LOCAL HOOPS: PCA tops Pike Road to advance to Chapman Tourney final; Trinity boys win at Thorsby
PCA’s Kayden Carr guards Jazz Johnson of Pike Road in the Lady Panthers’ win on Tuesday. (Tim Gayle)
BY TIM GAYLE
For most of the first half, the Pike Road girls had the defense to stay in the game with Prattville Christian Academy.
But once the Panthers started heating up from the perimeter, Pike Road couldn’t keep up the pace.
PCA hit five 3-pointers in the second quarter and four more in the third to pull away for a 52-30 win over the Patriots and advance to the championship game in the Coach Larry Chapman Foundation Tip Off Tournament at Montgomery Academy.
The defending 4A state champions (4-0) will face 5A Brew Tech on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. for the tournament title. Pike Road will play JAG for third place at noon.
The Patriots had only a pair of field goals in each of the first two quarters, but trailed just 9-8 at the end of the first quarter. For the past three seasons, PCA has relied on the post presence of Hannah Jones and CoCo Thomas to lead the team to a state championship, but both players have moved on to college, leaving the Panthers searching for a new identity in 2023-24.
“We’re a new team, learning how to play without Hannah and CoCo,” PCA coach Jason Roberson said. “But our ladies do a good job of adapting, making adjustments in-game and figuring things out as the game goes on. We did get off to a little bit of a slow start but we continued to pick it up and figure things out on the fly.”
Meanwhile, Pike Road coach Barry Fencher was trying to figure things out on the fly as he team struggled to find any shots.
“I’m just trying to get them to buy in,” Fencher said. “I know (PCA) was trying to take (leading scorer) Jazz (Johnson) out of it but my other ones were running away from the ball instead of running to the ball so we can’t even get into our offense. I knew if we got in a half-court game and got it down in the low block we could score.
“We’re still trying to grow. This team just has to grow. We’ve got all the pieces. I know this game will help me out a whole lot. It showed them a lot.”
Avery Rogers led the Panthers with 22 points, hitting six 3-pointers, but the PCA offense also got a big boost from freshman point guard Kayden Carr, who had 16 points.
“She’s really our sparkplug,” Roberson said. “She’s the one who is our ball-dominant guard. When she’s aggressive, like she was as the game went on, she’s as good a player as there is in this area. She’s still young, she’s just a freshman, but she’s humble, she doesn’t know how good she is. We just try to bring that out of her.”
PCA owned a 10-point lead at the half and extended it into the third quarter when the game was halted for more than an hour for water on the floor after heavy rain caused a leak in the roof.
Johnson, who had a team-high 10 points, scored all six of her team’s points when play resumed and the final 12-plus minutes were played in the adjacent gym.
St. James 59, Catholic 37
The Trojans managed to stay ahead of the Knights for virtually all of the first two and a half quarters before pulling away late in the third quarter for an easy 59-37 win on Tuesday.
St. James (3-2) will play Montgomery Academy for fifth place in the tournament on Wednesday at 9 a.m., while Catholic (0-3) will play Alabama Christian for seventh place on Wednesday at 9 a.m.
St. James jumped out to a 15-9 lead at the end of the first quarter and maintained that lead through much of the next two quarters before Catholic rallied for a brief one-point lead midway through the third quarter. At that point, the Trojans went on a 36-13 run to put the game away.
“We came out a little slow in the first half,” St. James coach Katie Barton said. “We started to wake up and hit some open shots and move the ball a little better in the second half and I think that helped.
“We came out in the second half and it was a four-point game and we had to hit some from outside. I’ve got a great outside shooting team but we’ve just been a little cold in the tournament.”
Ava Card led the Trojans with 16 points, followed by Natalie Barton with 12, Kaitlyn Mitchell with nine and KK Corley with eight.
Hannah Smith led the Knights with 16 points, followed by Joanna Marlow with 10.
Montgomery Academy 42, Alabama Christian 38
Kaci Armistead scored 13 of her 15 points in the second half as the Eagles built an early lead and held off Alabama Christian 42-38 in the second round of the Coach Larry Chapman Foundation Tip Off Tournament at Montgomery Academy on Tuesday.
