GIRLS CLASS 3A SEMIS: Trinity holds off Susan Moore to earn trip to title game

Francie Morris (5) and the Trinity bench celebrate the win over Susan Moore to advance to the Class 3A state championship game. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

BIRMINGHAM -- Trinity coach Blake Smith knew he would need his best 3-point shooting performance from his players to stay in front of 2022 runner-up Susan Moore. 

He never would have dreamed two of his starters would be in foul trouble and his best perimeter shooter, senior Emma Kate Smith, would miss all seven 3-point attempts and finish with four points.

“In my mind, I was needing five 3s from her,” Smith said. “Because I knew, from what I had seen on film, that she would probably get (open shots). She got them. Hey, she didn’t make them but that’s part of the game and everybody else just gritted it out.

“But, no, I would not have thought we would win.” 

The Wildcats defied the odds, winning their 18th consecutive game on the strength of their defensive play, holding off Susan Moore 53-47 to advance to the championship game for the third time in school history. 

Trinity (31-2) will play Clements (27-6), a 56-25 winner over Pike County, for the 3A state championship on Friday at Legacy Arena at 12:30 p.m. The Wildcats, making their first trip to the state tournament since 2014, lost in the 1988 Class 1A finals to Mars Hill Bible and in the 1995 Class 2A finals to Fyffe. 

In a game that took several strange turns, the Wildcats built a 15-4 lead in the first quarter as the Bulldogs missed all five 3-point attempts while Trinity got one from Francie Morris and two from Maddie Smith. 

Maddie Smith played a huge role on both ends of the floor, drawing the assignment of slowing Susan Moore’s best player, senior Cali Smallwood, while taking up the scoring slack from older sister Emma Kate’s rare off night.

“I think when I know the pressure is up and this is the game, I need to do good, that’s when I feel like I do better,” Maddie Smith said. “I knew this could be (Emma Kate’s) last game if we lost, so I had to get it done for her and the other seniors on this team.”

Cali Smallwood took one shot two minutes into the game and another midway through the second quarter when she was fouled. She picked up two quick personal fouls in the third quarter and spent much of the remainder of the game on the bench before eventually fouling out. She did manage six rebounds and got Trinity forward Mya Moskowitz in foul trouble in the second quarter, but only managed four points, all at the free-throw line. 

“That’s one of the best defenders in the state,” Blake Smith said, pointing to his daughter Maddie. “She doesn’t get a lot of respect for that, but that girl can lock you down and she’s committed to doing it the whole game. We knew that tenacity is what it would take with Cali because Cali’s relentless.”

The Wildcats held a double-digit lead for the majority of the second and third quarters, but Blake Smith knew Susan Moore, with or without Cali Smallwood, would come charging back. 

“That group is not going away,” Smith said. “They’ve been here three years in a row. We knew they had fight in them. We watched them fight back against a PCA team (in the finals) where (Prattville Christian) was up 17 or 18, so we knew they wouldn’t go away. And maybe that’s the biggest thing I appreciate, walking away from this about this group is they kept their composure and made some defensive plays to win it.”

Five straight points by Moskowitz matched the Bulldogs as the Trinity sophomore scored 14 of her 16 points in the second half despite being in foul trouble.

“On defense, I was already in foul trouble and my team needed me offensively,” Moskowitz said. “A couple of times this year, I’ve gotten in foul trouble early and it just fires me up to focus more on offense.”

With Trinity leading by 10 points with a little more than two minutes remaining, the game took another strange turn when Susan Moore scored four consecutive points, then got three more when Blake Smith was assessed a technical foul, cutting the Trinity lead to 40-37 at the end of the third quarter.

“I felt like it changed a lot,” Smith said. “I’m not going to be derogatory (toward the officials) but I yelled ‘foul’ and I didn’t realize the ref was right there in front of me. If I had been fussing the whole time, that might be different.”

Cesa Hernandez nailed a 3-pointer two minutes into the final period to tie the game at 40-40, setting up a frantic fourth quarter as Trinity tried to find a way to hold the lead. A Marisa Bryan 3-pointer pulled Susan Moore within 48-47 with 86 seconds remaining. With 41 seconds left, Francie Morris was fouled and stepped to the line to shoot two free throws. 

She made the first for a two-point lead, then missed the second. 

“Once it released from my hand, I knew it was short and they didn’t have anybody on me,” Morris said, “so I was like, ‘I have to go get this rebound.’ I just went for it and got it.”

Morris passed to Maddie Smith who passed to Moskowitz for a basket and a four-point lead with 22 seconds left. Susan Moore’s next possession resulted in a turnover and Moskowitz added another free throw to secure the victory.

 Lacey Floyd had 14 points and eight rebounds to lead the Bulldogs (29-4), while Lani Smallwood had 14 points and five rebounds. Bryan had 10 points. 

“I’m very proud of my girls, always have been, always will be,” Susan Moore coach Natasha Smallwood said. “Trinity has a really good team. They play very hard. We had a slow start in the game and I knew that it would be really hard to come back. We just came up short today.”

Maddie Smith had 20 points, six rebounds and three steals, followed by Moskowitz with 16 points and Morris with 13 points and 10 rebounds.