Gotta have Heart
- Updated: November 21, 2019
Sacred Heart rallies from 10 down in third quarter, beats Gadsden City on Landers’ coast-to-coast layup in the final second for Graves’ 200th win
Thursday’s games
Anniston 58, Weaver 25
Faith Christian 54, Woodland 39
Jacksonville Christian 75, Gaylesville 30
Munford 66, Pell City 62
Sacred Heart 50, Gadsden City 48
Talladega 82, Benjamin Russell 38
White Plains 83, Pleasant Valley 46
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
Ralph Graves stood outside Sacred Heart’s dressing room staring back at the scoreboard on the wall trying to digest what he just witnessed.
The Cardinals’ coach was quite interested to see how his team would react after its 42-point, running-clock loss at Oxford two nights earlier.
He got his answer Thursday in more rebounding, more scoring – eventually, and in transition – and more defense. Most of all, he got a 50-48 come-from-behind win over 7A Gadsden City as Cade Landers drove the length of the floor untouched for the winning layup with 1.2 seconds to play.
It was Graves’ 200th career coaching victory. He’s now 200-68 as a head coach.
“They didn’t lose hope, they didn’t lose any of that,” Graves said. “They understand they didn’t play to the best of their ability, but whether you lose by one or by 40, you lost a game. You still have to pick up, because it’s a long season. I thought tonight they responded really well.
“To come out to this game and get a win, at home, especially a comeback win, that was really good for us. … Our kids hadn’t been in that situation before and I thought they handled it quite well.”
The Cardinals (4-2) were down 10 early in the second half and seven with 2:02 left in the third quarter. They didn’t lead for the first time until Landers hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key to open the fourth quarter.
The Titans (2-3) tied it a 48 on Malik Kidd’s 3-pointer from the left corner with 9.2 seconds left, but with the ball in Landers’ hands they were in what Graves called “one of the toughest positions in basketball for a coach to be in.”
Do they foul Landers, a good free throw shooter, and give him a shot to beat them from the line or do they play off him and hope he throws one off the backboard? Landers drove the length of the floor and rolled in a layup off his fingertips that fell just before the horn sounded.
“I saw him hit the 3, I looked at the clock and knew we still had enough time to get down and get a shot,” Landers said. “I got the ball in and saw the lane up the middle. I just kept driving and saw I could get a layup and I shot it. I thought at least somebody would do something (to disrupt him).”
“I was glad he took it,” Graves said. “We’ve been trying to tell him to shoot it. It’s like you’re afraid to miss. Shoot it. If you throw it over the goal, we don’t care. Shoot it. Don’t turn it over.”
Landers finished with 15 points – 14 in the second half, 10 in the fourth quarter – and four rebounds. Aaron Moore had 12 points and 10 rebounds.The Cardinals scored 35 points in the second half – seven more than they got all game against Oxford.
“Of course, nobody wants to lose by 42 so the next day in practice we had a tough practice,” Landers said. “We decided we’ve got to change something because Sacred Heart isn’t about losing by 42 points. We went to practice and started working, came together as a team and we came out tonight with a win … Sacred Heart is used to wins like this. We really needed to get our morale back up and that’s what happened.”
Eighth-grader Delroy Francis came off the bench with 2:02 left in the third quarter after Taishun Hall picked up his second technical foul and gave the Cardinals a lot of energy.
He got a steal on his first defensive trip in the game and gave the Cardinals a 43-42 lead with 2:21 to play to complete a five-point possession after Landers hit three free throws on a foul and technical. He finished with four points, two rebounds and two steals.
“I work hard at practice and when he put me in I knew it was my time,” Francis said. “When I got in I just played my game. I wanted to give energy and I played my best. It felt good.”
“We know that he’s the top eighth-grader in this area,” Graves said. “We need Delroy to play at a high level all the time. He’s one of those kids who needed some things good happen for him. Hopefully this right here will give him a little boost.”
