CLASS 4A CENTRAL REGIONAL: PCA back in the finals after impressive win
PCA’s Avery Rogers is guarded by Kha'Liyah Harris in the Class 4A semifinal game at the Bill Harris Arena in Birmingham. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
BIRMINGHAM -- It wasn’t a particularly sharp performance, but even when shooting and ball handling wasn’t at its best, Prattville Christian Academy still managed a 30-point win.
The two-time defending state champion Panthers took a step closer to the state tournament with a 58-28 win over Hale County in the Central Regional 4A semifinals at Bill Harris Arena on Tuesday despite creating several frustrating moments for head coach Jason Roberson.
“We really do try to play to a standard,” Roberson said. “We probably didn’t play as good as we possibly could play to that standard for 32 minutes. We had flashes and moments when we played pretty good, we had some players play pretty good for a half and not so good the other half. We had some that could have done a little more. But we’re just trying to be the best we can be. The wins and losses take care of themselves.”
That standard was put to the test on Tuesday. After Hale County’s Mackenzie Coster hit a 3-pointer to trim the deficit to 15-8, PCA went on a 14-0 with the help of a pair of 3-pointers from Avery Rogers. It sounds impressive, but the Panthers put the game away despite missing seven shots, several of them in the lane on fastbreaks, and committing six turnovers.
The only thing that saved them was Hale County’s 0-for-7 shooting performance during the same stretch, along with eight turnovers.
“I feel like we definitely played a little scrappy,” Rogers said, “and I feel like we’d like to play more clean. We made a lot of mistakes, but at the end of the day, I felt like we stepped up in the second half and were able to extend the lead.”
Rogers had 21 points and four assists, including a 7-of-15 performance from behind the 3-point arc that accounted for all of PCA’s 3-pointers and matched those from Hale County.
“We haven’t played a game in eight days,” Roberson said. “The schedule is kind of weird in 4A for some reason. We played in sub-regionals on Feb. 13 and we had to wait eight days to play. That’s not normal in basketball. Maybe we were knocking off a little rust. Also, we haven’t had great competition getting to this point and Hale County is a good team. They offer more resistance than we’ve seen in the last two and a half weeks.
“Offensively, we were a little out of sync and that could be for a variety of reasons, but we can always give effort defensively. And we can always rebound the ball. I thought we rebounded the ball decent in the first half, a lot better in the second half.”
Hannah Jones added 20 points and nine rebounds for the Panthers, followed by CoCo Thomas with nine points and 11 rebounds as PCA dominated the glass 39-23.
Yasmine Jackson led Hale County (22-8) with 10 points as the Wildcats managed just five field goals in the second and third quarters.
“They definitely had a couple of players that we didn’t want to shoot,” Rogers said. “So we were trying to take them away. And they had a big girl (Kynaja Marshall that finished with two points) that we wanted to defend really well. We were just trying to take away what they were used to doing.”
Prattville Christian (31-3) won its sixth consecutive game and 15th in the last 16 outings, reaching the regional finals for the fifth time in the program’s 11-year history as an Alabama High School Athletic Association program.
PCA, which is 4-0 in its previous four trips to the regional finals, will face Bibb County on Thursday at 4 p.m. for the region championship in its first postseason trip as a 4A program after being elevated by Competitive Balance Factor this season.
“We’re really grateful to be able to make it back,” said Rogers, who became the school’s single-season leader in 3-point baskets on Tuesday, passing Ella Jane Connell. “We’re really excited about Thursday. Hopefully, we’ll play better on Thursday and win that game and then go and play at state next week.”