CLASS 4A CENTRAL REGIONAL FINALS: Catholic girls hold off Pleasant Grove to advance; Fairfield too much for boys
Despite early foul trouble, Catholic’s Hannah Smith scored 19 points to lead the Knights to a state finals berth with a win over Pleasant Grove on Tuesday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
For eight agonizing minutes, Catholic senior Hannah Smith sat helplessly on the bench, watching the Knights’ lead slowly evaporate.
“It was so stressful because I already had three fouls,” she said. “If I would have gotten back in, it wouldn’t have been good for my team. It was stressful, but I know I had to trust my team and cheer them on.”
Smith had picked up her third personal foul with 2.9 seconds remaining in the first quarter of Tuesday’s Central Regional final with Pleasant Grove after her team had surged out to a 10-point lead.
By halftime, the lead had been cut in half as fellow starter Kierstyn Green joined Smith on the bench with three personal fouls.
“It goes back to me telling them that we’ve got to figure out without Hannah from the jump,” Catholic coach Courtney Ward said. “They spent years and years just depending on Hannah, Hannah, Hannah. I came in from the jump, saying, ‘No, we’ve got to have more than Hannah.’ Going into the game, if I know Hannah is going to do what she does, plus Kierstyn and Jordan (Robinson) and Ajah (Tuggle), anybody gets double digits, we win easily.”
The Knights would fight off the Spartans down the stretch, in large part because of Smith’s return to the lineup, but also because fellow senior Paige Sims contributed an unexpected 13 points and five rebounds, helping Catholic defeat Pleasant Grove 57-48 at Alabama State’s Dunn-Oliver Acadome on Tuesday.
“Paige, my senior, she stepped up,” Smith said. “I really needed her tonight and she really did what I wanted her to do.”
Catholic will be making only its second-ever appearance in the state tournament. The 2002 team lost to Lauderdale County 92-47 in the semifinals. The 2026 Knights (23-6) will be playing Good Hope (27-6) in Birmingham’s Legacy Arena on Tuesday at 3 p.m., while Pleasant Grove ends the season at 22-9.
“My expectation coming into any program that I coach is we’re going to go to state,” said Ward, the Knights’ first-year coach. “What we believe and dream of from day one. That’s what we work hard for. It’s just me getting them to understand my style and what I’m here for.”
The Knights led from start to finish, but an early lead dissipated as Smith spent the entire second quarter on the bench in foul trouble. Lela Rogers contributed a crucial 3-pointer, but Sims’ contribution -- after some early jitters led to misses and turnovers -- was just as important in helping the Knights extend their five-point lead early in the second half.
“Paige has had a great three games the past three games,” Ward said. “She started getting a little lazy and comfortable with her defense, letting stuff get by her, but I literally just told her, ‘Great job, that’s what we need from you.’ Just minutes of being what you can be. She should have been playing like that from the beginning of the season. Thank God she’s recognized that now.”
Smith and the Knights, after reaching the regionals for the third time in the last four years, finally ended a 24-year drought with a trip to Birmingham.
“This means a lot to me,” Smith said. “All my years of playing at Catholic, I have never been to state, so this is a very important (win) for me.”
Smith finished the game with 19 points, along with 10 rebounds, four steals and an assist, giving her 2,671 career points. The senior passed St. James and University of Alabama standout Leslie Claybrook, who finished her high school career in 1989 with 2,668 points.
The only person standing between Smith and the River Region’s career scoring record in girls’ basketball is Catholic’s Michelle Delongchamp, who scored 2,685 points in 1990.
Ajah Tuggle had 10 points and 12 rebounds for Catholic, while Sarah Evans led Pleasant Grove with 14 points, along with five rebounds.
Joining Smith on the all-tournament team were Pleasant Grove’s Zaire Harris and Evans, Trinity’s Lizzie Causey and Catholic’s Kierstyn Green and Jordan Robinson.
Fairfield guard Eric Williams looks to drive on Catholic’s Matthias Gourdine in the boys Class 4A Central Regional final at Alabama State. (Tim Gayle)
Catholic boys eliminated
Catholic coach Mike Curry has a long relationship with Fairfield coach Maurice Ford and the two frequently talk about basketball, so Curry knew a lot about Ford’s team long before he ever saw them.
After tangling with the Tigers on Tuesday night in the Central Regional finals and coming out on the short end of a 69-37 rout, Curry’s worst fears were confirmed as his team was dominated by an efficient team that rebounded well and used its height and quickness on the defensive end of the floor.
“I haven’t seen everybody else in 4A, but they’ve got a championship-caliber ballclub,” Curry said. “If they play like they played tonight, they’ll be hard to beat.”
Fairfield (22-10) advanced to the state tournament at Birmingham’s Legacy Arena, facing Deshler (24-7) in the 4A semifinals on Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. Catholic ends the season at 18-11, only its second loss in the last 15 games.
“There’s an old adage that Mike Tyson used to say about how everyone has a plan until they get hit in the mouth,” Curry said. “We had a good plan. They just hit us in the mouth. And we didn’t respond.”
Fairfield came out with an efficient offense that rolled out to a 19-6 lead in the first quarter, effectively ruining the Knights’ plan of attack. After maintaining that 13-point lead for the remainder of the first half, the Tigers shot 65.4 percent from the field in the second half to turn the game into a rout.
The Tigers shot 47.4 percent from the field, hit six 3-pointers, made 9 of 11 free-throw attempts, outrebounded the Knights 43-21 and had a 14-5 advantage in assists.
“They’re a good ballclub, a big ballclub that killed us on the glass,” Curry said. “They were well polished and ready to go.”
Milton Jones earned most valuable player honors with 30 points, seven rebounds, two assists and two steals. Mylez Gourdine led Catholic with eight points.
For Catholic, it was a humbling end to the season, but the Knights rebounded from a 5-9 start to win 13 of their final 15 games to reach the program’s eighth regional final and fourth in the last seven years.
“Listen, we got a lot of mileage out of these guys,” Curry said. “They really poured themselves into this program and I’m just super proud of where we started out to where we are now. Did we turn it on? Or were we underachieving? Because I thought at one poiut during the summer we had a chance (to reach the state tournament). But we just got in the gym and we started working. That’s why those kids are so hurt because they know and I know and their parents know all the work they put into it. We just ran up against a better ballclub.”
Joining Jones on the all-tournament team were MJ Belser and Matthias Gourdine of Catholic, Bibb County’s Artavious Crews and Fairfield’s Jalen Kidd and Corey White Jr.