GIRLS AISA/AHSAA: Sparta stops Evangel; PCA moves into regional
By TIM GAYLE
The two teams had faced each other in the season opener, so you couldn’t help but question the strategy of the Sparta Academy girls for much of the first three quarters of their game with Evangel Christian.
Sparta coach Russ Brown had the same questions.
“My assistant kept saying, ‘Get in a tight 2-3 zone, front the big girl and back her,’ and I was saying, yeah, but we can’t play that way,” Sparta coach Russ Brown said. “And we didn’t play that way. We were supposed to be playing full-court pressure. End of the third quarter, we finally started to do what we can do. But in the state tournament, you get a little tight and that’s where we were.”
Sparta erased a 10-point deficit at the beginning of the fourth quarter by focusing on Evangel’s inexperienced guards, forcing a flurry of turnovers while keeping the Lions’ Zaria Johnson scoreless to pull off a 46-41 win over Evangel in the Alabama Independent School Association’s Class A girls basketball tournament at the Multiplex at Cramton Bowl on Monday afternoon.
Sparta (13-10) will face Chambers in the semifinals of the tournament on Thursday at noon, while Evangel ends the season at 12-14.
As the turnovers mounted and Evangel failed to get their offense past midcourt, Lion coach Haley Rosa could do little as she watched her team’s season-long struggles fuel the collapse.
“It is really frustrating,” she said, “but at the same time, my kids give me everything they’ve got. They play with their hearts and souls. We knew coming into the game we would be limited as far as numbers and subs but at the same time we were prepared for it. I thought we were in better shape than they were but the fear is at the end – he subs in, subs out – we would run out of gas.”
Brown would substitute five players at a time, rushing in a new wave of defenders. Evangel, playing its second game without talented guard Karley Blankenship, who quit the team for personal reasons, had few options with only six high school players and eight on the roster.
Johnson dominated the game early, scoring 17 points in the first half while a trio of 3-pointers from Leanna Layton is the only thing that kept the Warriors within six points at the half.
“I’ve got an eighth grader that I’ve been dependent on that played like an eighth grader in the first half,” Brown explained, referring to Jamie Deason, who scored all six of her points in the pivotal fourth quarter. “In the second half, she came back and performed.”
Johnson, meanwhile, was held to a pair of putbacks in the third quarter and scoreless in the fourth as the sophomore faced two and three defenders the entire second half as the Warriors mounted their comeback.
She finished with 21 points, followed by AC Jones with seven. Despite the loss, Rosa said her team showed a lot of improvement over the course of the season.
“I think we had a lot of growth personally,” she said. “Some of our kids had to realize that the roles they would play would be different from what they thought. They took it upon themselves to see what they could do to make us better. Having the big kid, a lot of people are saying she’s great, but knowing we were limited in every other aspect of the game, it really shows a lot to the personalities and the character and the integrity of the girls that they never quit.”
Evangel loses senior Katie Cartee but returns the rest of the team for another run in 2021.
“It gives them something to build on,” Rosa said. “Remember this feeling, what it feels like to walk off the court, feeling like you should’ve won the game and use that to build on to improve your skills and whatever you can do as individuals to help our team and make our team better next year.
“You want to stay positive because they did something a lot of people didn’t think they were capable of doing. A lot of people would have thought this was a blowout after losing my second leading scorer a couple of games ago but they give me everything they’ve got. They’re tough kids.”
Chambers Academy 41, Wilcox Academy 26
Chambers Academy turned up the defensive pressure and held Wilcox to just two field goals in the second half to win 41-26 in the A quarterfinals on Monday morning.
Chambers will face Sparta in the semifinals on Thursday at noon.
The Rebels held a slim 20-18 advantage at the half but pulled away with a strong fourth-quarter performance led by Britten Stephens, who had six of her 10 points in the final quarter.
Claire Allen and Shelly Keebler each added eight points for Chambers.
Addison Smith and Grace Simpkins each had seven points to lead the Wildcats.
Southern Academy 62, Crenshaw Christian 18
Augusta Arnold and Magan Chapman each scored 15 points as Southern raced out to a 24-point halftime lead and cruised to victory in the A quarterfinals on Monday.
Mary Grace Sheffield added 11 points as Southern advanced to the semifinals against Abbeville Christian on Thursday at 9 a.m.
Kennedy Bullard scored 10 points, all in the first half, to lead Crenshaw.
Abbeville Christian 33, Meadowview Christian 32
Analeigh Givens and Caroline Armstrong each scored 14 points to lead Abbeville Christian past the Trojans in a defensive battle on Monday night in the A quarterfinals.
Armstrong scored eight of her points in the final quarter as the Generals held off Meadowview to advance to the semifinals on Thursday against Southern.
Reagan Burton and Kaylee Chancey each had nine points to lead Meadowview Christian.
Prattville Christian 60, Greene County 14
PRATTVILLE – Ella Jane Connell scored 18 points to lead the Prattville Christian girls to a 60-14 win over Greene County in a 3A girls’ sub-regional game on Monday in the PCA gym.
Connell personally outscored the visitors, but she had plenty of help. Jacey Haynes added 10 points and nine rebounds and Avery Rogers scored 10 points in the win. CoCo Thomas added eight points, 10 rebounds and four steals, followed by Hannah Jones with six points and six rebounds, Tori DeMaio with three points, nine rebounds and six assists and Chelsea Mulliner with three points and five rebounds.
PCA (30-2) advances to the Southwest Regional at Alabama State’s Dunn-Oliver Acadome and will face top-ranked T.R. Miller on Monday afternoon at either 3 or 6 p.m.
Dothan 59, G.W. Carver 46
Eufaula 66, Park Crossing 64
Both representatives of the River Region were eliminated on Monday, leaving the city out of the regional tournament in Class 6A for the first time since the current regional format was introduced in 1994.