CHAPMAN CLASSIC: Pike Road boys top PCA; MA girls get second win

By TIM GAYLE

Pike Road weathered a few early perimeter bombs from Prattville Christian Academy, then pulled away with a 29-point third quarter to defeat the Panthers 63-41 and advance to the championship game of the Coach Larry Chapman Foundation Tip-Off Classic at Montgomery Academy on Tuesday.

The Patriots (3-1) will face Sidney Lanier in the championship game on Wednesday at 3 p.m., rebounding from a shaky start on Tuesday with a strong second-half performance.

“This year, over 80 percent of my team came off the football field,” Pike Road coach Robb McGaughey said. “When we started, we only had two and a half days of practice before our first game and I said if we just improve every day in some aspect, we’re going to get where we want to in the end.”

Cole Houston drilled three 3s and Jacob Comer added another in the first quarter of Tuesday’s game as PCA trailed just 15-14 entering the second period. Pike Road turned up the defensive pressure, holding the Panthers to just four points the remainder of the first half, then turned to a fast tempo in the third quarter in a 29-10 run that quickly put the game out of reach.

“They came out and made some 3s on us and we made some adjustments and just locked down defensively, which I thought we should be capable of against them,” McGaughey said. 

Pike Road defeated Marbury 64-43 in the tournament opener but McGaughey wasn’t particularly pleased with what he saw. Tuesday’s performance, however, was more to his liking.

“I just said mentally we can’t lose our composure,” McGaughey said, “and I felt like we kept our composure a little better today. I’m coaching teenage boys with raging hormones. We play an aggressive style and sometimes that aggression comes out but we’re getting better at tempering that.”

Trey Wallace scored 11 of his 24 points in the first quarter and continues to dominate the offensive production of the Patriots, even though all 11 players on the roster scored in Tuesday’s game.

“We’ve got a lot of weapons,” McGaughey said. “He’s obviously phenomenal, not only a fantastic athlete but a good basketball player, too, with a good IQ, quick, a good shot, but there are so many pieces around him. We’re a little different from last year, a little beefier, a little more of a football mindset, which I don’t think is a bad thing. We play aggressive and physical.”

Jaylen Washington added 10 points for Pike Road. Comer led Prattville Christian with 13 points.

Girls –MA tops Lanier

The second day brought a larger program and a more physical opponent, but the results were the same. 

Montgomery Academy followed up on its rout of Class 1A Loachapoka with another romp, this one over Class 6A Sidney Lanier, to advance to the finals of the Coach Larry Chapman Foundation Tip-Off Classic at Joe Mooty Court on Tuesday afternoon.

Not surprisingly, the Eagles (2-0) will face area rival Prattville Christian Academy in the championship game on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m., in the first of what likely will be six meetings this season between two of 3A’s best girls’ basketball programs.

Like the season opening win over Loachapoka on Monday, Tuesday’s game was decided rather quickly, but the Poets were a different challenge for the Eagles. Montgomery Academy led 14-6 at the end of the first quarter and 30-16 at the half before cruising to a 54-24 win.

“It was a good test,” Montgomery Academy coach Reg Mantooth said. “We missed some shots early but we were able to get some open shots and guard them a lot better in the second half. That probably had a little bit to do with us missing those shots early, that they are bigger and more physical and they weren’t easy shots, but we need to finish those.”

Montgomery Academy got just one basket in the paint as most of their first-quarter field goals came from the perimeter as the Poets packed in the defense and limited some of the Eagles’ transition game.

Leighton Robertson led MA with 12 points, seven rebounds, six steals and three assists, followed by Gabby Ramirez with 11 points. Chloe Johnson added nine points, five steals and seven assists.

“We’re really stressing defense,” Mantooth said. “We probably weren’t as good defensively today as we were yesterday but that was probably was the competition a little bit. I think we were a little more settled today. We were a little hyped up yesterday. But every game’s different and we’re still learning.”