REGIONAL RECAP: Local 6A teams shut out in semis
Pike Road’s Dillan Johnson loses ball after running into Blount's Javarous White during the Class 6A semifinals at Garrett Coliseum. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
Just once, Pike Road coach Obadiah Threadgill said, he’d like to see his Patriots get off to a fast start offensively in a game.
Not surprisingly, Pike Road missed most of its first-quarter shots and trailed Blount by eight points entering the second quarter of Friday’s South Regional semifinal at Garrett Coliseum.
“I was thankful that playing a half that poorly we were only down 10,” Threadgill said. “They didn’t make free throws as well or it could have been worse. But we came out (in the second half) and knew we had to turn up the temperature a little bit and that’s what we did. Our guys showed a lot of grit, a lot of determination to finish that game the way they did.”
Pike Road’s Dillan Johnson sank a pair of free throws with 3.4 seconds left to force overtime, but the Partiots’ bad habits resurfaced as Blount escaped with a 52-47 win in overtime to advance to the regional finals.
It was a clean sweep by the Mobile schools in their 6A battle for regional supremacy with Montgomery County schools. The G.W. Carver and Park Crossing girls lost earlier in the day and Pike Road joined Park Crossing in the boys’ teams that watched their season end on Friday.
Blount (20-6) advanced to the South Regional finals against McGill-Toolen on Wednesday at 10:45 a.m. Pike Road ends the season at 18-12.
“I think our guys are, as a program, still learning themselves,” Threadgill said. “Attention to detail and keeping true to your fundamentals, these guys kind of forget those things and they get overexcited and we got in a hole. But they don’t quit. We know how to get ourselves out of holes, too.”
The Patriots were impressive in chipping away at the lead. Time and again, leading scorer Jayden Cooper would put up a close shot that would rim out, one of his teammates would miss a putback and the Patriots would be chasing Blount’s offense downcourt. Despite the struggles -- Pike Road made just two field goals in the fourth quarter -- the Patriots were able to rally late and force a four-minute overtime period.
“He’s a really good player, I’m blessed to be able to coach him,” Threadgill said of Cooper. “He’s our guy and we go as he goes. He definitely did miss some shots that he normally makes. He’s going to be a really good college player for somebody. He turned it up in the second half and although he had 24 points, 30 would have got it done for us.”
The Patriots were clinging to a one-point lead in overtime when the scorekeeper sounded the horn to attract officials to a malfunctioning clock just as Blount’s Antonio Jackson pulled up and hit a 3-pointer for the only 3-pointer made by either team in the game.
Pike Road never recovered.
“The clock malfunctioned and everybody kind of stopped playing,” Threadgill said. “They know they’re supposed to play until the whistle blows but the horn kind of froze them and the other team hits a 3. We had a defensive miscommunication the play before that. We wanted to go zone a little but didn’t communicate the call well enough. Just a few mistakes we’ve got to clean up, but our guys are learning the difference between 3A and 5A and 6A and they’re learning it really, really fast.”
Pike Road, playing in its first year as a 6A program after two years at 3A and then two at 5A, found that slow starts this season often led to defeats. With just two senior starters, Cooper and Alijah Hicks, Threadgill hopes the Patriots will use Friday’s game as a stepping stone to improve next season.
“I’m 6-foot-3 and I’m the tallest guy getting off the bus,” Threadgill said. “We new to 6A, we scrapped ourselves into the playoffs, we scrapped ourselves into the regional. This is my 12th year being a head coach and the 10th time in the regionals. What I’m learning is this level is very athletic, very fast and very aggressive so you have to be fundamentally sound if you don’t have the same caliber athletes. This group overachieved.”
Theodore girls 41, G.W. Carver 37
Theodore went the final 7:55 without a field goal, but hit 5 of 6 free throws in the final 18 seconds to defeat the Carver girls 41-37 in the South Regional semifinals at Garrett Coliseum on Friday.
Theodore (23-9) will play McGill-Toolen in the South Regional finals on Wednesday at 9 a.m. Carver ends the season at 26-3.
Jazmyn Bigham had 19 points and 15 rebounds for the Bobcats and Dayzah Weatherly added 11 points, including a layup five seconds into the fourth quarter for Theodore’s final field goal in the game. A basket by Carver’s Takya Norman cut the deficit to 36-33 with 4:09 left, but the two teams squandered opportunities to change the outcome for nearly four minutes. Until Theodore extended the lead with free throws with 18 seconds remaining, the Bobcats had six turnovers and missed two shots and a free-throw attempt during that stretch, while Carver missed all five attempts from the field and committed four turnovers during the same stretch.
Jaliyah Gordon led Carver with 14 points.
McGill-Toolen girls 49, Park Crossing 29
Anna Reed McNeece hit 11 of 16 shots from the field and finished with 24 points to lead the McGill-Toolen girls to an easy victory over Park Crossing in the South Regional semifinals at Garrett Coliseum on Friday.
Emily Claire Harbaugh added 13 points as McGill-Toolen (28-5) advanced to the South Regional finals against Theodore on Wednesday at 9 a.m. Park Crossing ends the season at 17-14.
McNeece and Harbaugh combined for 37 of the team’s 49 points, helping McGill-Toolen jump out to a 14-8 lead after one period and extend the lead to 22-13 at the half.
Saniya Jackson led Park Crossing with 12 points and six rebounds but was just 3 of 14 from the field, including an 0-for-5 performance from the 3-point arc. The Thunderbirds shot just 25 percent (10 of 40) from the field and just 2 of 17 from behind the arc.
Park Crossing’s Caden Anderson-Teal has his shot blocked by McGill's Raymari Andrews in 6A semifinal action on Friday. (Tim Gayle)
McGill-Toolen boys 58, Park Crossing 55
McGill-Toolen went on a 12-0 run midway through the third period to grab the lead, then held off the Thunderbirds in the final minute to defeat Park Crossing 58-55 in a South Regional semifinal at Garrett Coliseum on Friday afternoon.
McGill-Toolen (25-6) will play Blount for the South Regional championship on Wednesday at 10:45 a.m. Park Crossing ends the season at 14-13.
Park Crossing took an early lead in Friday’s game and led by as many as nine points two minutes into the second quarter, but McGill-Toolen chipped away at the deficit, cutting it to four points at the half before taking the lead in the third quarter.
Park Crossing cut the McGill lead to a point on two occasions, but a pair of Bennett Russ free throws and a Jackson Murphy layup extended the lead back to three points. Jayden Scott cut the deficit to a point after the free throws, but the Thunderbirds missed their final two shots, including a 3-point attempt to tie the game.
Devin McCaine led McGill-Toolen with 25 points, followed by Russ with 18.
Scott led Park Crossing with 16 points, nine rebounds, seven assists and five steals. Braelon Markette added 13 points.