PREP UPDATE: St. James girls hoops topple Hillcrest; MA tennis opens with win; Stanhope Elmore in line to win bowling title
St. James’ Natalie Barton looks to stop Hillcrest’s Blakeley Nixon in Thursday’s game at the STJ gym. (Tim Gayle)
COMBINED REPORTS
When St. James jumped out to a 13-0 lead over Class 7A Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa on Thursday, it looked as if the Trojans were on the way to another one of their January routs.
But the defending 7A runners-up didn’t go quietly, battling back to tie the game at the half and to lead for much of the second half before the Trojans finally pulled out a 59-57 victory for their 36th consecutive win at home.
St. James (25-4) improved to 10-3 this season against Class 6A and 7A teams, including a 49-34 win over Hillcrest in Tuscaloosa on Nov. 21.
And unlike the Trojans’ previous 10 games against in-state competition -- won by an average score of 84-16 -- this one went to the wire and provided plenty of drama in the final three minutes.
“It feels good to just keep fighting and play all the way to the buzzer,” said Kaitlin Mitchell, who led the Trojans with 18 points, two rebounds, three assists and four steals. “Games like that are the most fun.”
And it was fun at the end because of the victory, but the Trojans struggled most of the game to find any offensive rhythm and struggled late on defense in holding off the Patriots.
“I thought we were intensely locked in on what we were doing,” St. James coach Katie Barton said. “We beat them by 15 early in the year and this coach (Jessica McBrayer) is a new coach at that school so I knew they would be more put together, understanding their system better. I knew I wouldn’t be seeing the same team we saw in November. I think in November they might have hit two 3s on me.”
On Thursday, the Patriots hit six, including a couple of first quarter 3-pointers from freshman Brantley McBrayer and another in the final minute from Kaliyah Luke that pulled the Patriots within a basket.
The Trojans went 10 of 10 at the free-throw line in the final minute as Natalie Barton, Morgan Lilly and Sydney Johnston were perfect at the charity stripe to hold the Patriots at bay.
“It was refreshing,” Barton said. “At one point this year we were working a ton on free throws, then we would go into games and shoot like 50 percent. This was refreshing because they finished them when we needed to finish them.”
The Trojans struggled on offense but Lilly, who had 18 points, seven rebounds, an assist and a pair of steals, put back her own miss with 1:50 remaining to give St. James the lead for good at 49-48. After Sky Latham’s 3-point attempt rimmed out on the Patriots’ next possession, the Trojans finished off the visitors at the free-throw line, deviating a little from the normal St. James’ attack, but showing a gritty resolve to win the game by whatever means necessary.
“We just have to keep the main thing the main thing,” Mitchell said. “We work together as a team and we play off of each other and if someone doesn’t have a shot, we look to the next person and try to find the best shot for the team.”
Natalie Barton added 13 points, six rebounds, seven assists and two steals and Sydney Johnston had eight points, five rebounds, an assist and three steals.
“I think that’s a great game for us to play going into the playoffs,” Barton said. “Any time you’re forced to play a schedule that on any given night you don’t have to be as locked in as you did tonight, there’s an adjustment period.”
St. James closes out the regular season at home on Friday against UMS-Wright before hosting the 3A Area 5 on Feb. 7 with a semifinal game against the Dallas County-Alabama Christian winner.
“We just have to keep the standard the standard,” Mitchell said. “We can’t get worse with our games, we have to keep getting better. And preparing for those playoff games, we have to play high competition so we can be the best we can be.”
GIRLS BASKETBALL
Prattville Christian 52, Holtville 25
HOLTVILLE -- Baylee Rogers scored 19 points and grabbed four rebounds to help the Panthers to their 10th consecutive win in a 52-25 victory in the Holtville gym on Thursday night.
Laney Little added 17 points and 12 rebounds, followed by Leah Cate Wilson with seven points, seven rebounds, five assists and five steals. Kayleigh Arthur scored six points and Reagan Houston scored three points. Avery Mann grabbed five rebounds.
PCA (14-11) returns home to play host to Wetumpka on Friday.
Reeltown 46, Alabama Christian 27
REELTOWN -- Sarenthia McKee led a balanced attack with 12 points as the Rebels took advantage of a cold-shooting ACA team with a 46-27 victory in the Reeltown gym on Thursday.
Adalyn Newkirk led the Eagles with 10 points and seven rebounds. Sam Burgess added six points and eight rebounds.
Alabama Christian (8-13) will face Dallas County in the first round of the 3A Area 5 tournament on Thursday.
BOYS BASKETBALL
St. James 55, Thorsby 42
THORSBY -- Wilson Aman scored 23 points, along with five rebounds and four steals, to lead the Trojans to a 55-42 win over the Rebels in the Thorsby gym on Wednesday night.
The game was pushed back from Monday because of wintry weather.
Caleb Ellis added 17 points for St. James, followed by Jordan Williams with 11 points and seven rebounds. Andrew Shalayda and Dylan Hines each had nine rebounds to lead the Trojans.
The win was crucial for St. James, which clinched the No. 3 seed over Thorsby in the upcoming 3A Area 5 Tournament next week.
Montgomery Academy finished the regular season at 8-0 in area play and will host the area tournament, playing the winner of the first-round game between fourth-seeded Thorsby (3-5) and fifth-seeded Alabama Christian (0-8). St. James (4-4) will face second-seeded Dallas County (5-3) in the semifinals, with the winner clinching a playoff berth.
The win closed out the regular season for St. James (10-11), which will now wait for the Area 5 Tournament at Montgomery Academy.
BOYS TENNIS
Montgomery Academy 9, BTW Magnet 0
Montgomery Academy opened the 2026 tennis season with a 9-0 win over BTW Magnet at MA’s McLemore Tennis Center on Thursday.
The Eagles finished the 2025 season as the Class 7A runner-up to Vestavia Hills and opened the 2026 season by sweeping the singles and doubles matches in their first outing.
Senior Jackson Brown led the way with a win at No. 1 singles and teamed with Duncan McInnis to win at No. 1 doubles.
Also winning singles matches were Liam Baker at No. 2, McInnis at No. 3, Anton Yang at No. 4, Bo Johnston at No. 5 and Blevins Henderson at No. 6.
In addition to Brown-McInnis, Ford Morano and Henderson won at No. 2 doubles and Yang and Johnston won at No. 3 doubles.
The Eagles (1-0) will be back in action on Wednesday at home against LAMP.
BOWLING
Stanhope Elmore in position to win state title
MOBILE – The AHSAA Boys’ State Bowling Championships will be guaranteed of two new state champions after Thursday’s first-round action. Emerging from the winners’ bracket into Friday’s championship match are Scottsboro (1A/5A) and Stanhope Elmore (6A/7A).
Junior Seth Wilson rolled traditional games of 222 and 258 for a 480 series Thursday as Stanhope Elmore reeled off three big wins in the Class 6A/7A competition.
The Mustangs, who finished as fourth seed in last week’s South Regional, knocked off the North Regional No. 1 seed James Clemens in Thursday’s opening match with a wild 65-pin win over the Jets. Stanhope posted a 1,633 score to James Clemen’s 1,568-pin total.
Stanhope Elmore continued its hot hand amassing a tournament-high 1,720 pins in the second round of the winners’ bracket beating Tuscaloosa County (1,526) by 194 pins. The Mustangs then beat South Regional champion Hoover in the winners’ bracket finals by 46 pins, 1,456 to 1,408.
Tuscaloosa County and James Clemens open play Friday in the consolation division game 12. Hoover will meet the winner at 2:30 p.m., and that winner will then face Stanhope Elmore in the finals.