All tied up
- Updated: January 25, 2017
Rare nickel could hold the key to Glencoe’s success in coin toss to break three-way tie after Lady Jackets dump Pleasant Valley
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
JACKSONVILLE – The Glencoe Lady Yellow Jackets threw the Class 3A Area 10 girls basketball race into the spin cycle Tuesday night when they beat Pleasant Valley 59-51 in the widest margin of any game played in their league this season.
The result left all three teams – Glencoe, PV and Piedmont — with 2-2 area records, forcing a coin flip to determine which team will be the No. 1 seed and host the area tournament. Glencoe coach Daniel Cook thinks he has just the thing to bring his team the most desired outcome.
The Yellow Jackets were wrapping up a fundraising car wash earlier this year and when Cook started sorting through the coins they had collected, one caught his attention – a 1911 Liberty head nickel. That’s the coin he plans to use when representatives of the three teams get together Thursday morning at Glencoe to break the tie.
“Is that not the coolest thing?” Cook said. “I’ve never been lucky with stuff like this. I’ve never won a coin flip when it comes to basketball, so I brought the coin. By gosh, we’re ready. Hopefully it’s work for us.”
All three teams will flip the coin they bring and the odd man hosts.
What makes it so important is the winner gets a pass into the subregion tournament, leaving the other two quality teams fighting it out to stay alive. And in an area where Tuesday night’s game was the widest margin of victory in any series, it’s a real dice roll as to who comes out of it.
The teams swept each other to get into this pickle. Pleasant Valley beat Piedmont by margins of 1 and 3, Piedmont beat Glencoe twice by 2, and Glencoe beat PV by 3 and Tuesday’s 8. Advantage no one.
“That’s a sucky way to do it, but it about sums up our area,” PV coach Brad Hood said.
Cook’s coin already has worked for him once. He had during Tuesday night’s game his team had to win or Pleasant Valley would have claimed the top seed.
PV opened the game with a big lineup, but the bigs got in foul trouble and Glencoe opened an 11-point halftime lead. The Lady Raiders came back behind a barrage of 3-pointers to tie the game with three minutes to play. Atleigh Brannon’s layup tied the game at 50, but PV managed only one point the rest of the game.
“It was more them letting us in it than us taking it,” PV coach Brad Hood said of the rally. “There wasn’t anything we were doing special. That was a good opportunity (missed).”
Glencoe 59, Pleasant Valley 51
GLENCOE – Anna Goodwin 0 1-6 1, Anna Giles 2 3-8 7, Abby Vice 2 2-4 6, Ashley Morgan 6 4-7 16, Baylen Brandhorst 0 0-0 0, Kenleigh Harper 2 1-2 5, Lauren Cole 6 0-0 12, Breia Little 0 3-4 3, Lainey Golden 2 1-2 5, Skylar Thompson 2 0-1 4, Cami Zahorscak 0 0-0 0. Totals 22 15-34 59.
PLEASANT VALLEY – Lindsey Pritchett 1 0-0 3, Mac Parris 2 0-0 6, Atleigh Brannon 6 6-8 22, Emma Hood 1 1-2 3, Mikala Simpson 4 2-3 10, Courtney Upton 0 0-0 0, Kara Perry 3 1-2 7. Totals 17 10-15 51.
Glencoe 8 25 10 16 — 59
Pleasant Valley 7 15 14 15 — 51
3-point goals: PV 7 (Pritchett, Parris 2, Brannon 4). Fouled out: Upton, Perry. Total fouls: Glencoe 15, PV 25. Officials: Cambers, Burroughs, Hollingsworth.
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