CLASS 4A GIRLS CHAMPIONSHIP: Trinity clobbers Good Hope for third straight title
Trinity celebrates the third-straight title for the school after the win over Good Hope on Friday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
BIRMINGHAM -- The only team that could beat Trinity, its coach reasoned, was themselves.
“Any time you’re going for a threepeat, the enemy isn’t other people,” Trinity coach Blake Smith noted. “It’s not another team. The enemy is what’s inside of us. We can describe that as something called sin, sin nature. It’s what tears teams apart. Teams fall apart from the inside.”
After watching the Wildcats dismantle his team 67-27 in a game that was every bit as lopsided as the score indicated, Good Hope coach Justin Aby agreed.
“We played a great team,” Aby said. “Trinity, I think, could compete in any classification up here at the finals. They’re well coached, senior heavy, they’ve got a great squad. I really don’t know of any weaknesses that they have. If anybody does, please inform me because I don’t see it. Today, I don’t think it was our best performance but that’s part of basketball.”
Trinity (30-4) closed out the careers of Maddie Smith, Mya Moskowitz and Francis Morris with their third consecutive championship as the Wildcats jumped on the defending Class 4A state champions quickly and never let up in a 40-point rout of the Raiders on Friday at Legacy Arena.
Five years ago, Trinity lost in the 3A Area 6 semifinals, marking the fifth time in seven years the Wildcats failed to reach the postseason. After reaching the regional finals the next year, Trinity won back-to-back Class 3A titles in 2023 and 2024 and was elevated by Competitive Balance Factor to Class 4A for 2025.
The Wildcats closed out the year with 14 consecutive victories, improving to 6-0 in the state tournament over the past three years.
“I think it feels great to play in my last high school game with my teammates,” Moskowitz said. “I’ve been playing with them since the ninth grade and just loving each other and having so much joy. I think it feels great to win three times in a row.”
“There’s a lot of emotions that go into this,” Morris said. “This is just such an incredible moment for all of us.”
It was Morris who earned the Most Valuable Player award, recording 16 points, 10 rebounds, six assists and five steals in the win. A month ago, she wasn’t even sure she would play in the postseason after sitting out with a hip injury for six weeks.
“I would not be MVP without (teammates), they’re the reason why,” she said. “Every single year I get hurt. Thankfully I always get back for the playoffs. I’m just so thankful for this opportunity.”
An Ava McSwain basket with 3:57 left in the first quarter helped Good Hope cut the deficit to 15-9. The Raiders wouldn’t score again until McSwain sank a pair of free throws with 6:58 left in the third quarter. By then, the Wildcats had built a 49-9 lead.
“I think we just tried to focus on not looking at the score,” Moskowitz said. “Our mentality the whole game is it was 0-0. We just had to play defense. And everybody just having the same mindset and never taking our foot off the gas.”
Good Hope trailed 28-9 at the end of the first quarter. As bad as that sounds, it got worse in the second quarter as the Raiders were outscored 18-0.
“I’m looking at the box score and it looks like in the second quarter we had zero points,” Aby said. “That’s not good for the game of basketball. It’s one of those things. It wasn’t our best quarter, but a lot of that credit I give to Trinity. They run a great defense. We struggled with it. But I’m really proud of our girls in the second half. They came out and responded. It would have been so easy for us to just lay down.”
Moskowitz had 17 points, eight rebounds and two steals, while Maddie Smith had 12 points, four assists and three steals and Ellie Causey had nine points and three assists.
McSwain led Good Hope (28-6) with 15 points and five rebounds.