Trinity girls, PCA boys get tune-up wins as regular season winds down

PCA’S Ally Blankinchip dribbles through defensive pressure from Trinity’s Lilly Smith and Maddie Smith in Tuesday’s game at Captain Jack Court. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

Defending Class 4A state champion Prattville Christian had played -- and won -- five games since forward Jenna McClendon was lost for the season with a knee injury in a Jan. 15 game at Class 7A Hoover High. 

Now it was time to see how far the “new” PCA Panthers had progressed since losing their best post player, facing an end-of-season test with games on Tuesday at Trinity and on Thursday at St. James. 

“We’ve played a few good teams since Jenna went down with her injury, but these two teams, Trinity and St. James, are two teams that can win a state championship,” PCA coach Jason Roberson said. “Either one of them can win the (Class 3A) state championship. They’re super well coached, they know how to play, they have players all over the court, so this is a chance for us to figure out -- against really good competition -- how we need to play and what we need to improve on now that we’re without Jenna.”

The two teams played evenly through the first quarter before Trinity took a slight lead at the half, then pulled away with a 20-7 run that finished off the Panthers 57-40 on Tuesday night at Captain Jack Court.

“I saw a lot of good things,” Roberson said. “For a while, we were really staying with them, which I was a little surprised because I wasn’t sure how we would react. But what got us in the end was their pressure, so we’ve got to work on that. Jenna is a post player, but she’s also a pressure release because she’s so tall. We’ve got to work on that, playing against good pressure defense without turning the ball over.” 

“And, then, Trinity has five players on the court at the same time that can all pass, dribble and shoot. There’s not many teams out there like that so when you play a team like that it puts a strain on your defense. They did some things we can learn from.”

It was an interesting turn of events for the defending 3A state champion Wildcats, who have won 16 of the last 17 games since losing to PCA on Dec. 1. In that game, Trinity’s post player, Mya Moskowitz, went to the bench early with an injury ankle. McClendon finished as the game’s leading scorer with 15 points and eight rebounds. On Tuesday, Moskowitz finished as the game’s leading scorer with 20 points and five steals. 

And while Trinity coach Blake Smith knew McClendon would be sitting out this game, he didn’t alter the Wildcats’ game strategy. 

“You’re conscientious of having to play an inside-out game to guard them,” Smith said. “You’re not wanting her to catch it down low and put it in the basket with no resistance. But at the same time, they can shoot the basketball. I hate she got hurt, but before that, we were like we’re not going to let them shoot 3’s. If they can get it in there and she scores a bunch, then that’s what they do. Today, we’re like, man, we’re really going to take away the 3’s.”

They struggled at times as PCA worked through the Wildcats’ pressure to find open shots, particularly with four 3-pointers from Avery Rogers in the first half. In the third quarter, the Wildcats held PCA to three field goals while four different players hit 3-pointers to help Trinity pull away.

“I saw a team that was ready to compete, that did a lot of the things we asked them to do,” Smith said. “We pretty much pressed the whole game in different forms and played with energy. When we had bad plays, we got past them. We shared the ball well.”

Francie Morris followed Moskowitz in scoring with 13 points, seven assists and four steals, while Maddie Smith had 13 points, four rebounds and four steals and Ellie Causey had eight points and three rebounds. Trinity (20-5) plays BTW Magnet on Thursday, then plays Montgomery Academy in the first round of the 3A Area 6 tournament at St. James on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. 

Rogers led PCA with 17 points, six rebounds and four steals, followed by Kayden Carr with 12 points and five rebounds and Ally Blankinchip with 11 points, six rebounds and four assists. Leah Cate Wilson grabbed 11 rebounds. PCA (22-6) will travel to St. James on Thursday.

PCA boys 56, Trinity 29

There were a lot of questions about both teams before Tuesday’s tipoff between Prattville Christian and Trinity. 

Prattville Christian had been embarrassed on Monday night in a 68-33 loss to Montgomery Academy. 

Trinity has struggled as well, losing three times in the last four games.

A win often answers a lot of questions, as PCA coach Jason Roberson noted after the Panthers opened up both halves in dominating fashion against the Wildcats in grabbing a 56-29 win at Captain Jack Court.  

“We’ve struggled the last few games, the last week or so, so we were just trying to do something different, spice things up,” Roberson said. “We played a defense tonight that we haven’t played one possession of all year. Maybe our guys liked that and are better suited to play that defense. We’ll keep working on it.”

Trinity, meanwhile, went back to the drawing board after looking lethargic in scoring just two points in the first quarter and just two for much of the third quarter, falling behind by as many as 24 points in the process. 

“We came out tonight, and it’s kind of been a common theme in practice and (recent) games, very flat, not a lot of energy, passive on the offensive end,” Trinity coach Matt Arrighi said. “So the focal point quickly for us became, more than anything, to get our confidence back, an edge back, to start scrapping. We’re not getting loose balls, we’re not rebounding. As the game went on, we did much better at that but we never found an offensive rhythm all night.

“We’ll fix the offensive rhythm part of that … if we find an edge in our attitude.”

The Wildcats looked lost at times as the team’s leading scorer, John Morris, sat on the bench with a boot on his right foot. Arrighi said he wasn’t sure how long Morris will be sidelined.

“I think the easy thing to say when your leader’s not out there is, yeah, you’re flat,” Arrighi said, “but I’ve seen it in practice recently. I was concerned after yesterday’s practice. As a staff, we’ve got to find what buttons to push to get them firing on all cylinders. It doesn’t take but one game to get you rolling in the right direction. I still love my team. We’ve just got to figure out the right psyche heading into the postseason.” 

Thomas Stewart and Cayson Keller each had seven points to lead Trinity (14-8), followed by Tillman Clements with six. The Wildcats play BTW Magnet on Thursday before facing Alabama Christian in the opening round of the 3A Area 6 tournament at Montgomery Academy on Monday.

Cade Segars led the Panthers with 16 points and four rebounds, followed by PJ Evans with 13 points and 11 rebounds, Collier Connell with 11 points, Justin Chapman with six points and eight rebounds and Brady Roberson with five points and seven rebounds.

PCA (14-14) will travel to St. James on Thursday and Roberson will feel a little better after watching his team rebound from Monday’s performance.

“MA is a great team and even if we show up, they can beat us,” he said. “I don’t want to take anything from them, but at the same time I didn’t feel like we showed up to compete. We got embarrassed by a very good team. I was proud of our response tonight.”