CLASS 3A BOYS CENTRAL FINAL: Sumter Central eliminates Trinity
John Morris shoots a 3-pointer over Sumter Central’s Ja'michael Ratliff in the Class 3A Central Regional final at Bill Harris Arena on Wednesday. (Tim Gayle
By TIM GAYLE
BIRMINGHAM -- After falling behind by 16 points at halftime, things looked bleak for the Trinity Wildcats.
Trinity coach Matt Arrighi had a simple request of his players.
“We felt like they were playing a little tentative offensively,” Arrighi said, “and (we told them) to come out swinging away in the second half and they did. And it got us right back in it.”
Trinity would cut the deficit to a basket late in the third quarter before Sumter Central found enough offense to subdue the Wildcats in the fourth quarter, 58-47, in the championship game of the Central Regional at Bill Harris Arena on Wednesday afternoon.
Sumter Central (22-3) advanced to the 3A state semifinals against Midfield on Tuesday in Birmingham’s Legacy Arena at 10:30 a.m.
“They’re a really good basketball team,” Arrighi said. “They’ve got three really, really good guards and the other guys they have aren’t bad, either. We tried to sell out to making people other than 4, 3 and 0 (guards Jonathan Fitch, Emmanuel Clarton and Brandon Robinson) beat us. For the most part, I thought our guys did a really good job. There were a few times where we got caught watching the ball and we let 0 (Robinson) get a couple of shots off that we didn’t want to. At the end of the day, your hope is those guys have to make a lot of mid-range shots. And they hit some. We knew they would.”
Arrighi’s defensive scheme was masterful in forcing the Jaguars into a half-court offense, but each of the three Sumter Central guards hit 3-pointers to build a 25-7 lead as the Wildcats struggled to find any offensive rhythm. In the third quarter, a pair of John Morris 3-pointers got the Trinity offense rolling and the Wildcats cut the deficit to 32-30 and again to 36-34 at the end of the quarter.
“It’s hard to get down 15 or 16 to a team of that caliber but I was so proud of the fight the guys came out with in the second half,” Arrighi said. “We were making some shots in the second half that weren’t going in, in the first half. When shots are going in, it seems like everything is great, but some of that is we were just making shots.”
Then, just as quickly, the Wildcats lost their shooting touch. Mac Stewart hit a 3-pointer to cut the Jaguars’ lead to 41-38 three minutes into the fourth quarter, but Trinity would miss their next five 3-point attempts as Sumter Central went on an 11-2 run to put the game out of reach.
Fitch led Sumter Central with 19 points, eight rebounds and three steals, while Clarton had 16 points, six assists and six rebounds and Robinson had 12 points.
Trinity (18-10) got 26 points and eight rebounds from Morris and 13 points from Stewart. And while Arrighi wasn’t dwelling on moral victories, a team that won just three of its eight games during a January stretch finished with a run that reached the regional finals for the first time since 2011.
“We replaced 11 guys off of our varsity from last year,” Arrighi said. “A massive amount of this team is coming up from JV with no experience. As a coach, you kind of know you’re going to have some inconsistencies. We felt like we were better than what people were going to think we were going to be. You want to be playing your best basketball at the end of the year and I felt like, especially from a defensive standpoint, we were playing really well at the end of the year.
“What a great year. Nobody but us gave us a shot to be in a regional final. I’m proud of them.”