CLASS 3A CENTRAL REGIONAL FINALS: Gordon leads MA back to Birmingham; St. James holds off Midfield to advance
Braden Gordon scored 20 points to lead Montgomery Academy past Midfield and advance to next week’s state finals in Birmingham. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
Braden Gordon was an obvious choice as the most valuable player in Montgomery Academy’s 49-40 win over Midfield in the 3A Central Regional finals at Alabama State’s Dunn-Oliver Acadome on Tuesday morning.
The Montgomery Academy junior led all players in scoring with 20 points and provided some clutch shooting for the Eagles down the stretch. But it was his defense on Midfield’s leading scorer, Aaron Adams-Martin, that made the difference.
Martin, the Patriots’ leading scorer, hit just 3 of 16 shots from the field, less than a week after leading the Patriots to a win over Hale County in the regional semifinals.
“Our coaching staff does a great job, Coach (Reg) Mantootth in particular, with our defense,” Montgomery Academy coach Jeremy Arant said. “Obviously, he was the focus. He had 31 (points) against Hale County, he’s a really good 3-point shooter and for the most part we were able to take that away from him. Our guys did a great job executing that.”
So Arant and Mantooth decided the task of guarding Martin should fall to Will Renfroe, but Renfroe got into foul trouble in the third quarter.
“We got in the huddle and ‘Bray’ said, ‘I’ve got No. 3 the rest of the game,’” Arant said. “When ‘Bray’ says that, we just let him do his thing.”
Gordon said it wasn’t a matter of being arrogant, just his way of helping out.
“My mind went blank and I just said, ‘I’ve got him the rest of the game,’” Gordon said. “In the game, I really wasn’t going to guard him that much but then when I started getting him and I was zoned in, I’m like ‘I’ve got him, don’t anybody take me out of the zone.’”
Midway through the fourth quarter, the two teams remained locked in a defensive battle. Although Montgomery Academy led from wire to wire, it was only a single-digit lead until Gordon buried a 3-pointer for a 40-29 lead that seemed to finish off the Patriots.
“That felt good because I was in a slump the whole game,” Gordon said. “And last game. It just felt good to get something going. The goal was to win, no matter how bad I was shooting. Our point guard, Mason Ellis, came to me and said you’ve got to lead us and I led us on both offense and defense. That was my goal.”
Gordon led all scorers in the game with 20 points, along with seven rebounds, three assists, a steal and a blocked shots. Jarrett Friendly added 12 points, 10 rebounds, a steal and a block while Ellis added nine points, nine rebounds, two assists and a steal. JayJay Jackson chipped in seven points, four rebounds and three steals as well.
Montgomery Academy (26-7) returns to the 3A state tournament at Birmingham’s Legacy Arena, facing Lauderdale County (25-5) in the semifinals on Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. Midfield ends the season at 20-9.
“We talked before the game about these guys imprinting their legacy on what Montgomery Academy basketball is,”Arant said. “We had eight seniors last year who were a huge part of our program. People may not know how good this team still is. They may think Skyler (Stovall) is not there, DJ (Vinson) is not there, Cade (Segars), Brewer (Welch), they’re not there. What is this team? I think this team showed you we’re going to guard your tail, we’re going to be physical and rebound and we’re a really good team.”
Martin finished with 19 points, hitting his second 3-pointer in the final minute but limited on his touches in the paint. Eleven of his points came at the free-throw line.
“We knew he was the only one that could hurt us down low,” Friendly said. “If he was five feet and in, he would kill us so our game plan was to take him out of the game, keep him out of the paint and keep him off the board.”
“He’s a good player, he’s hard to guard,” Arant added. “When you’re really tight on somebody, trying to take 3s away from them, they’re able to get a few more angles and you may foul them a few more times. It was a physical game, too.”
And the Eagles were up to the challenge of winning a physical battle, dominating on the boards (37-26 advantage in rebounding) and owning an advantage in steals and blocked shots. Most importantly, they held the Patriots to just two field goals in both the first and third quarters, keeping Midfield from mounting a serious challenge.
“When the shots aren’t falling, it’s a physical and mental game,” Friendly said. “You’ve got to go to the next step. You can’t linger on one, you’ve got to go play by play and lock down on defense.
“Coming out in the second half, those first three minutes, we held them down. Keep them right there. We knew it was going to be a dogfight and if we held them right there, we knew the game was ours.”
