CLASS 3A GIRLS CHAMPIONSHIP: St. James falters late in defeat to Lauderdale County
Natalie Barton dribbles past Ansley Shelton in the Class 3A girls’ state title game at the Legacy Arena on Friday. Lauderdale County defeated St. James, 58-52, to earn the championship. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
BIRMINGHAM -- For three quarters, St. James played Lauderdale County on its terms, owning a double-digit lead for most of the second and third quarters of the Class 3A girls’ state championship game at Legacy Arena on Friday.
Unfortunately for the Trojans, the Tigers swung the momentum in the fourth quarter, then won 58-52 in overtime to claim the title for the 14th time in school history and deny the Trojans their opportunity to bask in the glory.
“What a game,” Lauderdale County coach Carla Clemons said. “They’re a great team and they have some offensive threats out there on the floor. We knew we were going to have to play really good defense. I don’t know how good it was the first half. We just got off to a very slow start offensively.”
Lauderdale County (34-1) tied the game in the first quarter and actually led briefly twice before the Trojans scored seven unanswered points to take control of the game. St. James led by 12 points at halftime and by as many as 18 points with 5:22 left in the third quarter, then collapsed as the Tigers outscored the Trojans 40-16 the remainder of the game.
“Man, that’s a tough one,” St. James coach Katie Barton said. “My girls are young but they’re fierce, they’re tough and they’ve been tough all year long. I just think that we lost our composure a tad bit in the fourth quarter where we made a few turnovers in the press, a few possessions that maybe weren’t the type of possessions that we would typically have. I felt like these girls controlled the tempo, the pace, the tone of the game for the first 28 minutes of the game. Lauderdale County punched back and we didn’t respond well enough to get the blue (championship) trophy instead of the red.”
After building an 18-point lead, St. James’ remaining possessions in regulation resulted in 4 for 17 shooting from the field along with nine turnovers, allowing Lauderdale County to grab the lead before the Trojans fought back to tie the game and force a four-minute overtime period.
During the fourth quarter, Barton called three different timeouts, trying to get her rattled underclassmen back under control against the more experienced Tigers.
“We were trying to find some good possessions,” Barton said. “We knew it was going to be a game of runs. We kind of went on a run, even coming out of halftime, and we got up on them and they countered. At the end (of the third quarter), it was still a 12-point game and then they came at us with a run. And we didn’t keep our composure the way I would have liked to on offense and we were just trying to find some good buckets, settle down and make sure we were all on the same page.”
Before the rally, St. James had outplayed Lauderdale County in every facet of the game, leaving the Tigers with a 12-point deficit at halftime.
“We came in at halftime and there were some long faces after that first half,” said Lauderdale County’s Shila Marks, the tournament’s most valuable player after scoring 32 points, 16 in each half. “But we’ve proven time and time again this season, we’ve been down at halftime more than that and we’ve just got to put our heads down and go to work.”
While the Trojans never had an answer for Marks, the Tigers found one for Natalie Barton, putting Ansley Shelton on the Trojans’ leading scorer and holding her to one field goal (in five attempts) in the second half.
“We usually put Ansley on their best player, their best scorer,” Clemons said. “She does an awesome job. You’re not going to see her name on the stat sheet for what she does on the floor. She’s a defensive stopper. That’s what she does every single night.”
Barton’s jumper in the lane was the only St. James’ basket in the final six minutes of regulation, allowing Lauderdale County to rally from a 10-point deficit. The Tigers took a two-point lead into the final minute, but a pair of Barton free throws sent the game into overtime.
From there, Kaitlin Mitchell countered a Marks’ layup with a 3-pointer with 3:07 left to give the Trojans a 52-51 lead. St. James would not score again, ending their final six possessions of the game with three missed shots and three turnovers.
“Never give up,” Lauderdale County guard Meredith Newton said. “In the press, Shila, Armani (Thomas) and Ansley (Shelton) kept getting steal after steal after steal. That’s where you get your energy is when your teammates do good, so that helped us a lot. We got in (the pressure defense), kept flying around and then we found a way to win.”
Barton led the Trojans with 17 points, six rebounds, four assists and four steals. Mitchell added 14 points and four rebounds and Morgan Lilly had 13 points, five rebounds and five assists.
The Trojans (34-2) set a school record for wins and reached the finals for the second time in four years, but were hoping to win the school its first championship trophy in basketball. With two juniors, three sophomores, three freshmen and five eighth graders on the team, the Trojans return every player for 2025-26.
“St. James is a good team, a very young team,” Clemons said. “They’ll be back.”