CLASS 3A GIRLS CENTRAL FINAL: Trinity saves best for last in win over St. James
Trinity’s Mya Moskowitz drives between Katie Brightwell and Ava Card in the Wildcats’ win on Wednesday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
BIRMINGHAM -- The more things change…
Last year, a Trinity team saved its best performance for a Central Regional championship matchup with St. James. On Wednesday, the Wildcats repeated the performance, jumping on the Trojans early, using their defense to dictate the outcome and turning what was supposed to be a hard-fought battle into a surprising rout with a 50-29 win in the Central Regional championship game on Wednesday at Bill Harris Arena.
Trinity (24-6) will advance to the state semifinals in Birmingham’s Legacy Arena on Tuesday at 9 a.m. against Clements in a rematch of last year’s 3A state championship game.
“They are a better team this year,” Trinity coach Blake Smith said of St. James, “and I’m not sure there are moments where I was concerned that they were better than us. They have a lot of girls that play really hard and they have four really talented girls. But we did find something through one of the (earlier) games (with the Trojans) where we thought our matchups were better and we waited until today to do that. And they really struggled to score against those matchups. It was a little bit of a roll of the dice to say let’s wait and do it and not do it earlier in the year.”
St. James hit just 5 of 27 shots in the first half as Maddie Smith -- with some help from Mya Moskowitz at times -- would stay in Ava Card’s face for most of the afternoon, with Moskowitz also concentrating on eight grader Kaitlin Mitchell and Francie Morris guarding seventh grader Morgan Lilly. Card and Lilly each made five field goals but the other St. James players combined to hit just 3 of 21 from the field.
“They played the way they needed to play to get to the Final Four,” St. James coach Katie Barton said. “And we didn’t. They didn’t do anything that necessarily surprised us with how they matched up with us defensively. We expected that and talked about that and we worked on some adjustments for it, but we couldn’t hit any shots.”
The energy level of the Wildcats, on both ends of the floor, put them in control of the game. While St. James worked for open shots, their inability to connect (they were 2 of 17 from the 3-point arc) kept the offense from getting untracked.
“They loaded up the paint on the ‘help’ side and we got to the free-throw line for two free throws and we shot 24 percent from the field,” Barton said. “They shot 38 total field goals and we shot 54. I thought we had a few uncharacteristic turnovers but we finished the game with eight so I don’t really feel that was the issue. I just feel like we didn’t shoot the ball well and got outrebounded.”
On the other end of the court, Moskowitz was a one-player wrecking crew, hitting a pair of 3-pointers early and finishing with 26 points -- more than her five teammates combined.
“That’s what is in Mya,” Smith said. “When she plays with that level of intensity and assertiveness … and she made the right plays, too. It wasn’t like she forced stuff up.”
Moskowitz was named the regional tournament most valuable player.
“I feel good,” Moskowitz said. “The big thing for me this season has been to just give everything. If I run the floor, play really hard, give everything I’ve got, I’m just doing Mya.”
Card finished with 10 points, roughly half her average as she concluded her stellar career with 2,250 points, ranking behind only Michelle Delongchamp (2,685), Leslie Claybrook (2,668), Emma Kate Smith (2,270) and Ella Jane Connell (2,253) in career scoring among River Region girls’ basketball players.
She struggled to find an open shot, connecting on just 5 of 23 shots and missing all five 3-point attempts.
“Maddie does a phenomenal job on Ava,” Smith said. “I think what happens is she got a couple of putback rebounds after missing her shot -- that’s what you give up with Maddie doing it -- but we like Maddie’s ability to stay in front and bother her.”
The game also marked the return of Morris, who has missed the last four games with an ankle injury. While her shooting touch seemed a bit rusty, her presence was critical for the Trinity offense.
“If all we could do is stand her in the corner and force a person to know they’ve got to be out there to guard, that’s where it starts opening the windows for other people to score,” Smith said. “Even if Francie can’t move, she can stretch the floor. Now, we get her out there and she moved a lot better than we anticipated and that really opened things up for us.”
For St. James (27-6), it was a disappointing end to a season in which the Trojans set the school record for wins and this group of seniors became the first in school history to reach the regional finals in four consecutive seasons.
“I’m really proud of the girls for the season they had,” Barton said. “I loaded up the schedule in anticipation of being ready for this game. We didn’t have very many ‘gimme’ wins, we played a lot of top 10 teams throughout the state -- Susan Moore, Decatur Heritage, Clay-Chalkville -- and I felt like I saw a lot of growth.
“We finished 27-6, it’s just not the win we wanted. This group of seniors tied Leslie Claybrook’s group for the winningest group of seniors in school history with 94 wins. I’m proud of their accomplishments and appreciative of all the things my seniors have brought to the program. But I’m excited about my youth. I’ve got a bunch of girls that are hungry and aren’t satisfied with six losses and they play basketball year-round.”
For Trinity, the journey isn’t over. The Wildcats will be making the program’s fifth trip to the state tournament and the first back-to-back appearances.
“I’m not so sure it doesn’t feel better than it did last year,” Smith said. “I think there were a lot of days we just didn’t know. We didn’t know if we’d be healthy and I know that St. James team is better and Katie’s a good coach. They pressed us to get better with this group. I hope it’s prepared us for the Final Four. ”