SATURDAY PREPS: Lowndes, Hooper advance to Elite 8; St. James, Trinity open Area tourney with wins
ACA’s Izzy Warrick recovers the ball from St. James’ Morgan Lilly during Class 3A, Area 6 action on Saturday. (Tim Gayle)
COMBINED REPORTS
LOWNDESBORO -- Lowndes Academy outscored Evangel Christian 12-4 in the fourth quarter to hold off the Lions 44-34 in the AISA Class A quarterfinals in the Lowndes Academy gym on Saturday night.
Lowndes Academy (15-4) will advance to the AISA semifinals at the Multiplex at Cramton Bowl, where the Rebels will face Banks Academy on Thursday at 10:45 a.m.
Evangel Christian ends the season at 13-11.
Evangel led 13-11 at the end of the first quarter and 23-22 at the half before the Rebels rallied to take a 32-30 lead into the fourth quarter.
Clayton Hussey led the Rebels with 17 points, eight rebounds, four assists, a steal and two blocked shots. Zack Azar added 11 points, seven rebounds and two blocked shots, followed by Watters Box with five points, four rebounds, two assists and five steals, Will Brassell with five points, three rebounds and a steal, Pierson Hill with four points, 11 rebounds and two steals and Andrew Myers with two points, a rebound and a steal.
For the Lions, Tylon Shine had nine points, followed by Will McCord with eight points, Jamar Nickerson and Quendarious Rudolph with six points each and Andre Stoddard with five points.
Hooper Academy 71, Restoration Academy 38
FAIRFIELD -- The Colts jumped out to a 26-9 lead in the first quarter and kept their offensive production in high gear the entire night, leading Hooper Academy to a 71-38 win in the Restoration Academy gym and the program’s first berth in the AISA Final Four since 2001.
Hooper (16-7) will play Edgewood Academy at the Multiplex at Cramton Bowl on Thursday at 2:15 p.m. The two Region 1 Area 2 rivals have met three previous times this season, with the Colts winning in an early-season tournament before losing both area meetings.
Hooper’s Nolan Cole, Slade Russell and Lucas Spellman combined for 22 points in the first quarter as the Colts came out red hot in Saturday’s game. Hooper added 16 points in the second quarter and 22 in the third to keep Restoration from mounting any type of comeback.
Cole went 8 of 8 at the free throw line and finished with a game-high 20 points, followed by Luke Mosley with 17, Russell with 15, Spellman with nine and Christ McCoy with eight.
Hooper was making its first Elite Eight appearance since 2018. Now, the Colts will make more history with their first trip to the Final Four in 23 years.
Trinity girls 48, Montgomery Academy 31
It wasn’t their best performance, but at this point in the season, it’s more about survival.
The Trinity girls hit an offensive spurt in the second quarter to give them a little cushion, then turned to their defense to hold off Montgomery Academy 48-31 in the opening round of the 3A Area 6 Tournament on Saturday afternoon in the St. James gym.
Trinity (22-5) will face St. James for the area championship on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. Both Trinity and St. James will advance to sub-regional play on Friday against Area 5 competition that will include Monroe County, Thomasville or Excel.
With Trinity guard Francie Morris sidelined with an injured right ankle, the Wildcats became more of a half-court offense as Montgomery Academy’s triangle-and-two defense fought to neutralize Mya Moskowitz and Maddie Smith. With Moskowitz already slowed by an illness, the Eagles did their job on defense but couldn’t find enough offense against the Wildcats’ pressure package.
“I’ll be honest, coming into it I just wanted to get out with a win,” Trinity coach Blake Smith said. “More than anything, we just needed to prep more for junk defenses. I didn’t have us ready for their triangle-and-two defense. And we thought we would knock down more shots than we did because (that defensive alignment) definitely leaves people open. And if those aren’t going in, it doesn’t work. You just can’t trust that you’re always going to knock down shots.”
The Eagles, trailing by 15 points at the half, scored the first six points of the third quarter and pulled within nine points midway through the fourth quarter, but couldn’t sustain enough offensive production to pull back into the contest.
“They do a good job defensively,” Montgomery Academy coach Reg Mantooth said. “And we struggle to score, anyway, so that makes it tough. I thought we did what we could do defensively and competed hard. I thought the triangle and two bothered them a little bit but they’re really good. We weren’t planning on playing it that long, but it was kind of working so we stayed with it.”
Sophia Cho had 14 points and Caroline Waller added seven for Montgomery Academy, which ends the season at 6-18.
“Sometimes it’s hard to tell that you’re getting better when you’ve got two of the best teams in 3A in (your area),” Mantooth said. “It’s also good for our girls to see that and give them a goal to get to. We’ve got 10 players and eight of them are back next year, so hopefully we’ll continue to improve.”
Trinity got 17 points from Ellie Causey, while Maddie Smith had 10 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and five steals, Lilly Smith had nine points and 13 rebounds and Moskowitz had seven points and six rebounds.
Blake Smith offered no insight on whether Morris would return for Tuesday’s area championship game.
“It’s to be determined,” he said.
St. James 66, Alabama Christian 16
The Trojans jumped out to a 25-8 lead in the first quarter and turned up the defensive pressure on Alabama Christian on the way to a 66-16 win in the opening round of the 3A Area 6 Tournament at St. James on Saturday afternoon.
Katelyn Sutton and Jaide Newkirk hit 3-pointers for the Eagles in the first quarter, but ACA would get just three field goals the remainder of the game. Newkirk led the Eagles with seven points, followed by Sutton with five and Izzy Warrick with four.
After Warrick’s second-quarter jumper, the Eagles would play deep into the second half before finally scoring again on a pair of Newkirk free throws to make it 66-14 with 3:08 remaining.
ACA finished the season at 14-12.
Ava Card scored 30 points to lead the Trojans. The senior now has 2,199 career points and moved past Trinity’s Julie Harrington (2,170 points in 1987-90) into fifth place for career points in the River Region.
Natalie Barton and Morgan Lilly each added nine points, followed by Kaitlin Mitchell with seven.
St. James (24-5) will face Trinity for the area championship on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. Both St. James and Trinity will advance to sub-regional play on Friday against Area 5 competition that will include Monroe County, Thomasville or Excel.