PREP HOOPS: St. James back from football tops Catholic; Macon East tops Autauga
Ethan Beard drives for a shot in the Trojans’ win over Catholic on Monday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
St. James made the most of its two practices over the weekend, knocking off Catholic 65-64 in overtime on Monday in the Trojans’ 2022-23 season opener.
The Trojans were on the football field, winning a state championship on Thursday at Jordan-Hare Stadium, then started work on the basketball season the following day. Their rally from an early double-digit deficit was a matter of resiliency and determination, but Trojan coach Nigel Card didn’t sound much like the winning coach when it was over.
“I expected us to have our struggles,” Card said. “We’re working through losing a really, really key member in (Bradley) Thomas from last year. I thought we made some really, really bad decisions with the basketball, turned the ball over a lot, didn’t know when to attack and when to run offense. We’ve got a lot of work to do. We’ve got to get them working together. Right now, it looks like a track meet.”
But at least the Trojans made it to the finish line. Catholic, in a similar situation with just five practices and a pair of games following a postseason football run, has looked explosive in the first quarter of all three games, but has managed to lose two leads down the stretch.
“We’ve got to learn how to put the game away,” Catholic coach Mike Curry said. “We still play like it’s a two-point ballgame. We quick-shoot it instead of running through the offense. Or we’re out there trying to steal in the passing lanes and a guy gets free as opposed to staying solid. Little breakdowns like that will kill you.
“We did the same thing with Trinity (in the season opener last Friday). We did the same thing with BTW (on Saturday), couldn’t take 14 (point lead) to 20. We’ve just got to continue to get better. It’s a Capital City Conference game, it means a lot to a lot of folks in town, a lot to me and I’m sure a lot to them, but at the end of the day none of us are going to advance because of winning or losing this game.”
For the Trojans, Ethan Beard provided the spark to rally the Trojans, creating a pair of three-point scoring opportunities in the first quarter, draining a pair of 3-pointers in the third quarter to keep the Knights from securing the victory and adding two more in the fourth to pull the Trojans even and force overtime. It was his driving layup with 6.1 seconds remaining that gave the Trojans a 65-64 lead.
“I told Ethan to drive it hard and if the post player picks you up, dump it to (forward) KJ (Jackson) or score the basketball yourself,” Card said. “He did, luckily it went in and worked out.”
Beard finished with 27 points. Jackson added 14, but showed the effects of transitioning from football with no practice time with a 4 of 11 performance at the free-throw line.
“I think we can make our free throws, but some of our players always struggle with free throws, especially when they haven’t played in a year,” Card said. “I’ll tell you what they do -- they rebound and play extremely hard.”
Matt Middleton added nine points, followed by Clint Houser with eight, including a pair of 3-pointers in the fourth quarter.
The Trojans’ victory overshadowed the efforts of Catholic guard LJ Green, who scored 35 points, had seven assists, came up with seven steals and pulled down five rebounds. Trying to match up with Green was a nightmare for the Trojans most of the night as the Catholic senior would either take the ball to the basket himself or dish it off to his post players in the paint.
“He has tremendous ball skills, knows how to play, knows how to pick his spots and when to go,” Card said. “He’s a terrific athlete and a scorer of the basketball. He’s tough to guard, especially when they have size inside.”
Catholic was outscored 23-9 in the fourth quarter as Green started wearing down. While he scored all five of Catholic’s points in overtime, including a floater over Jackson in the lane with 15 seconds left for a 63-63 lead, his play wasn’t as crisp in the final minutes as fatigue took over. He would take the final shot at the buzzer, but he didn’t have the touch as the ball hit both the front and back of the rim before kicking out at the buzzer.
“We need some other guys to step up,” Curry said. “All of them can do more. We just can’t ride LJ because he wore down in the second half. We asked a lot of him.”
Catholic (1-2) travels to Autaugaville on Tuesday before returning home to play Montgomery Academy on Friday. St. James (1-0) returns home to play Auburn on Friday.
St. James girls escape with win over Catholic
Whether it was a defense with a postseason look or an offense with early-season jitters, both Catholic and St. James were even over the final six minutes, looking for a spark to propel them to victory.
Catholic couldn’t find in the final minute, allowing the Trojans to escape with a 39-38 victory in the Catholic gym on Monday night.
The Knights jumped out to a 10-0 lead by forcing several St. James’ turnovers, but the Trojans settled down and fought back to a 12-12 tie at the end of the first quarter. From there, the two teams battled evenly, or perhaps unevenly, depending on whether you were a fan of offense or a proponent for defense.