GADSDEN CITY (2-3) – Phillip Hunter 1 0-0 2, Jay Lawson 3 2-4 8, Malik Kidd 3 3-3 11, Trey Woods 3 2-4 8, DeMarcus Macon 1 0-0 3, Ratavious Hicks 0 0-0 0. Shamar Huff 2 0-0 5, Cam Williams 0 0-0 0, Zion Kirby 1 0-1 2, Quentin Densmore 0 0-0 0, Jalen Huff 2 0-0 5, Rod Orr 2 0-0 4. Totals 18 7-12 48.
SACRED HEART (4-2) – Taishun Hall 2 0-0 4, Jarek Burroughs 1 2-2 4, Jack Miller 2 0-0 6, Allen Marshall 0 1-3 1, Devin Barksdale 0 0-0 0, Jaevan Croft 2 0-0 4, Aaron Moore 3 6-10 12, Cade Landers 4 6-8 15, Delroy Francis 2 0-2 4. Totals 16 15-25 50.
Gadsden City 7 14 14 13 – 48
Sacred Heart 6 9 20 15 – 50
3-point goals: Gadsden City 5 (Kidd 2, Macon, S. Huff, J. Huff); Sacred Heart 3 (Miller 2, Landers). Technical fouls: Hall 2, Orr, Huff. Fouled out: Hall, Orr. Total fouls: Gadsden City 20, Sacred Heart 16. Officials: Robinson, Smith, Prociuk.
White Plains 83, Pleasant Valley 46
JACKSONVILLE – A “confident” Jacob Wheeler hit six of 10 3-pointers – three in each half – and finished with 20 points to lead White Plains.
The Wildcats hit 13 3-pointers in the game and have 17 in their first two games. Wheeler has eight of them. In addition to Wheeler’s six, Landon Sensiboy hit three, Quin Wilson hit two and Rico Aguirre and Garrett Wilson hit one apiece.
Coleman Haynes led PV with 15 points. He went 7-for-8 from the free throw line, hitting his last seven in a row.
WHITE PLAINS (2-0) – Coleman Messer 3 2-2 8, Rico Aguirre 1 2-2 5, Quin Wilson 4 2-3 12, Jaden Chatman 0 0-0 0, Jacob Wheeler 7 0-0 20, Landon Sensiboy 3 0-0 9, Brody Baker 6 0-1 12, Carson Wright 0 0-0 0, Walker O’Steen 1 3-3 5, Kahlil Williams 4 0-1 8, Garrett Wilson 1 1-2 4. Totals 30 10-14 83.
PLEASANT VALLEY – Josh Ballew 2 0-0 6, Jake Malsy 2 1-4 5, Brody Phillips 2 2-4 6, Coleman Haynes 4 7-8 15, Wyatt Ingram 0 0-2 0, Garrett Cranmer 3 1-2 7, Jake Upton 1 0-0 2, Justin Winningham 1 1-3 3, Darren Parr 1 0-2 2, Ollie Young 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 12-25 46.
White Plains 21 24 30 8 – 83
Pleasant Valley 8 16 19 3 – 46
3-point goals: White Plains 13 (Aguirre, Q. Wilson 2, Wheeler 6, Sensiboy 3, G. Wilson); Pleasant Valley 2 (Ballew 2). Total fouls: White Plains 23, Pleasant Valley 18. Officials; Binion, Kelley, Holloway.
Munford 66, Pell City 62
PELL CITY – Jay Tuck and Rashard Russell combined for 26 points in the second half as the Lions pulled away for their second straight win.
Tuck scored all 14 of his points in the second half and Russell scored 12 of his 16 in the half. Connor Morgan and Justin Sistrunk had 13 points each in the game.
“We just took care of the ball,” Munford coach Michael Easley said. “We were careless with it in the first half, but the kids played much better in the second, particularly in the third quarter.”