St. James’ Jordyn McRae tries shoots over Kamiya Webb of Midfield in the Trojans’ win on Tuesday. (Tim Gayle)
St. James girls hold off Midfield to advance
It wasn’t the normal high octane offense you’d see from the St. James girls, but thankfully for the Trojans, the high intensity defense saved the day.
The Trojans held Midfield’s leading scorer, Kamiya Webb, without a field goal in Tuesday’s Central Regional final at Alabama State’s Dunn-Oliver Acadome, turning a standout defensive performance into a regional championship and a trip to Birmingham in a 47-32 win over the Patriots.
“One of our focuses was (Webb) and No. 0 (Lauren Stokes),” St. James coach Katie Barton said. “We let No. 0 get a little loose -- she hit four 3s -- but the biggest stat that pops out is Kamiya only had two offensive boards. She really kills people on the offensive boards and I think that’s huge. That really limited them offensively.”
St. James (31-4) will play Mars Hill Bible (26-4) in the 3A semifinals at Legacy Arena on Tuesday at 9 a.m. Midfield ends the season at 25-7.
“We have a goal in mind,” said Natalie Barton, the regional most valuable player. “We’re very happy that we won, we’re very happy that we’re in the Final Four, but we want to get to our end goal.”
The Trojans set a school record last year with 34 wins but failed to grab the ultimate prize, losing to Lauderdale County in overtime in the 3A finals.
“We want to win state, so this was just another obstacle in our way,” St. James guard Morgan Lilly said. “We have two more games to go.”
It was a defensive battle for more than 24 minutes, but the Trojans had a better defensive weapon, utilizing freshman Jordyn McRae in the paint to contain Webb. The 6-foot-2 junior managed just four points (going 4 for 4 at the free-throw line and 0 for 3 on shots), with virtually all of her 11 rebounds and three blocked shots coming on the defensive end of the floor.
“We rotate in strong with our ‘help’ side,” Katie Barton said. “Jordyn McRae does a fabulous job. Her footwork in the post is advanced. She’s only a freshman, but the way she can wrap and get around people in the post is remarkable.”
It wasn’t just McRae. Her backup, Kaden Fair, offered McRae eight minutes of relief and the Trojan guards relied on footwork and active hands to keep the ball from getting to Webb.
“I think Jordan and Kaden played great tonight,” Natalie Barton said. “They were blocking her out very well. Honestly, we all bought in this week at practice … because we know they can drive and we know they can rebound the ball. And that you can’t let her get the rebound because it’s going right back up.”
“Jordan and Kaden had the challenge of guarding the 6-foot-4 girl, Kamiya Webb, but we did good on ‘help,’ getting easy rebounds and boxing out,” Lilly said. “It was the little things.”
That made up for a morning of poor shooting after the Trojans hit just 3 of 15 shots (20 percent) in the first quarter and 4 of 15 (26.7 percent) in the third quarter.
“We couldn’t buy a bucket tonight,” Katie Barton said. “The good news is, we were able to hold them to 32 points and come away with a win. But we just couldn’t buy a bucket. I think we thought we were being aggressive, going into the paint, but I think we were being a little more timid, not as ‘us’ when we go in there. We were settling for fallaways or looking for a foul. We got in our heads a little on our downhill attack.”
But it clicked for one brief moment early in the fourth quarter when Natalie Barton hit a 3-pointer, threw a transition pass to McRae for a layup and McRae followed up with a steal and a layup to turn a close game into a 43-28 lead.
“I felt like those three possessions were huge turning points,” Katie Barton said. “Nat hit that 3 and then I’m yelling at Nat, ‘pull it up, slow it down’ and she throws a dart at Jordyn and Jordyn finishes and Nat looks at me and shrugs her shoulders like, let me play. Then Jordyn comes up again with that wraparound steal and finished with a layup. That probably deflated them.”
The Patriots were never the same, managing just two baskets the remainder of the game.
“I think that was the moment where we finally flipped the switch,” Natalie Barton said. “I mean, we were playing great defense the whole game but I feel like once we hit that 3-pointer, we could flip the switch and we started playing loose.”
“They were tired,” Lilly added. “You could see on their faces they didn’t want to play any more.”
Natalie Barton led the Trojans with 18 points, 12 rebounds, three assists and three steals, followed by Lilly with 13 points, four rebounds, three assists and three steals and McRae with nine points, six rebounds and a steal. Stokes led Midfield with 16 points.
Joining Barton on the all-tournament team were Lilly, Kaitlin Mitchell and McRae from St. James and Webb and Stokes from Midfield.