Trinity sweeps PCA in key early-season hoops action

Trinity’s EK Smith is guarded by PCA’s Ally Blankinchip (5) and Kayden Carr. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

PRATTVILLE -- It had the potential to be a classic early-season matchup when Trinity visited two-time defending state champion Prattville Christian on Tuesday, but Wildcat senior Emma Kate Smith admitted something, or rather someone, was missing from the meeting of two of the state’s best girls basketball teams.

“It’s so weird to think we’re coming to play PCA and Ella Jane’s not here,” Smith said. “She’s been here for so long and we’ve played her for so long, it doesn’t feel the same. It’s definitely different without her.”

Ella Jane Connell, the all-time leading scorer at Prattville Christian with 2,253 points, is now at Faulkner University and her absence was keenly felt by the Panthers as they dropped the season opener to the Wildcats, 45-39.

“When you lose one person off a team, you think, ‘Man, they’re going to be basically the same team or maybe even better,’ but when you lose somebody like Ella Jane, it’s going to take us a while,” PCA coach Jason Roberson said. “Ella Jane is an unbelievable basketball player, obviously, but she’s an unbelievable leader. We’ve got some guards that can handle the ball, we’ve got some guards that can make plays, but for the last 130 games in a varsity jersey, Ella Jane has had the ball in her hands.”

The game certainly had that early-season feel as both offenses sputtered to find any consistency as they retooled for the 2022-23 season. PCA, without Connell, looked rudderless at times as no one stepped into the leadership role to guide the offense. Trinity beefed up its roster with the addition of Mountain Brook transfer Francie Morris and T.R. Miller transfer Jayden Mitchell, but the Wildcats looked just as out of sync in terms of team chemistry as the Panthers.

 “Honestly, I thought it was rocky,” Emma Kate said. “But I’m proud of how we pushed through it. I think that shows the character of every player on the team. It wasn’t always pretty, but we stuck together through it and pushed through it.”

Her father, head coach Blake Smith, offered a similar assessment.

“We talked about how this is going to be a learning curve for us,” he said. “We’re going from a group that wasn’t as talented as this group but everybody knew where they were supposed to be. We’re not there yet, but our talent was able to fix some of those problems. Jayden and Francie play so hard, they’ve been well coached. You only saw half of what they’re capable of.”

The Wildcats (2-0) gave a decidedly different look early as Morris scored the first basket of the game and forward Mya Moskowitz hit the first 3-pointer, helping Trinity to take a 10-3 lead. But the Panthers were never far behind, trailing just 22-20 at the half and pulling even at 26-26 with 3:49 left in the third quarter before the Wildcats hit another scoring spurt to pull back ahead. 

“Trinity is one of the better teams we’ll play all year, one of the best teams in the state regardless of classification,” Roberson said. “I would guess he would say they didn’t play good, I would say we didn’t play good. I think it was two really good teams with a lot of talent on the floor, just making it hard for each other. Both teams were fighting, really competing hard, but neither team was really ready to play each other this early in the season.”

Morris and Moskowitz each had 15 points to lead the Wildcats, followed by Smith with eight. The difference for Trinity was on the defensive end, where they battled for 32 minutes to keep the Panthers from finding any offensive rhythm.

“We knew they would bring more pressure than ever because we’re playing for the first time without Ella Jane,” Roberson said. “Why wouldn’t you? We had 33 turnovers and we only lost by six points. So there’s a lot of positives from it but we’ve got to figure out how to play without turning it over 33 times.”

The pieces are still there for the Panthers, particularly with Hannah Jones (12 points and 12 rebounds) and Coco Thomas (nine points and seven rebounds) in the paint.

“Hannah and Coco are good,” Emma Kate said. “They’re tough to play against. But Mya and Jayden, I was so proud of them because they’re a good bit shorter than Hannah and Coco, so you’ve got to be tough down there to hang with them.”

Both teams are back in action this weekend at tournaments, with Trinity visited Alabaster to play in a tournament at Thompson and PCA (0-1) traveling to Montgomery to play Opelika on Friday afternoon in the first round of St. James Tipoff Classic. 

Prattville girls 57, Pike Road 39

PRATTVILLE -- Kalia Fencher had 13 points to lead the Patriots, but Pike Road came up short in Tuesday’s game with the 7A Lions, falling 57-39 in Powell Gym.

