6A SW BOYS FINAL: Last-second stop sends T'Birds to Birmingham

Dee Smith’s bucket followed by a defensive stop sent Park Crossing to the Class 6A state semis in Birmingham. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE 

In one of the most exciting games of the 2022 postseason, Park Crossing and Eufaula battled evenly through much of the final three quarters before the Thunderbirds’ Dee Smith delivered the game-winning basket to send the newest member of MPS to the state tournament for the first time in school history.

Park Crossing was battling a more experienced, taller team that had reached the 2021 finals and were expected to return. But the Thunderbirds found some motivation in all the pre-game predictions.

“We just had to buy in to what Coach (Courtney Ward) was preaching all week,” Smith said. “We saw an article they had written before the game. We took that very personal, that it was a great season for us but we were going to fall short against Eufaula.”

The prediction almost came true. Josh Paige, who finished with 29 points, nailed a 3 pointer from the corner to tie the game with 1:09 left, then converted another three-point play the old-fashioned way, sinking a free throw following a made basket to give the Tigers a 58-57 lead with 44.6 seconds left.

Players from both teams would miss the front end of the one-and-one over the next 15 seconds before Smith went through the lane and challenged Eufaula’s post players, dropping in a shot off the basket as he was fouled with 10.3 seconds left. He missed the accompanying free throw but put the Thunderbirds in front 59-58.

“Coach had dialed up a play for me,” Smith said. “I’ve been working on it. All during workouts, I’ve been working on that move. So I just trusted myself and did it.”

Ward said Smith, who scored 15 of his team-high 17 points in the second half, was the logical choice for the last shot.

“We called the play, he made the play,” she said. “He’s been killing that spin move all season long but the fact that he went up strong with it and got the ‘and one’…

“I think he missed the free throw, too, didn’t he? I’m going to get him with that one. But he’s a tremendous kid. He was the first kid to buy into my program and it’s hard for a guy to believe in a women. But at the end of the game, I told him I made that promise to do what I’ve got to do to make him go on with a future and I’m just glad to be a part of it.”

Eufaula called timeout with 2.6 seconds left, but Josh Paige took his brother Caleb’s inbounds pass and was met with two Park Crossing defenders. As time was running out, his desperation shot was deflected into the hands of Yhanzae Pierre, who didn’t have enough time to take a shot and tried to push the ball upward toward the goal with no success, touching off a wild celebration among the Park Crossing fans that had crammed into the Multiplex at Cramton Bowl on Monday morning.

“It feels so good,” Smith said. “Words can’t even explain how good it feels.”

A school, now in its eighth year of existence, will send both its boys’ and girls’ basketball programs to the state tournament next week for the first time. Park Crossing (27-4) will play the Scottsboro-Cullman winner on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. at the BJCC’s Legacy Arena, while Eufaula ends a promising season at 31-4. 

“That’s real special,” Ward said. “A lot of teams don’t get to do it. Going back when I won state, my junior year, our boys and our girls (at Jeff Davis) won it back to back. We came home and got the key to the city, so I can definitely let them know how it feels and make it to a point where they want to feel the exact same thing.”

Ward has been successful wherever she’s been, winning a state championship at Jeff Davis in 2006, helping Florida State to its first Elite Eight appearance in 2010, taking the Sidney Lanier girls to the regional finals in 2017 and the Pike Road girls to the state tournament in 2020 before accomplishing the same feat at Park Crossing.

Still, she questions those who doubted the Thunderbirds’ chances against the Tigers on Monday.

 “It’s been like that all year,” Ward said. “I guess because I’m a female, I don’t know what it is, but to me and my crew, it’s nothing about being a female. I know the game. That doesn’t bother me. As long as those 15 boys and the four on the coaching staff have my back and we do what we do, it doesn’t bother me. You see the outcome.”

Park Crossing got there by winning the battle of the boards, 35-22, against a taller team that struggled for much of the game to reach its potential.

“That was just one of the keys,” she said. “I just told them they’ve got to be dogs, all five on the court have to go get rebounds. You’ve got to be dogs, you’ve got to get rebounds, you’ve got to make free throws. That’s what is going to win the game. That’s the most physical team we’ve seen all year. Lee is physical, scrappy, but they’re not an effective basketball team. That (Eufaula) team has shooters, they’re strong, they’re big. Honestly, that’s been our hardest challenge this year so the way they handled it, I don’t have the words to express how proud of them I am.”

Jayden Scott followed Smith in scoring with 14 points, while Aaron Brown added 12 and Ja’davian Robinson had 10.

Toney Coleman had 14 for Eufaula.

Smith was named the most valuable player of the tournament and was joined on the all-tournament team by Brown, Paige, Coleman and Hueytown’s Corey Stephenson.