The Lions haven’t started 2-0 in any of the seven seasons the AHSAA has listed in its website archives. They’ve only won back-to-back game twice in that same stretch, in 2018 and 2013 – both in December to get to 3-3 on the season.
MUNFORD (2-0) – L.J. Flint 1 2-2 4, Justin Sistrunk 3 7-12 13, Rashard Russell 5 5-6 16, Jay Tuck 3 7-11 14, Dwight Moore 2 0-0 4, Caderio Holland 1 0-1 2, Connor Morgan 4 3-5 13, Jaquan Anderson 0 0-0 0. Totals 19 24-37 66.
PELL CITY – Baylor Smith 2 1-6 7, Jack Wood 2 2-5 6, Clay Hardie 1 1-2 3, Taro Shelton 2 1-2 5, Trey Evans 5 7-10 18, David Keith 1 2-2 5, Kelton Seals 3 2-7 8, Grant Hadley 2 1-2 6. Totals 18 17-36 62.
Munford 8 15 18 25 – 66
Pell City 15 8 8 27 – 62
3-point goals: Munford 4 (Russell, Tuck, Morgan 2); Pell City 5 (Smith 2, Evans, Keith, Hadley). Fouled out: Flint, Shelton, Evans, Hadley. Total fouls: Munford 27, Pell City 27.
Talladega 82, Ben Russell 38
TALLADEGA – The Tigers used a 28-8 third-quarter run to pull away from a game they had well in hand by halftime.
Kobe Simmons scored 14 of his game-high 24 points in the first quarter and 18 in the first half. He is averaging 18.7 points through the first three games of the season.
Arron Green had a double-double for the second game in a row, scoring 13 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. D’Corian Wilson had 10 points, with eight coming in the that big third quarter, and Rontavious Barclay had nine points and nine boards.
BENJAMIN RUSSELL – Gavin Edwards 3 3-4 9, Carl Russell 2 0-0 5, Colby Riddle 0 1-2 1, Alquavious Howell 3 3-5 9, Stephen Williams 0 0-0 0, Quin Smith 2 0-0 5, Sintorri Smith 0 0-2 0, Xzavia Stowes 3 2-4 9, Tre McMillan 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 9-17 38.
TALLADEGA (3-0) – Nigel Scales 2 0-0 5, LaJameian Castleberry 2 0-0 6, Jay Spratling 1 1-1 3, Arron Green 6 1-2 13, Michael McGregor 0 2-3 2, Rontavious Barclay 4 0-1 9, D’Corian Wilson 3 4-4 10, RaDerius Montgomery 2 0-0 4, Chris Curry 1 0-0 2, Kobe Simmons 10 1-5 24, Keontae Funderburg 2 0-0 4. Totals 33 9-16 82.
Ben Russell 9 13 8 8 – 38
Talladega 22 17 28 15 – 82
3-point goals: Ben Russell 3 (Russell, Smith, Stowes); Talladega 7 (Scales, Castleberry 2, Barclay, Simmons 3). Technical fouls: Barclay. Total fouls: Ben Russell 13, Talladega 14. Officials: Childs, Cantwell.
Faith Christian 54, Woodland 39
WOODLAND – C.J. Gomez continued his hot start to the season with 25 points and 20 rebounds. He is averaging 30 points and 18 rebounds in the Lions’ first two games.
“He’s been focused and playing team basketball,” Faith coach Justin Kisor said. “He worked hard on his jumper (over the summer) and he’s just relentless. Non-stop hustle.”
Jacques Prater had 13 for the Lions and Chase Gibbins added seven.
JCA 74, Gaylesville 30
GAYLESVILLE – Kobe Messer and Chase Vinson both scored double-doubles as Jacksonville Christian improved to 4-0.
Messer had a game-high 17 points and 13 rebounds, while Vinson had 15 points and 15 rebounds. Brady Shaddix also scored in double figures (11 points) and Tavian Alexander had eight points and 12 rebounds. Eli Fair had six points and five steals.
The Thunder led 45-14 at halftime.
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