Caroline Waller scored five of her eight points in the first quarter to help the Eagles to an early 11-5 lead as the Montgomery Academy defense held the Eagles without a field goal in the first quarter.
Armistead finished with seven rebounds along with her 15 points. Kerstin Daniel added nine points and seven rebounds.
Izzy Warrick scored 10 of her 19 points in the fourth quarter in an attempt to rally the Eagles. Jaide Newkirk added 13 for ACA, which will play Catholic for seventh place in the tournament on Wednesday at 9 a.m.
Montgomery Academy (2-2) will play St James on Wednesday at 9 a.m. for fifth place in the tournament.
BOYS BASKETBALL
Trinity 68, Thorsby 47
THORSBY -- Mac Stewart and Cooper Bernier combined to score 15 of Trinity’s 24 third-quarter points as the Wildcats broke a 30-30 tie with a strong second half performance in the Thorsby gym on Monday night.
Stewart scored eight of his game-high 19 points in the third quarter, while Bernier scored seven of his 16 to help Trinity break open a game that was tightly contested in the first half.
Persson Clements added 12 points for Trinity, while Cayson Keller had five points to go with his 12 rebounds.
Braylon Carroll led Thorsby with 19 points, followed by Aiden Seeley with 16.
Trinity traveled to Elmore County for a Tuesday night game before returning home to play host to Brew Tech on Monday.
Chelsea 74, Prattville 50
ALABASTER -- The Lions dropped their opening round game in the Thompson Thanksgiving Invitational, losing to Chelsea 74-50 on Monday night.
Ty Bryant led the Lions with 16 points, followed by Tyler Smith with nine and Isaiah Bradley and Noah Trotter with six points each.
Prattville (1-5) was scheduled to play Briarwood Christian in the second round of the tournament on Tuesday night and will face Helena on Wednesday at 10:30 a.m.
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Trinity 58, Elmore County 15
ECLECTIC -- Mya Moskowitz and Ellie Causey each scored 15 points to lead the Wildcats to an easy victory over the Panthers on Tuesday afternoon.
Causey also had five rebounds for Trinity, while Maddie Smith had 14 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists and seven steals.
Trinity returns home to play host to Brew Tech on Monday.
Lakeside School 49, Southland Academy 48
DAWSON, Ga. -- The Lady Chiefs led 25-19 at the half in a tightly contested game that went down to the final shot as Lakeside held off Southland Academy 49-48 on the final day of the Terrell Academy Tournament.
Chloe Helms led the Chiefs with 20 points, followed by Addysen Ericksen with 11 and Sophie Seaborn with eight. Addy Helms and Dylin White each had four for Lakeside.
Terrell Academy 52, Lakeside School 29
DAWSON, Ga. -- Chloe Helms led Lakeside with 17 points as the Chiefs fell in the opening round of the Terrell Academy Tournament on Monday.
Dylin White added five points for Lakeside, followed by Sophie Seaborn with four.
COACH LARRY CHAPMAN FOUNDATION TIP OFF TOURNAMENT
at Montgomery Academy
GIRLS
Monday’s results
Prattville Christian 48, St. James 40
Brew Tech 44, Alabama Christian 40
Pike Road 53, Catholic 52
JAG 38, Montgomery Academy 30
Tuesday’s results
Prattville Christian 52, Pike Road 30
St. James 59, Catholic 37
Brew Tech 38, JAG 35
Montgomery Academy 42, Alabama Christian 38
Wednesday’s schedule
Seventh place, Catholic vs. Alabama Christian, 9 a.m.
Fifth place, St. James vs. Montgomery Academy, 9 a.m.
Third place, Pike Road vs. J.A.G., noon
Championship, Prattville Christian vs. Brew Tech, 1:30 p.m.
JUNIOR VARSITY
GIRLS
Monday’s results
St. James 46, Pike Road 37
Montgomery Academy 25, Alabama Christian 21
Tuesday’s results
Consolation, Pike Road 52, Alabama Christian 9
Championship, St. James 35, Montgomery Academy 13
All tournament: Madison Williams, Alabama Christian; Hayden Scott, Pike Road; Kierston Thomas, Montgomery Academy; Kayden Fair, St. James. MVP -- Lilly Stanford, St. James.