When Ava Card connected on a short jumper in the lane with 5:57 left to tie the game at 36-36, the Knights would have seven possessions to change the outcome of the game. Four misses and a turnover later, the Trojans were left with the lead, thanks to Natalie Barton’s putback of her own miss with 4:51 left and a Card free throw with 1:44 left that ended up being the game-winning point.
“Hannah (Smith) was on fire in the first quarter and we got the ball to her a lot,” Catholic coach Jill Clark said. “I think we rushed some things that we didn’t need to rush. But we’re in a position to win the game. Make one more shot than the other team, have one less turnover. It was there.”
But Smith didn’t have a point in the second half and Andy Aiken’s 3-point in the opening seconds of the fourth quarter was the Knights’ only field goal in the final eight minutes. Heaven Bailey sank a pair of free throws with 95 seconds remaining to trim the deficit to a point, but the Knights would fail to connect on four last-minute shots, including Bailey’s runner down the right side of the lane just ahead of the horn.
The Trojans, clinging to a one-point lead in the final minute, survived despite two turnovers that handed the ball back to the Knights.
“We have to be a little smarter at the end of the game and learn to control it a little more and finish a little cleaner than we did,” St. James coach Katie Barton said. “I thought we rebounded the ball really well. I felt like one of the differences was could we keep them (off the boards). Hannah Smith hurt us the first time we played them with a lot of rebound putbacks so we were trying to focus in on if they got a shot, they got one.
“Jill has them playing hard. These types of games are what we need right now to continue to work and get better.”
Card led St. James (7-3) in scoring with 16 points, including 11 in the second half. Natalie Barton added nine. The Trojans return home to face 7A Auburn on Friday.
Smith had 13, followed by Bailey with 11 for the Knights (8-4), which travel to Autaugaville on Tuesday before returning home to play Montgomery Academy on Friday.
BOYS
Macon East Academy 60 Autauga Academy 46
PRATTVILLE -- Gunner Justice had 16 points and four steals to lead the Knights to a 14-point win over the Generals in the Autauga Academy gym on Monday night.
Brandon Wilkins added 12 points and three steals for Macon East, followed by Keagan Roney with 10 points and 14 rebounds and Jacob Wilson with nine points, six assists and a pair of steals.
Macon East (5-1) will travel to Auburn on Tuesday to play Lee-Scott Academy.
Trinity 76, Pike Liberal Arts 25
Trinity scored 19 points in the first quarter and 23 points in both the second and third quarters to coast to a 51-point rout of the Patriots on Monday at Trinity’s Captain Jack Court.
Cal Bennett and John Morris each had 16 points to lead the Wildcats, with Morris scoring 13 in the first half and Bennett adding 12 in the first half as Trinity cruised to a 42-14 halftime lead.
Chris Jackson added nine points, including eight in the third quarter, and Wesley Stallings added eight.
Trinity (8-2) travels to Birmingham on Friday to play John Carroll.
Levi Deboer led Pike Liberal Arts with seven points.
Marbury 60, Montgomery Academy 45
MARBURY -- The Bulldogs outscored their visitors 41-23 in the second half to pull away to a 60-45 win over Montgomery Academy on Monday night.
Skyler Stovall led Montgomery Academy with 12 points, four rebounds, three steals and a pair of assists. Seth Edwards added 11 points, grabbed six rebounds and blocked a shot, while DJ Vinson scored 10 points and grabbed six rebounds. Brewer Welch also chipped in eight points, grabbed three rebounds, had three assists and three steals.
Montgomery Academy (4-3) returns home to play LAMP on Tuesday.
GIRLS
Hooper Academy 59, Cornerstone Christian 23
HOPE HULL -- The Colts got off to a strong start with a 22-8 run and cruised to a 59-23 win over Cornerstone at Darrell Self Gym on Monday.
Kaylee Midkiff scored 13 points and grabbed nine rebounds and Ashbee Norman added 10 points and nine assists to lead Hooper. Victoria Hagemann had eight rebounds for the Colts.
“We came out strong and took control of the game in the first quarter,” Hooper coach Buzz Phillips said. “I thought we played sound defense, limiting their two shooting guards to very few open looks. We were able to play all 14 players some valuable minutes.”
Hooper (5-3) will face Macon East Academy in the opening round of the Pepsi Classic at Macon East on Friday at 6 p.m.
Pike Road 55, Autaugaville 29
PIKE ROAD -- KJ Fencher scored 22 points to lead the Patriots to an easy win over the Eagles on Monday night in the Pike Road gym.
Kelsey Williams added 12 points, followed by Emerson Sporh with 11.
Makasha Burns scored 18 points to lead Autaugaville.
Pike Road (6-5) has a week off before hosting Marbury on Dec. 13.