6 rival Prattville Christian Academy (33-1) on Tuesday at 3 p.m. The Panthers’ only loss came eight days ago at the hands of the Wildcats.
“We think Jesus has put us in this spot and PCA is drawing out the best version of us,” Trinity coach Blake Smith said. “We may not beat them again but they’re taking us to our potential because they’re so good. In some ways, I would say I’m thankful for that. We want to win and we’re going to try to win, but we want to become the best versions of us that God made us to be. PCA has been a tool to help us do that. Whatever happens, I think we’ll look back and be thankful, assuming that we played with effort and physicality and details the whole time.
“We’ve been here before and people have just been more physical that us. We’ve worked really hard on that.”
This will mark Trinity’s fifth trip to the regional finals since the format was introduced in 1994. After four years of failing to qualify for the playoffs, Trinity reached the regional semifinals in 2019 and 2020, losing to Childersburg and Handley.
“Sometimes you get in your head that you’re really good and then you play a team and you’re good, but you can’t just come in here and expect to win,” said Trinity junior Emma Kate Smith, who played Childersburg as an eighth grader and Handley as a freshman. “You’ve got to be ready. Everybody’s good now (at this point in the playoffs). You have to expect it to be a battle and be ready to be physical because you know you’re going get pushed around, you know it’s going to be tough. I think now I’m definitely more in that mindset and I’m ready for it this time.”
The Wildcats looked like a poised and determined team on Thursday, jumping on the overmatched Raiders quickly with a trio of Smith 3 pointers. She finished with 20 points, followed by Mya Moskowitz with 17, Maddie Smith with 13 and Mary Alice Sasser with 11.
It marks two running-clock routs since winning the area tournament, cruising to wins over Reeltown in the sub regional and Houston Academy on Thursday.
“I think we were able to -- and this isn’t taking anything away from those teams -- catch our breath a little bit and now we have a couple of days to get ready,” Blake Smith said. “At the end of the day, we know we’ve got three games in a row that are going to take everything we’ve got. And we’ll be ready to do that.”
Emma Kate Smith said Thursday’s game allowed the Wildcats to “continue to work on physicality and all the details, boxing out and running through balls, not just waiting and letting the ball come to you. They were physical, so I think that was a good game for us to think about our physicality and work on it.”
Lauren Baker led Houston Academy (20-7) with 15 point, followed by Sara Bourkard with 11, but the Wildcats will now have to play their best game of the season to earn the program’s third trip to the state tournament in Birmingham.
Standing in their way is a fifth meeting this season with Prattville Christian Academy.
“The thing we’ve had to learn this whole time is you have to box out in the post,” Emma Kate Smith said. “That’s our main thing is not letting them get offensive rebounds, just boxing out and being tough. Because when you’re tough with them, it’s going to be close. If not, they’ve got Hannah (Jones) and CoCo (Thomas) and they’re taller than most of the people on our team. You can’t just sit around and watch them. If you do, they’re going to score a lot on you.”