4A SE GIRLS: 'Hall of Fame' performance puts St. James in State Tourney
St. James girls earns a trip to Birmimgham with the win over Geneva in Thursday’s Class 4A Southeast Regional championship game at Garrett Coliseum. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
Both St. James and Geneva entered Thursday morning’s Class 4A Southeast Regional championship game intent on taking away their opponents’ inside game, forcing them to win with their perimeter shooting.
Thankfully for St. James, they had KK Hall.
Hall, showing up for the second time in five days at Garrett Coliseum, repeated her performance in a semifinal win over Bibb County, going 3 for 3 from behind the arc and finishing with 16 points and six rebounds to give the Trojans a 47-42 win over the Panthers for the regional championship.
St. James (24-6) will play New Hope (26-5) in the state tournament at Legacy Arena on Tuesday at 3 p.m. It is the second time the Trojans have made the trip to Birmingham after their inaugural trip in 2018 when they lost to Deshler.
“It’s amazing,” Hall said. “I’ve dreamed of it since the last team went my seventh grade year. I went with my dad since he was the (assistant) coach and I was like, I want to be on this court.”To get to Birmingham, the Trojans would have to win their matchup with the Panthers in a rematch of last year’s Southeast Regional final. In that game, St. James fell behind 14-0, caught up, then lost the game down the stretch with a rash of turnovers. This time, it was Geneva that fell behind (11-0), caught up, then lost the game down the stretch with a rash of turnovers.
“I felt like we came out and made a run on them and then they chipped away,” St. James coach Katie Barton said. “It wasn’t 14-0 but it was definitely a momentum shift that happened after the first three or four minutes (as Geneva rallied). We started hitting some shots (in the fourth quarter). I just talked to the girls at halftime and (told them) it’s really just a game. I tried to remind them at halftime here are a few things we have to tweak, but we have to get out of our feelings, momentum shifts are going to happen and we’ve got to get the pendulum swinging our way.”
The game went in the Trojans’ favor early as Hall hit a pair of 3 pointers to spread out the Panthers.
“That was our game plan, we couldn’t lose her, and we lost her,” Geneva coach Richard Bixby said.
As the game unfolded, Geneva would rally with some inside baskets by center Melody Watson, but the Trojans kept the Panthers from winning the battle in the paint. Likewise, Geneva’s size kept Ava Card and Danielle Greene from having much success.
“Early, we missed some shots underneath,” Barton said. “I knew Danielle wasn’t going to come out with a big night because she’s got 6-3 (Watson) on her. I just needed her to do her role and block her out, have a good defensive presence. And they were sending double teams at Ava when she would get down in the paint. We knew that would be a struggle, but we’ve still got to learn when to force it and when not to.”
The Trojans settled down in the second half. Geneva struggled to find any offensive rhythm, losing a 35-32 advantage in the final eight minutes as both teams struggled to hit shots but the Trojans converted 10 of 12 free-throw attempts in the second half (while Geneva was 2 of 4) and handled the ball better.
“We didn’t hit the shots when we needed to,” Bixby said. “You can’t win a game if you don’t hit shots. The outside game hurt us today. We couldn’t get one to fall and they hit a lot of 3s. I thought we played pretty well defensively, but they’re really good at creating their own shot and knocking down the 3.”
Geneva (24-5) got 12 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots from Watson and 11 from Simone Minnifield but stars Madison Johnson and Makaley Boswell managed just eight and five points, respectively.
“You’re trying to get kids to buy into the ‘team’ and they want Madison to do it,” Bixby said. “She wasn’t there today. I tried to give her the old Michael Jordan flu speech but it didn’t work. But she is such a special kid.”
The Trojans surged into the lead with a pair of Card free throws and a clutch 12-foot jumper from the baseline by Natalie Barton with 1:52 left for a six-point lead, holding on through the latter part of the quarter while Hall sat on the bench with four personal fouls.
“I was ready to go back in,” Hall said. “I wanted to be on that court. But I knew (Barton) made the right decision to take me out.”
Boswell hit a 3 pointer -- only the Panthers’ second in 13 attempts -- with 28 seconds left, but it was too little, too late as Geneva’s turnovers killed any chances of a rally.
“I had a couple of young girls who tried to do too much and tried to create something they’re not capable of creating,” Bixby said. “Not that they’re not good players, but they tried to do too much and we turned it over trying to dribble through the 1-3-1 at the corner.”
Hall, meanwhile, scored her 1,000th career point in the second quarter while helping her team earn only the second trip to the state tournament in school history.
“It’s amazing,” she said. “I didn’t know how close I was, but it’s just amazing that I’ve got 1,000 points.”
Card added a game-high 17 points, along with six rebounds and four steals.
Remembering the poor shooting performance against Deshler, Barton predicted a better outing for her team in Birmingham this time.
“We were happy to be there last time,” she said. “We’ve got a group of girls that believe in each other and mesh well together. We’ll take a look at our opponent and see what they’re like.”