AISA BOYS FINALS: Valiant Cross raises first state championship trophy
Valiant Cross celebrates the Class AA state championship on Friday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
When the Valient Cross Academy players heard the news they would be required to forfeit every game because of eligibility questions regarding the team’s point guard, the dreams of a championship season suddenly seemed like a longshot.
“It hit us for a minute, I can’t lie,” sophomore Deshawn Hall said. “We had to bounce back strong. That’s where our brotherhood came in. We faced the adversity, we took it in and we just fought back.”
The Warriors won their first 15 games and were 22-1 when they got the news. Suddenly, they were 0-23 and needing to beat Lowndes Academy and Fort Dale just to qualify for the playoffs, then face a daunting state tournament gauntlet of the three best teams in the league -- Bessemer, Hooper and Springwood.
“It was tough,” Valiant Cross coach Letwan Hall said. “But we played a tough schedule all year. If any team was set to play playoff game after playoff game, it was us. I told them one game at a time, we’ve been a dominant team all year, all we’ve got to do is beat the teams that we’ve already beaten anyway.”
Valiant Cross defeated Bessemer 67-40 in the quarterfinals, Hooper 55-46 in the semifinals and completed the journey on Friday with a 51-42 win over Springwood to give the school its first-ever championship by winning the Alabama Independent School Association’s Class AA state basketball tournament at the Multiplex at Cramton Bowl.
“We knew we had a chance to make history today and we went and did it,” Deshawn Hall said. “It means the world. No matter how far we go in life, we come back to this school, we’re the first picture in the hall. We’ve got the first dream, we brought it back, we did it for the school.”
The all-boys school in Montgomery was making its third trip to the state basketball tournament in its sixth year of varsity athletics but its first trip to the finals.
“This program is all about making history,” Letwan Hall said. “Ever since they opened up, they’ve been making history and we’re super excited to be a part of this milestone. Two years ago, we were 0-13. To go from 0-13 to state champions, it’s surreal. We’re going to celebrate for a long, long time.”
It almost didn’t happen. A 65-47 win over Springwood on Jan. 18 was the last game before getting the news that the team’s point guard was ineligible. After beating Lowndes and Evangel, the Warriors lost to Hooper and then to Springwood.
“The first time we played (Springwood), we beat them pretty good,” Letwan Hall said. “Then we got hit with the news. We lost a heartbreaker to Hooper and Deshawn had a hard fall in the last seconds of that game, so when he went to Springwood, he couldn’t go. You take him away and we’re a different bunch.
“We just didn’t handle it well. That was a bad week. Our first two losses in the state of Alabama, we lost all our games by forfeit, it was a coaching moment for me. We went back to work, back to what we do every day. But I think a team needs its coach the most when adversity hits.”
On Friday, there wasn’t much adversity. Valiant Cross gradually pulled away from the Wildcats, opening up a double-digit lead in the third quarter. With five minutes remaining, an 11-point lead dwindled to five points three minutes later, but Deshawn Hall blocked a Springwood shot on one end of the floor and put back a miss on the other end to restore order for the Warriors.
“Great player,” Springwood coach Lisa Sampson said. “We had to know where he was at all times on the floor. There at the end, we just denied him the ball and made somebody else handle the ball, trying to get steals. I thought we slowed him down, probably about as best you can, but they had other guys that were scoring on us so it was tough.”
Hall finished with 26 points, saving what was likely his best performance of the season for the biggest stage.
“He’s a special kid,” Letwan Hall said. “I’m happy to be his coach, I’m proud to be his dad. He hasn’t even touched the surface of what he’s going to be. When you’ve got a kid like that you can give the ball to, that makes my job a whole lot easier.”
John Cosby added 11 points for Valiant Cross (7-25), followed by Jordan Archie and O’Brian Harris with six points each.
CJ Johnson led the Wildcats (20-7) with 17 points, followed by Clarence Moore with eight and Kori Key with seven.
“Making it to this point against a quality team like Valiant, you just had to be perfect and we weren’t today,” Sampson said. “Defensively, I thought we played well, offensively we couldn’t score the ball. But that’s a testament to them. Great team.”
Making the all-tournament team were Hall, Evan Richardson and Archie of Valiant Cross, Greg Johnson and Moore of Springwood, Jordan Duncan of Evangel Christian and Nolan Cole of Hooper Academy.
CLASS A
Escambia Academy 47, Abbeville Christian 42
Bryce Stevens scored 22 points and Ronta Watson added 17 as the Cougars won the Class A state tournament with a 47-42 win over the Generals on Friday at the Multiplex at Cramton Bowl.
Escambia Academy outscored Abbeville 13-7 in the second quarter to take a 25-16 lead at the half. Abbeville trimmed the deficit to 33-30 heading into the fourth quarter, but the Cougars were able to hold on. After making nine trips to the state tournament in the last 11 years, including trips to the finals in 2018, 2021 and 2024, the Cougars finally celebrated a championship.
Jayden Buckhannon led Abbeville with 21 points, followed by Blake Cooper with eight.