AHSAA SEMIS: Lee one step away from making program history
By TIM GAYLE
Robert E. Lee pulled away from a one-point halftime lead with a 22-point third quarter that swung the momentum to the Generals and sent the team into the championship game of the Alabama High School Athletic Association state tournament with a 65-57 win over Oak Mountain on Thursday morning.
The Generals (32-1) will be in the finals for only the second time in school history, playing three-time defending state champion Mountain Brook or Fairhope on Saturday at 5:45 p.m. in the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Center’s Legacy Arena.
“I’ve been here 15 years and it feels good to be playing for a state championship,” Lee coach Bryant Johnson said. “I’ve had a lot of good teams and opportunities to be in this situation. (This year’s team) is a special group. They love one another and most teams aren’t like that. It’s a bittersweet moment because even though we’re in the championship, we’ve only got one more game with these guys.”
Oak Mountain, making its first-ever appearance in the state tournament, ended its season at 22-9.
“All the credit to them, they are really, really talented,” Oak Mountain coach Chris Love said. “They were in the (semifinals) with Mountain Brook last year and they really, really want it this year.”
The two teams battled to a 14-14 tie at the end of the first quarter and had a mistake-filled second quarter with Lee holding a 24-23 halftime advantage after Oak Mountain hit just two of its 12 3-point attempts in the first half.
The Generals got untracked in the third quarter, a quarter that Love said “a few lost possessions” helped Lee gain control of the game. In the fourth quarter, Lee owned a 14-point lead with four minutes left, then withstood a 3-point barrage in the final minutes from Oak Mountain to advance to the state finals for the first time since losing to Vestavia Hills in 1992.
Generals senior point guard De’marquiese Miles had 20 points, three assists, four steals and no turnovers. Jamari Smith added 12 points and 12 rebounds and Deyunkrea Lewis had 12 points and two steals. A big key for the Generals were seven turnovers in 32 minutes, offset by 10 steals. That made up for Oak Mountain’s 35-32 advantage on the boards.
“Last year, it was a big hump,” Miles said. “We knew we were supposed to be there and we knew we should have won. So we’ll keep that same mindset and keep pushing forward.”
Miles hopes his team has better luck than the last group of Generals that reached the finals. In 1992, Lee battled Vestavia Hills to a 5-5 tie in the first four minutes of the game, then watched the Rebels roll off 26 unanswered points to turn the game into a rout.
That Lee squad was making its first state tournament appearance in 13 years, however. This year’s squad reached the semifinals last year before losing to Mountain Brook and is the first Lee team in the 65-year history of the program to make back-to-back trips to the state semifinals.
Lee reached the semifinals in 1959, 1961, 1975, 1992, 1997, 2015 and 2019 before beating Jeff Davis to make it back this season.