AISA A SEMIS: Evangel boys advance, girls falter

By TIM GAYLE

When Evangel Christian Academy senior Marcus Townsend asked his teammates for the ball, it must have been a welcome sound to his coach.

Kerwin Washington has been pushing Townsend for the past three years to become more assertive and to take charge in games. And when his team needed him the most, Townsend delivered.

“The last time he was that aggressive for us, we were playing Southern last year (in the Class A semifinals) when he wanted the ball, he wanted to lead the team,” Washington said. “He made great plays for us tonight. We couldn’t have gotten this win without him. He stepped up.”

A year later, in almost the exact same scenario, Townsend stepped forward to lead his team past Pickens Academy in the Class A semifinals in a 59-49 victory on Wednesday at the Multiplex at Cramton Bowl.

Except it isn’t the same scenario. Last year’s team was 27-1, a veteran group that included Jakolvian Johnson, Jordan Grice, David Werking and the AISA player of the year, Tyree Curry. All of those players are gone, leaving just Townsend and Curry’s backup a year ago, Kennedy Holland, as the only players with any real varsity experience.

“We didn’t really have many people coming back,” Townsend said. “For most of them, it’s their first time playing varsity basketball, so we just keep working. We didn’t expect to come this far, but we just face the adversity as always.”

Evangel (9-5) struggled to find points in the first quarter of Wednesday’s game, with center Nii Addy picking up two quick personal fouls and spending the rest of the half on the bench, altering the strategy of the Lions. 

“We became stagnant,” Washington observed. “We were playing a guy who probably doesn’t get a whole lot of reps. We played a quarter and a half with a first-year player who has never played. Ashton (Woodard) came in and gave us great minutes in the first half.”

With Addy out, the Lions got a 3 pointer from Townsend, three baskets on drives by Holland and a pair of baskets from forward Aaron McNeil to grab a 20-16 lead at the half. 

The Pirates were still hanging around a few minutes later when Townsend called for the ball and dropped a 3 pointer from the top, then drove the baseline with a strong move to finish on a foul and complete a three-point play. Moments later, a technical foul on the Pirates sent the senior back to the line for a pair of free throws and the Lions were on their way to the finals, holding off Pickens in the fourth quarter by hitting 14 of 21 free throws in the final period. 

“I just wanted the ball, I wanted to take over the game,” Townsend said. “I wanted to help my teammates to live by me.”

Townsend finished with 17 points, followed by Holland with 16, including eight in the fourth quarter, Cyrek Smith with 10 and Addy with nine.

Hayden Dyer led Pickens with 17 points, followed by William Parker with 14 and Rafe Brown with 10.

And in one of the more unlikely scenarios of an uncertain season, Evangel Christian is back in the state championship for the fifth consecutive year, facing Heritage Christian on Tuesday at 12:30 p.m. in search of their third consecutive title. 

“We’re a young bunch,” Washington said. “My job as a coach is to beat them up as much as I can in practice to get them ready for a battle every game. Evangel is a marked team. Every team in the AISA understands what Evangel basketball is about. So it’s getting these guys to understand our tradition, our legacy, what we are as a program. Every year we expect to get to the championship game.”

Evangel girls fall to Pickens Academy

The first half of Wednesday’s Class A semifinal matchup between Pickens Academy and Evangel Christian Academy was reflective of two teams trying to find an offensive rhythm. Regardless of what transpired in the first half, the fact the game was tied 13-13 was indicative of how it was anyone’s game in the second half.  

Pickens Academy took the floor determined to correct any deficiencies and play harder in the second half. Evangel Christian didn’t.

“We told them after the game that the difference was big-time players make big-time plays in big-time games,” Evangel Christian coach Haley Rosa said. “And I felt like we just didn’t have that. We lost something. Our body language was poor coming out of halftime.”

And while the Pirates grabbed control of the game in the third quarter and went on to win 44-26, it wasn’t as if Pickens did anything different. It just seemed as if Evangel Christian was going through the motions, regardless of the score or the outcome. 

“I feel like we’re in this same boat every year, although we did at least make it to the final four this year,” said Rosa, who held her players for a 30-minute conversation after the game. “They’ve got to remember that feeling, what you’re feeling as you’re sitting here with this disappointment, knowing you let something slip through your fingers. At the same time, you’ve got to be willing to do what it takes to correct that.”

While neither team showed any offensive spark in the first quarter, the game took on an ominous tone for the Lions when Zaria Johnson, an imposing 6-foot-4 force in the middle for Evangel, limped to the sideline after reinjuring her right ankle.

Johnson would finally return to the lineup late in the third quarter and promptly contribute three baskets, but it was too late to save Evangel. 

“It took a toll on us mentally more than anything,” Rosa said. “We were tied at halftime and she didn’t play hardly any of the second quarter. I just think mentally we had in our head that we couldn’t play without her, which is not the way they’re coached, and we just got into this funk that we couldn’t get ourselves out of.”

Without Johnson in the lineup, the Pirates were able to concentrate their defense on the Lions’ other post player, Ky’sha McNeely. When Johnson returned in the final minute of the third quarter, McNeely was on the bench in foul trouble and moments later Destiny Betton was helped off the court with a knee injury. Meanwhile, the Lions’ top perimeter scorer, Karley Blankenship, took just two shots, hitting both 3-point attempts but never trying to take on more of a scoring role.

“We assumed we were going to see some type of junk defense when it came to our ‘bigs,’” Rosa said. “Mentally, we just didn’t come ready to play that second half for whatever reason.”

Betton led the Lions with eight points, followed by Johnson, McNeely and Blankenhip with six points each.

Kate Wilkins led Pickens with 17 points, followed by Andrey Fondren with 11 and Baylee Jaynes with nine.

Evangel ends the season at 3-7 and while Rosa is losing three seniors, four junior starters will return in 2021-22.

“We just couldn’t get in a rhythm once the season started,” Rosa said. “We went through two separate quarantine periods. We missed the first eight scheduled games of the season, then we went through another when we got back from Christmas and just couldn’t get in the flow.”