CLASS 4A AREA 6 TOURNEY: PCA advances, faces Bibb County in final

By TIM GAYLE

PRATTVILLE -- At first glance, it looks like any other Prattville Christian Academy girls’ basketball team.

On Saturday night, the Panthers crushed their area tournament semifinal opponent, West Blocton, and guaranteed their eighth consecutive trip to the postseason by advancing to the 4A Area 6 area tournament finals on Tuesday against Bibb County.

But this isn’t your typical PCA girls’ basketball team. Far from it.

“We’re honest,” PCA coach Jason Roberson said. “Winning a state championship probably is not realistic this year for us. And that’s OK. There are a lot of teams that are going to end their season with a loss. Only a very select few will win their last game. We’ve been fortunate and blessed enough to do that three times in the last few years, but with this year’s team, we just said we want to buy into becoming the best version of ourselves.

“And I’m going to tell you, I’ve had as much fun coaching this year’s team as I had coaching the state championship teams.”

If you followed the journey of this rebuilding effort, it’s easy to understand Roberson’s affection for this team. After losing Kayden Carr, Ally Blankinchip and Jenna McClendon from last year’s team, he was left with two seniors that aren’t noted for scoring a lot of points and a squad of underclassmen that aren’t consistent enough to be labeled as go-to shooters or dominant post players.

“We don’t have any superstars on this team, and that’s OK,” Roberson said. “We have seven girls in our rotation and all seven have scored double figures in at least one game. So we have multiple girls that can step up.”

Roberson lost his second game this season by 45 points. The Panthers went on to lose seven of their first nine games and 11 of their first 15.

“A lot of youth,” he said. “We’re playing three eighth graders in our top six or seven. So a lot of mistakes, a lot of uncertainty.”

But along the way, the Panthers continued to improve and turned their season around, winning 13 of their last 15 games.

“We had to really talk to the younger kids about not being scared and being more confident,” said senior forward Leah Cate Wilson. “You’re good enough to play on a varsity team and you’re good enough to shoot and we want you to take shots. A lot of the times they were looking for me or Baylee (Rogers) -- look for the seniors -- and we got to the point where we convinced the younger kids that they were good enough to shoot.”

Roberson gives his two seniors all the credit for turning the program back in the right direction.

“We have two of the best leaders that I have ever coached in my 25 years,” Roberson said. “Our two seniors, Baylee Rogers and Leah Cate, have done an unbelievable job leading eighth graders this year.”

Rogers and Wilson have made a group of newcomers less anxious and more confident with each passing game.

“We try to make fun out of everything,” Wilson said. “We have a lot of eighth graders and so we’re looking at trying to lock into every game. You would think, oh, we have a lot of middle schoolers and you’d think they don’t take it seriously, but I think they take it more seriously than most seniors do.”

Maybe they were too nervous early in the season. Wilson said she believes the eighth graders were overthinking the game, which generally creates more stress and more mistakes.

“Our expectations are definitely sub regionals and I think we could keep going past regionals,” Wilson said. “It depends on how focused we are and keeping the eighth graders from getting nervous. Before, a lot of the times they see who we’re playing and … they’ll overthink. ‘It’s a group of seniors and they’re going to dominate us.’ But our eighth graders are just as good as any seniors.”

On Saturday, the starters dominated the Tigers on both ends of the floor, advancing to the tournament finals by building a 53-4 lead before exiting the game at the end of the third quarter. Wilson closed out the scoring with a 3-pointer to finish with 21 points and 11 rebounds in the 56-11 win, followed by eighth grader Laney Little with 13 points and six rebounds, Rogers with eight points, five assists and five steals, junior Kayleigh Arthur with six points and eighth grader Avery Mann with four points, six rebounds and four steals.

PCA (17-13) will play Bibb County on Tuesday at 6 p.m., aiming for its fourth consecutive area tournament championship. Win or lose, the Panthers are guaranteed their eighth consecutive appearance in a sub-regional game.  

“It’s great,”Wilson said. “I expected it from this team. It would be my fourth time doing it -- we’ve done it every year -- and it’s great. I’m glad I get to keep playing (in the postseason). I would be so sad if it ended early. I just love this team and I’m glad we get to keep going.”

The Panthers had won six consecutive sub-regional games before losing last year at home to Catholic. Should PCA defeat Bibb County, Fairfield likely would be their sub-regional opponent. Advance to the regionals and they could face a rematch with Catholic or three-time defending state champion Trinity.

Roberson doesn’t care who he would face in the regionals. Just getting there with this team would be satisfying enough.

“We’re not world beaters,” he observed, “but we’re a good little solid varsity basketball team. And we’ve come a long way.”

Bibb County 52, American Christian 35

PRATTVILLE -- Bibb County took control of the 4A Area 6 tournament battle with American Christian in the second quarter, outscoring the Patriots 22-3 to defeat ACA 52-35 and advance to the tournament finals on Tuesday.

Bibb County will play Prattville Christian for the 4A Area 6 tournament title on Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the PCA gym.

Kenasha Hill led the Choctaws with 24 points, followed by Adyson Cottingham with 10.

Brooklyn Garth led ACA with 10 points.