CLASS 3A, AREA 6 (GIRLS): PCA makes quick work of MA; Trinity slips past Catholic

CoCo Thomas passes out of trouble during PCA’s win over Montgomery Academy in the Class 3A, Area 6 tournament on Tuesday. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

PRATTVILLE -- There was no suspense to Tuesday’s 3A Area 6 tournament game between Montgomery Academy and Prattville Christian Academy.

It wasn’t one of those much-anticipated games between the pair last season, it wasn’t one of those games where the favorite plays tight and the underdog puts their best performance of the season on the court.

Prattville Christian Academy, as it has all season, controlled the tempo, the rebounding and the play on both ends of the floor. Montgomery Academy, as it has all season, struggled to find any offensive consistency.

By the end of the first quarter, the Eagles had connected on just one field goal in eight attempts while turning the ball over eight times. That scenario made for a fairly predictable outcome as Prattville Christian (31-0) remained undefeated with a 62-15 rout of the Eagles.

“I think everything in the playoffs revolves around defense,” PCA coach Jason Roberson said. “Your shots go in sometimes; sometimes, they don’t. Depending on how the other team defends, maybe you’re not scoring the ball as easily. But we can always defend. I was just proud of the ladies for the effort they showed defensively, but also for how they executed the game plan.”

The top-seeded Panthers will face second-seeded Trinity in the PCA gym on Thursday at 6 p.m. Montgomery Academy ends the season at 13-13, the first time since 2004 the Eagles have not reached the area tournament championship game and only the second time since 2008 MA has not earned a berth in the regionals. 

“I think we got better (over the course of the year) but a lot of times it was hard to tell,” Montgomery Academy coach Reg Mantooth said. “Out of those 13 losses, four were to Prattville Christian, one of them was to Vestavia Hills, which has a chance to win 7A and one was to Spring Garden, which will win 2A. That’s six losses to teams that are the favorite to win state championships.”

And while PCA’s defensive effort was sufficient to determine the outcome, a nightmarish start to the game sealed the fate of the upset-minded Eagles. Pierson Hartley took a pass from Chloe Johnson for an easy basket with 1:23, perhaps the only easy basket of the game for the Eagles. By the time Virginia Meachum scored the next bucket with 2:13 remaining in the first half, Montgomery Academy trailed 26-7.

“I think some of our (errors) were unforced, but they (PCA defenders) did a good job getting the ball out of main ball handlers’ hands and making some other girls make decisions,” Mantooth said. “They didn’t make good decisions with the ball, but their (PCA) pressure had a lot to do with it. I thought defensively we were really pretty good -- they’re hard to guard -- and we were really good outside of one or two possessions in the first half.” 

All of the Eagles’ points came from the only seniors on the team. Hartley had two, Meachum had four and Johnson had the remaining nine points, closing out a career that earned the senior a few words from Roberson after the game. 

“I respect Chloe Johnson,” Roberson said. “She’s fun to watch, she’s fun to compete against. I told her she has given me a lot of headaches over the years. But if you love basketball and you love competing, then you respect competitors like her. She’s obviously put a lot of time into her game and she loves the game of basketball. I love the game of basketball, so we share something in common. Just nothing but respect for her.”

Hannah Jones led the Lady Panthers with 14 points, 15 rebounds and four steals. CoCo Thomas added 12 points and nine rebounds. Ella Jane Connell had 10 points, five rebounds and five assists, while Avery Rogers scored 10 points as well. 

Trinity 55, Catholic 46

PRATTVILLE -- Last year, a talented group of players on Trinity’s basketball team had their championship dreams squashed in the first round of the 3A Area 6 tournament by Prattville Christian Academy, ending their season.

This year, a determined group from Catholic threatened to end it prematurely again.

“You don’t realize how much is on the line until you get here,” Trinity point guard Emma Kate Smith said. “You’re like, oh my goodness, we can’t let this be the last game for our seniors, Kaylee (Peevy) and Mary Alice (Sasser). If you’re not doing it for yourself, at least do it for them because they’ve worked so hard and put so much into our program. 

“I think once we realized that and thought about it, we said we can’t let this be their last game.”

The Wildcats had trailed for much of the first half, but found a spark at the end of the second quarter and rode that momentum to a 55-46 win over the Knights on Tuesday in the PCA gym. 

Trinity (24-5), whose only losses in 3A have been to Prattville Christian, will face the Panthers for the fourth time this season in the Area 6 tournament championship on Thursday at 6 p.m. Both teams will then compete in a sub-regional game on Monday at 6 p.m.

“We know we made the playoffs and we get to go back to practice tomorrow,” Smith said. “We get to see each other again and play together again, so we’re all excited about that, but definitely a sigh of relief after that game, especially after what happened last year.”

Catholic ends the season at 16-9.

 The Knights had the upper hand for much of the first two quarters, playing a determined, intense style on both ends of the floor that controlled the tempo and their opponent.

“If that team plays hard and that team plays aware of what they’re trying to do, they can give you trouble,” Trinity coach Blake Smith said. “I knew that when we beat them by 16 (points) over there (in a game at Catholic on Jan. 25). I don’t think we played our best game. But, look, we’ve beaten them by 40, 40 and 16. There’s really only one way for it to go and that’s by them getting better. And they got better.”

Emma Kate, meanwhile, pointed out that some of her early mistakes was a result of not being properly focused for the aggressive response of the Knights.

 “We’ve been saying all season you’ve got to watch Catholic, you can’t just count them out because they’re good and they’re aggressive, they’re not going to give you anything, so you’ve got to be ready for that,” Emma Kate Smith said. “We told ourselves that we were coming in prepared but I think in actuality we just weren’t ready. We just didn’t come in with the right mindset.”

Allyce Rudolph made the Wildcats pay with nine of 18 points in the first half, but Trinity stayed close and finally grabbed its first lead of the game at 22-21 with 72 seconds left in the first half on Maddie Smith’s pass to an open Addison Cherry under the basket.

That was part of a 10-0 run by the Wildcats to close out the first half and take a 25-21 lead into the locker room. 

“We got tired and did young things,” Catholic coach Jill Clark said. “We could have just taken a minute and slowed it down instead of pushing it. We turned it over and got pushed into their tempo right there. But I thought our kids played their hearts out tonight. We gave ourselves a chance to win the game.”

The Wildcats extended the lead to nine points at the end of the third quarter, using a 3 pointer from Emma Kate Smith and a pair of baskets from Sasser to take control of the game. 

Sasser finished with 18 points, coming up with several clutch shots whenever the Knights threatened to grab the momentum.

“That’s what killed us right there,” Clark said. “She came out in the third quarter on fire. That hurt us.”

Rudolph scored a couple of baskets in the paint and Hannah Smith followed with a jumper to pull Catholic within five points at 48-43 with 3:20 left, but Smith called a timeout to switch defenders on Rudolph, Sasser hit another basket to stop the momentum and Catholic missed its next three shots.

Sasser had four assists and four steals in addition to her 18 points, while Emma Kate Smith had 14 points and grabbed five rebounds, Mya Moskowitz scored nine points and grabbed five rebounds and Maddie Smith had 10 assists and five rebounds after being held to three points, all at the free-throw line in the fourth quarter. Peevy added seven points.

Rudolph led Catholic with 18 points, followed by Smith with 13.