CLASS 3A BOYS FINAL: Montgomery Academy races past Lee-Scott
Braden Gordon steps around Haiden Harper of Lee-Scott in Montgomery Academy’s win in the Class 3A Regional final at ASU. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
Through the first eight minutes of Tuesday’s Central Regional final between Montgomery Academy and Lee-Scott Academy, the Warriors had more shots blocked (four) and more turnovers (six) created by the Eagles’ defense than they had made field goals (two).
“That’s our team goal,” Montgomery Academy senior Skyler Stovall said. “Defense leads to offense most of the time. That’s how you get easy buckets, that’s how you take the soul of the other team. You lock them up, they can’t score.”
Lee-Scott coach William Johnson may have adjusted his team’s look a little in the wake of a 77-44 loss to the Eagles in November, but Tuesday’s results looked much the same as Montgomery Academy cruised to a 68-35 win at Alabama State’s Dunn-Oliver Acadome.
“I obviously have a lot of respect for William,” Montgomery Academy coach Jeremy Arant said. “He’s a great basketball coach. He’s done a really good job with that team. For us, it’s going to be all about trying to figure out what they’re trying to do differently and what adjustments we can make off of that. Fortunately, we were able to get in our pressure stuff early and create some turnovers. And then once it stretched out a little bit, you knew they were going to have to change what their game plan might have been.”
Montgomery Acadeny (32-2) will advance to the state tournament for the first time since 2015 and will play Glencoe (25-7) in the 3A semifinals at Legacy Arena on Tuesday at 1:30 p.m.
“It feels great,” Arant said. “We had a conversation a few weeks ago about we have one goal in mind … but you’ve got to appreciate the other stops on the way. Obviously, this is very special to make it back to the final four for our players, for our school. It’s just really special.”
Montgomery Academy has made just three trips to the state tournament since the current format was adopted in 1994 -- losing in the Class 2A finals in 2004 and in the Class 3A semifinals in 2012 and 2015. All predate the arrival of Arant.
“This is rare at this school,” Montgomery Academy sophomore Braden Gordon said. “We’ve never made the state championship before and I’ve seen Coach is really passionate about it and I want to help him get one. Only one team ends the year happy and I want it to be us.”
How dominant was Montgomery Academy’s performance on Tuesday? The Eagles weren’t firing on all cylinders -- hitting just 3 of 16 from behind the 3-point arc -- but led 41-11 at halftime.
“We’ve got huge advantages against some of these teams inside, so our offensive rebounding, I think, we were plus-15 at halftime,” Arant said. “We had 11 offensive rebounds. So if you go 3 for 16 from 3, if you get 11 offensive rebounds it really mitigates that a little bit.”
The Eagles hit just 5 of 25 shots from 3-point range for the game, but dominated in almost every defensive category, especially with nine blocked shots and nine steals.
“Coach talked to us before the game and he told us our defense is what was going to win us the game,” Gordon said. “He said we can outscore teams, but if we want to dominate teams, we’ve got to be able to play defense.”
Gordon had a game-high 19 points, including a 5 of 5 performance at the free-throw line, four rebounds, an assist and a blocked shot to earn most valuable player honors.
“I was happy,” Gordon said, “but that’s not what I want. I want a state championship. Whoever would have gotten it -- me or Skyler, Jarrett (Friendly) -- we were all worthy of it. Next week, in the two (state tournament) games, they might play better than me. As long as we win a state championship, I’m happy.”
Stovall added 15 points, nine rebounds, three steals, an assist and a blocked shot, followed by DJ Vinson with 10 points, five rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots and Friendly with nine points, six rebounds, two assists and two blocked shots.
Now, the Eagles can prepare for a semifinal game at Legacy Arena after returning to Birmingham for the first time in 10 years.
“It feels real good,” Stovall said. “As soon as we got in the locker room, everybody was ready. We were ready to get our mindset on the next game. We’re not satisfied. We’re ready to win it all.”