MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: St. James returns to title game, handles Mobile Christian for first championship

The St. James girls basketball team won the Class 3A state championship for the first time in school history on Friday at the BJCC Arena. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

Last year’s overtime loss to Lauderdale County in the 3A finals fueled the St. James’ girls basketball team to return to the 2026 state tournament and finish the mission with a state championship.

The most difficult schedule in the history of the program helped a team that returned intact keep its focus on grabbing a win in the final game of the season. As Trojan coach Katie Barton put it, there wasn’t any real scouting attention directed toward Friday’s opponent, Mobile Christian. The focus was on the 14 Trojans and getting them to play to their potential.

St. James dominated every facet of the game, jumping out to a hugh early lead and crushing the Leopards 81-34 to bring the program its first-ever state championship in the third most lopsided girls’ basketball game in state tournament history.

“It feels great,” tournament most valuable player Natalie Barton said. “I don’t know how to explain it, but we were all ready to play. And once we stepped out on the court, it all hit us like, ‘It’s here, it’s our time to shine.’ It’s a great feeling. It’s the first time in school history and I’m so, so glad to be able to do it with each one of these girls on my team.”

Barton set the tone early, hitting a 3-pointer off of the opening tip and nailing another seconds later as St. James scored the first 10 points of the game against a shell-shocked Mobile Christian squad.

“That was fun,” Katie Barton said. “When you come out and the first two shots you see go down, I think it sets the tone that we’re ready to put the nail in the coffin. Let’s go on and keep moving. She shot the ball really well today. I’m really proud of her.”

Mobile Christian coach Kenny Wright Jr., called a timeout midway through the first quarter with his team trailing 10-0 and another midway through the second quarter in a 30-7 deficit. Nothing seemed to work.

“I think we were prepared,” Wright said. “But like with Mike Tyson, you don’t understand until you get punched in the face. We got punched and it was hard to gather ourselves.

“I thought we would be a little better defensively. In the first quarter, we got punched in the face and our body language fell and it was a tough hill to climb. We just weren’t the team we wanted to be tonight.”

The Trojans ran out to a 17-2 lead at the end of the first quarter and a 41-7 lead at the half. While the Leopards aren’t particularly noted for their offense, post player Hadley Kelly typically is the focal point on both ends of the floor. The record-setting shot blocker had just one blocked shot in the final minutes of the game and didn’t score her first point until she hit a free throw with 3:45 remaining in the game.

“I think one thing that might be a little bit overlooked with this group of 14 girls is their basketball IQs are so high,” Katie Barton said. “It’s remarkable on what they have helped us build. That defensive tenacity comes from also having a high IQ. It all starts there. They’re bought in mentally and that goes into the physical part of it. We’ve been able to really mix things up defensively and that’s helped us.”

Natalie Barton led the Trojans with 18 points, seven assists, five steals and five rebounds. Kaitlin Mitchell added 16 points, six rebounds and five steals, followed by Lily Stanford with 12 points and Morgan Lilly with 11 points, six rebounds and three steals.

The Trojans owned a commanding advantage over the Leopards in rebounding (40-27), assists (19-5) and steals (24-5) while forcing 29 turnovers.

Seventh grader Milan Wright led the Leopards (22-11) with 13 points.

“We didn’t finish the season the way we wanted to,” Kenny Wright said. “Ninety-nine percent of the teams in the state want to be in this situation and we were one of the two. The outcome wasn’t the one we hoped for, that we worked for. We’ve just got to get better. St. James is a heck of a team, well coached, highly skilled and they got after us.”

The Trojans (33-4) lose just two seniors -- KK Corley and Sydney Johnston -- off of this year’s team which fell one game short of last year’s win total, but won the game that mattered most.

“We’ve been working toward this all year,” Mitchell said. “Just to finish it feels amazing because we all love each other and we all knew we were capable of this.”

Joining Barton on the all-tournament team were Jordyn McRae and Mitchell, Kelly, Mars Hill Bible’s Belle Hill and Glencoe’s Kinlee Montgomery.