Youth-N-Action tourney a measuring stick for Catholic in loss to Cottage Hill

Josh Bell of Cottage Hill drives on Catholic’s Matthew Reardon during the Warriors’ win on Saturday at Garrett Coliseum. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

Catholic coach Mike Curry was looking for a gauge to judge this year’s Knights and facing Cottage Hill Christian, a fellow state tournament participant last February, in the Youth-N-Action High School Showcase at Garrett Coliseum was certainly a strong test.

Too strong, in fact. While Catholic is missing two key starters from last year’s 3A runner-up, with a third participating in the Alabama-Mississippi All-Star Classic on Saturday and a fourth nursing an ankle injury, the Warriors were hitting on all cylinders from the opening tip in Saturday’s 77-67 win over the Knights.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” Curry said. “I think we saw some fight. First of all, we weren’t ready to play. But with that said, I thought we hung around. We were down 13 at the half and as bad as we had played, I thought that was all right. They jumped us again to start the third. We still weren’t ready to play. But we fought ‘till the end.”

The graduation of DJ Jamerson and Miles Butler, along with T.J. Dudley’s participation in the football all-star game on Saturday, left the Knights vulnerable to the Cottage Hill post duo of Tyler and Trent Thomas. And while the Thomas brothers owned the paint in Saturday’s game, the Knights had trouble keeping pace with the up-tempo Warrior offense led by guards Josh Bell and Kelvon McBride.

“I thought it was a product of them playing well, I thought it was a product of us being timid, not playing with that zest,” Curry said. “We were kind of tip-toeing around, not sure of ourselves. I’ve got to fix that. I’m going to fix that.”

Cottage Hill (12-3), or “The Hill” as their jerseys proclaim, scored 13 unanswered points early to open up a 16-2 lead as the Knights looked slow on defense and overwhelmed on offense. They settled down and cut the deficit to 13 points, 37-24, at the half, only to see Bell launch two of his five 3-pointers in the third period and put the Warriors up by more than 20 points late in the third period. 

“With this (Catholic) bunch, we wanted to be in attack mode, we wanted to be fast but under control and to get the ball up because the ball travels faster than we do,” Cottage Hill coach Adam Thomas said. “They were able to do that today and see some light at the end of the tunnel because it’s different for them.

“For our guys, it was just the experience. Being in Mobile, sometimes we don’t get to play in big arenas, big stages, and getting to play against the top talent in the state is really good for us. My goal was to come in, let them get that feel, for us to get some good time on the floor, come away with a win and have a good experience through it all.”

The fourth starter missing from last year’s Catholic team, LJ Green, returned to the floor for the first time this season, playing nearly four minutes late in the first quarter and early in the second before limping off to rest his left ankle. He returned to the floor briefly in the second half before returning to the bench to ice his ankle. He finished with five first-half points.

“I thought (his return) helped us, but he’s limited,” Curry said. “He’s only had two or three days of practice, so he wasn’t his normal self. But him being here in the locker room and being around the guys gives them a little bit of confidence.” 

Trailing by 17 points in the final minutes, the Knights staged a furious rally with six consecutive 3-pointers by Brennan Binns to cut the deficit to nine points with 43.5 seconds left before the Knights ran out of timeouts and the Warriors regained the momentum at the free-throw line. 

“We lost ourselves in the game as opposed to thinking,” Curry said. “We started playing hard and we started making some shots. I still don’t think we were as good defensively, even late.”

Binns finished with a game-high 26 points, followed by Matthew Reardon with 16 and Ethan Binns with nine. Catholic (3-2) will play in the Be Elite Tournament next weekend in Huntsville, playing Hale County on Dec. 20 and Baker on Dec. 21. 

Bell led Cottage Hill with 25 points, followed by McBride with 18, Tyler Thomas with 10, Shedrick Toodle with nine and Trent Thomas with eight.