AHSAA CENTRAL REGIONAL: Catholic boys, girls sweep Bibb County to advance
MJ Belser with a layup in Catholic’s Class 4A Central Regional semifinal win over Bibb County on Wednesday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
In a game where both teams struggled to find offensive consistency, Mylez Gourdine found his comfort zone at the free-throw line, hitting 7-of-8 free throws in the final 64 seconds to secute Catholic’s 60-45 win over Bibb County in the Central Regional semifinal at Alabama State’s Dunn-Oliver Acadome on Wednesday afternoon.
“In the second half, it felt like normal,” Gourdine said. “I felt comfortable shooting and driving to the rim again.”
It was a struggle for the Knights -- and the Choctaws -- for much of the game as relatively routine shots didn’t fall.
“They just weren’t falling,” Catholic coach Mike Curry said. “The ball may have been a little bouncy.”
As a result, the Knights never went on another run after staking themselves to an 8-0 lead. Bibb County would cut the lead to four points on a pair of occasions, but both teams grinded it out for the remainder of the game, never hitting a run that would put the game out of reach.
“We never got that 9-0 run, that 12-0 run that we normally get,” Curry said. “It just didn’t happen. But I thought we played sound enough and solid enough. There at the end, it may not be the sexiest, but if they’re going to sit back in a zone and we’re up, they’ve got to come out of that zone.”
Armed with a 41-37 lead entering the fourth quarter, the Knights fought off scoring challenges from the Choctaws for a little more than a minute, then went into a stall the remainder of the game, content to run the clock and look for the easy shot. On this particular day, there were no easy shots but Devin Hampton put back a Matthias Gourdine miss, MJ Belser put back a Mylez Gourdine missed layup and then hit from underneath to extend the lead to 49-41 before Gourdine put away the game at the free-throw line.
“It’s just getting acclimated to the new gym, since we’ve never played on a college court before,” Mylez Gourdine said of the shooting struggles. “I think we’ve got to just settle down and concentrate on the shot next time. They’re obviously a good team. They can play basketball very well. We couldn’t get hold of them.”
The Knights were bolstered by the return of AJ Dottery, who played sparingly in the sub-regional game last Saturday and again on Wednesday, hit first action this season since a shoulder injury in football.
“We believe in him, the guys believe in him,” Curry said, “but when you’ve been sitting on the shelf for two months, it’s kind of hard. You haven’t been in there running the plays, you’re not in game shape. We’re just trying to find him minutes and hopefully he can give us a spark here down the stretch.”
He played just three minutes on Wednesday, taking one shot and handing out an assist.
“It’s great, having another guard who can handle the ball,” Gourdine said. “He’s a very good scorer. Last game (in the sub-regional), he gave us the momentum. It’s nice having him back.”
Matthias Gourdine led Catholic with 16 points and three rebounds, followed by Belser with 14 points, eight rebounds and three steals, Mylez Gourdine with 13 points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals and Hampton with 10 points and three rebounds.
The win was the 13th in the last 14 games for the streaking Knights, who were 5-9 in late December. Catholic (18-10) will play Fairfield, a 59-42 winner over Anniston, for the Central Regional championship on Tuesday at 5:45 p.m.
Hannah Smith with the layup, part of her 27 points in Catholic’s win over Bibb County on Wednesday. The Lady Knight will play Tuesday in the Class 4A Central Regional final. (Tim Gayle)
Catholic girls 71, Bibb County 26
As the Catholic girls reach deeper in the state playoffs, there will be a need for additional scorers.
“I’ve been in places where we have had players who get way more points than other players and teams tend to focus on them,” first-year coach Courtney Ward said, “but we are a good solid team where we have more than just Hannah (Smith). Then they also help her out, too, helping her get what she needs to get. So the more she gets her teammates involved, the better we are on both ends of the basketball game.”
The Knights reached the regional finals for only the fourth time in program history, defeating Bibb County 71-26 in the Central Regional semifinals at Alabama State’s Dunn-Oliver Acadome on Wednesday afternoon.
Catholic (21-6) will play Pleasant Grove on Tuesday at 4 p.m. in the Central Regional finals. The Knights are looking to become only the second girls’ basketball team in school history to reach the state tournament, joining the 2002 team that lost to Lauderdale County in the semifinals.
“It feels amazing,” point guard Jordan Robinson said. “It would be great, in my first year at Catholic, to win state.”
And Smith got her points, scoring 27 points on 11 of 17 shooting, along with 16 rebounds and three assists. But Robinson added 14 points, three assists and seven steals and Kierstyn Green had 11 points.
“We really go with who has the hot hand,” Robinson said, “but I don’t think we force it. That helps us as a team, we get whatever’s going, we don’t force the game to us.”
But it was Green who launched the Knights’ first shot, sinking a 3-pointer, and then the second shot that didn’t fall. Smith was there to put back the miss.
“Keep shooting,” Ward said of her message to Green. “Why not? If you stop shooting, we’re not going to get them. She’s got to keep shooting in order to score.”
Catholic broke open a tight game with a 16-2 run in the second quarter to climb out to a 33-13 lead, then went on a 25-8 run in the third quarter to turn the game into a rout.
“I think, team wise, we played pretty well today,” Ward said. “We made the extra passes. We can always do a better job of boxing out and small things like that, but as far as just playing together as a team, I think we did a pretty good job.”
The Knights shot 54 percent from the field, 36 percent from the 3-point arc, outrebounded the Choctaws 33-22, had an 11-2 edge in assists and an 11-1 advantage in steals. All in all, it was a very successful day for the Knights.
“I feel like we really played well as a team,” Robinson said. “We ran the plays well, we executed, and that’s all you can ask for.”