CLASS 4A GIRLS SEMIS: Good Hope knocks PCA from title contention
PCA’s Avery Rogers drives past Heather Tetro of Good Hope in the Class 4A girls semifinals at the BJCC Legacy Arena. The Panthers were eliminated from the tournament in a 59-29 loss. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
BIRMINGHAM -- At halftime, Legacy Arena workers climbed a ladder and replaced the net on the Good Hope goal. Apparently, the Raiders’ blistering first-half performance was too much for the net to handle.
“It was kind of pick your poison,” Prattville Christian coach Jason Roberson said. “They just have so many scorers. Ava McSwain has been lights out. I think she had 30 against Deshler and 31 against Priceville, so she’s got confidence. Ivey Maddox has had a storied career. Our focus, really, was on those two players, to see if the Tetros could beat us and they came out playing. And we knew they could. But we had to give something.”
Heather Tetro and Bailey Tetro combined for six 3-pointers as the Raiders came out firing in a rout of the Panthers, defeating Prattville Christian 59-29 in the 4A semifinals on Tuesday afternoon.
Good Hope (32-2) will play T.R. Miller (24-4) for the 4A state championship on Friday at 4 p.m., ending the three-year championship run of Prattville Christian (27-8) in the process.
“I truly believe we created a standard for PCA girls basketball,” said Avery Rogers, Prattville Christian’s lone senior. “I wouldn’t change a thing. I know we didn’t finish with a state championship but I like how I finished and I wouldn’t change a thing.”
Good Hope scored on six of its first seven possessions for a quick 15-5 lead, but it wasn’t the offense that buried the Panthers. The Raiders would connect on just 2 of 15 3-point shots in the second half, opening the door for a Panther rally, but Prattville Christian couldn’t come up with the offense to mount a serious challenge.
“They’re really fast and all over the place,” Rogers said. “That’s probably one of the best defenses we’ve played all season, especially as far as pressure. The two little twins are super quick. We definitely had to have a mindset of being aggressive and at times we struggled with that.”
PCA had eight turnovers in the first seven minutes as the Panthers fell behind 21-5.
“They’re very good at pressure,” Roberson said. “They pressure a lot of good teams and they turn you over. I think they forced Priceville into 27 turnovers in the regional final. We had 20. We talked about that, the importance of taking care of the ball. That was actually No. 1 on our scouting report for keys to victory, we have to take care of the basketball. What Good Hope is so good at is not just turning you over but then capitalizing off of the turnovers.”
Good Hope outscored PCA 27-2 in points off of turnovers as three of the best ball handlers on the team -- Rogers, Kayden Carr and Ally Blankinchip -- combined for 17 turnovers.
“Part of it was us not quite being where we were supposed to be in our spots,” Roberson said. “But they put a lot of pressure on you because they don’t play the same press every possession. It’s hard for teams to recognize that on the floor and we struggled with that a little bit so give them credit for mixing it up.”
Good Hope, whose last state tournament appearance was in 2012, has lost in the regionals the last three years before finally breaking through this season.
“It’s been a long four years,” Bailey Tetro said. “It’s a lot of anxiety when you don’t make it until your senior year. Any game can be your last game at this point. We played a super selfless game. I love this team for that. We want each other to do great. The goal was to come out and play hard and do what it took to win.”
Bailey Tetro led Good Hope with 20 points, followed by McSwain with 16 and Heather Tetro with nine.
“Prattville Christian’s a great team,” Good Hope coach Justin Aby said. “He’s won the last three, right, so he’s got some great players. We have a talented group of girls that take pride on the defensive end just as much as scoring the basketball.”
“We had some girls that wanted to show out and I think that’s exactly what they did.”
Rogers led PCA with 14 points, followed by Carr with nine. Although the Panthers did not earn a fourth consecutive title, just getting back to the state tournament was a major accomplishment for a team that had to replace graduated seniors Hannah Jones and CoCo Thomas in the post, then restructure the team after post player Jenna McClendon was lost for the year with a knee injury in mid-January.
“She’s tore her ACL on Jan. 15 and these ladies reinvented themselves in a month to get here,” Roberson said. “It unbelievable what we did. We changed the way we played to get here. We changed defenses, we changed offenses, so credit to them for adjusting.”
If there was one silver lining to the loss, Prattville Christian will return next season as a Class 4A team. Had the Panthers won on Tuesday, both the boys’ and girls’ basketball teams would have been elevated to Class 5A by Competitive Balance Factor.