BOYS PREPS: Catholic eases past Trinity; PCA drops road game; MA handles ACA

Catholic’s Kristofer Hampton grabs a rebound during the Knights’ win over Trinity on Tuesday. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

After opening the area schedule with a heartbreaking two-point loss at home to Booker T. Washington, Catholic coach Mike Curry was determined his team should learn from its shortcomings.

Lesson learned. This time, the Knights were able to hold off Trinity 57-55 on Tuesday night to even its record in 4A Area 5 play at 1-1.

The game unfolded in much the same manner, but unlike the previous week’s loss to the Golden Eagles, the Knights were able to do enough things right to hold off the Wildcats.

“We hadn’t really been in that position,” Curry said. “You work on little stuff and talk about it in practice but until you actually go through it in a game, it doesn’t mean a whole lot. We went through it in the last game with Tuskegee, we worked on it and we got better from it. We still didn’t do exactly what we needed to, but we did enough to pull the ballgame out.”

The Knights got a four-point play from Matthias Gourdine with 4:55 remaining to break a 47-47 tie and were able to maintain that margin throughout much of the remainder of the game, holding the ball for most of the final two minutes. Trinity point guard Kamari Hutson sliced through the lane with 27 seconds left to cut the deficit to a basket and the Wildcats got their chance when Catholic point guard Mylez Gourdine was called for travelingt with 13.6 seconds remaining.

Hutson duplicated his feat, driving through the lane and putting up a shot on the rim with three seconds remaining. The shot bounced off of the rim, however, and Catholic’s MJ Belser rebounded the ball and ran out the clock.

“It’s hard for high school kids to hold the ball for a minute and a half and not turn it over or something bad happen,” Curry said. “That was the dilemma last game (with Booker T. Washington). We hadn’t had any real game action with it, but (all the different scenarios) didn’t even cross my mind because it’s hard to hold the ball for a minute and a half. We held it for most of that time. We still weren’t very good defensively. (Hutson) got down the lane and it rimmed in and out. But we’re a work in progress, day to day.”

Trinity had built a lead late in the third quarter and coach Matt Arrighi pointed to that period -- and not the final seconds -- as the difference in the game.

“The game, for us, was lost when you were up four or five with 40 seconds left in the third quarter and you have the ball,” Arrighi said. “You’re going to play for the last shot (in the quarter). You throw it away on the inbounds, they hit a 3 and the next two trips we don’t get back on defense and give up two layups. That was the number one focus of the night. There’s no room for error in not getting back on defense. Most of the night, we did a pretty job of it and at the end of the quarter, when you have a grip on the game, you let it flip at the end of the third quarter by not getting back on defense.”

In an evenly matched area race, both teams had a lot at stake on Tuesday. Trinity (7-9) could have jumped out to a 2-0 lead heading into Friday’s game at Booker T. Washington, while Catholic (6-9) could ill afford to drop to 0-2 after losing to BTW. Instead, both teams are now 1-1.

“You don’t want to go 0-2,” Curry said. “You’re talking about two home games you would have lost. It was big that we did get one at home. We’re one game at a time and pleased we got this one.” 

Arrighi, meanwhile, was disappointed at the loss but confident his Wildcats can still win the area title.

“We told our guys they are as good as anybody in the area,” Arrighi said, “but they’ve got to understand who they are and there are certain things we have to do well and they know what those things are and there’s no margin (for error). We can’t have four times in the game where we don’t do those things well. If they just do that part, they’ll be in every game.”

Catholic remains home to play Tallassee in an area game on Friday. And while the Knights learned some valuable lessons in its first two area games, now Arrighi will get to see what his team will take from Tuesday’s loss.

“For a lot of the night, they did a good job of it,” Arrighi said. “But you can’t lose your focus, even in the short spell.”

Montgomery Academy 69, Alabama Christian 30

MA got 16 points, rebounds, 3 assists from Braden Gordon in the win over homestanding ACA on Tuesday. Mason Ellis added 12 points, five assists, and three rebounds. Jarrett Friendly contributed nine points, 10 rebounds, two blocks, and two assists while JayJay Jackson and Caleb Myles each added eight points.

Noah Shack led ACA with 16 points while Christian Snipes had six points and five rebounds.

MA improves to 11-5 overall and 2-0 in area play and will return to action Friday night at St. James. ACA (5-10, 0-3) travels to Holtville on Friday.

American Christian  50, Prattville Christian  45

TUSCALOOSA -- Carter Fiacco scored 16 points to lead the Panthers in the area loss to the Patriots in the ACA gym on Tuesday night.

Cody Chapman added 13 points and eight rebounds, followed by Ethan Girlie with five points, six assists and five rebounds and Justin Chapman with four points and seven rebounds. Wade Mora grabbed four rebounds.  

PCA (8-11) dropped to 1-2 in area play and will return home to play host to Holt on Friday in another area game

In the junior varsity game, Ethan Kinne had nine points and five rebounds for the Panthers in a 39-14 loss to the Patriots. Carter Montgomery added four points, while Easton Carr had four rebounds for PCA.

Prattville Christian 75 , Billingsley 27 (Monday)

PRATTVILLE -- Cody Chapman scored 20 points and dished out eight assists to lead the Panthers to a 75-27 win over Billingsley in the PCA gym om Monday night.

Ethan Kiefer added 20 points and five assists, followed by Carter Fiacco with 12 points and four steals, Ethan Girlie with eight points and four assists, Wade Mora with six points, nine rebounds, five steals and four assists and Justin Chapman with six points, six rebounds and four assists. CJ Robinson grabbed five rebounds.

WRESTLING

PCA splits with Tallassee, Fultondale in tri-match

PRATTVILLE -- Prattville Christian hosted Tallassee and Fultondale on Tuesday in a tri-match in the PCA gym, falling to Tallassee 62-18 before rebounding with a 44-31 win over Fultondale.

Ryan Lueck, Brysen Pugh, Bryson Bowman and Orion Garrett all went undefeated on the night.  Sophomore Bryson Bowman won his 100th career match on Tuesday.

The Panthers travel to Dothan on Thursday where they will wrestle host team Houston Academy, T.R Miller and Charles Henderson.  Wrestling will start at 5:15 p.m.