Jazz Johnson added 10 points and seven rebounds for the Patriots (1-1), which travel to Troy to play Charles Henderson on Friday. 

Trinity boys top PCA

PRATTVILLE -- Prattville Christian returned all five starters from last year’s team, but you would never know it from watching the first half of Tuesday’s season opener with Trinity.

“The first half was really frustrating,” PCA coach Jason Roberson said. “It was about as bad as we could play, probably, and we just were not playing team basketball on either end of the floor, offensively or defensively.”

The Wildcats rolled out to an 18-3 lead at the end of the first quarter and a 34-14 halftime lead, but Trinity coach Matt Arrighi kept warning his team to prepare for a PCA rally in the second half.

“We told the guys in the locker room they were going to come back,” Arrighi said. “They’re a really good 3-point shooting team and they missed a lot of shots in the first half and they’re not going to continue to miss them.”

They didn’t. PCA put together a 25-point third quarter to pull back into the game and actually took a brief lead on a four-point play by Carson Roberson late in the fourth quarter before the Wildcats regained control for a 55-52 win in the season opener for both teams in the PCA gym.  

 The Wildcats had trouble maintaining their intensity in the third quarter and the Panthers pulled within a point early in the fourth quarter before Trinity regained control with a 7-0 run. The Panthers rallied again, using a 9-0 run on Roberson’s four-point play to take a 52-51 lead with 1:47 remaining.

“Throughout the second half, we kept reminding them that we told y’all they were going to fight their way back into it and to not panic, stay the course and keep playing,” Arrighi said. “The biggest thing for us is we needed to take better shots. I’m proud of them for responding because it’s easy to lay down when you blow a 20-point lead in the first half.”

PCA wouldn’t score again the remainder of the game as Roberson missed his final three shots and the Panthers had a pair of turnovers. Trinity, meanwhile, got a baseline drive for a basket from Chapman Pouncey and a pair of Mac Stewart free throws to win the season opener.

Just as Arrighi was proud of his team answering the two late challenges by the Panthers, PCA coach Jason Roberson was pleased with the way his team responded in the second half to wipe out the huge deficit despite hitting just 5 of 24 shots from the 3-point arc and 15 of 29 from the free-throw line.

“We’ve really been focusing on humbling ourselves,” Roberson said, “meaning we have to listen, we’ve got to take coaching, we have to do all the little things right because we’re not super big or some great team, but we’ve got some pretty good players and if we humble ourselves and play for each other, then we’ll be more willing to do the things it takes to be successful.

“In the second half, we started doing some of those things. I don’t know if we didn’t want to get embarrassed and lose by 40, I don’t know if we decided there were no more jitters, no more nerves because we were already down by 20 and had nothing to lose. It’s easy to play loose when you feel like you have nothing to lose. 

“I’m proud of them for not giving up and laying down, which we could have, but we’ve got to come ready to play and do the things in the second half for four quarters. If we do that, we can be a team that can win some basketball games.”

Carson Roberson led PCA with 17 points, followed by Conner Williams with 16 points and 10 rebounds and PJ Evans with nine points, nine rebounds and four steals. Cayson Keller had 13 points to lead Trinity, followed by Cal Bennett with 12 and Jackson Taylor with 11.

Trinity (1-0) travels to Troy to play Pike Liberal Arts on Thursday, while PCA (0-1) has a week off before playing host to Autaugaville. 

Prattville 60, Pike Road 57

PRATTVILLE -- Prattville jumped out to an early lead and held off a furious Pike Road rally at the end to defeat the Patriots 60-57 and hand new coach Jason Fisher his inaugural win as the Lions’ basketball coach.

Tavious Hohenberger had 19 points and four rebounds to help the Lions jump out to an impressive 23-11 start against the Patriots in Tuesday’s game at Powell Gym. The Lions still led by 11 points entering the final quarter when Pike Road began to chip away at the lead.

Ty Bryant had 13 points for Prattville (1-0), followed by Kam Shanks with 11 points, five rebounds and six steals and Kam Deramus with six points and 11 rebounds.

Jayden Cooper led Pike Road (0-2) with 26 points, 10 rebounds and two blocked shots, followed by Alijah Hicks with 11 points and four rebounds.

Prattville remains home to play Sidney Lanier on Thursday.