Four winners
- Updated: January 18, 2020
County girls tournament: Weaver scores first upset of tournament, knocking off No. 11 Faith; JCA, PV, Oxford win easily
CALHOUN COUNTY TOURNAMENT
All games at Pete Mathews Coliseum, Jacksonville
Girls bracket
Friday’s game
No. 12 Piedmont 49, No. 13 Donoho 25
Saturday’s games
No. 14 Weaver 42, No. 11 Faith Christian 30
No. 10 Jacksonville Christian 55, No. 15 Wellborn 24
No. 8 Pleasant Valley 63, No. 9 Saks 28
No. 5 Oxford 59, Piedmont 12
Monday’s games
Weaver vs. No. 6 Ohatchee, 9 a.m.
JCA vs. No. 7 White Plains, noon
Oxford vs. No. 4 Jacksonville, 3 p.m.
Pleasant Valley vs. No. 1 Anniston, 6 p.m.
By Brant Locklier
For East Alabama Sports Today
JACKSONVILLE – Karmyn Sparks looked around the locker room Saturday and noticed something missing. Her personal point guard was nowhere to be found.
For the first time in their high school basketball careers, Sparks wasn’t in Pleasant Valley game with Rylee Haynes by her side. Not just off the floor for a couple of minutes for a breather, but in the gym at all.
Haynes was out with the flu, a circumstance the Lady Raiders learned about the night before and spent Saturday morning formulating a new strategy for the Calhoun County Tournament.
The job of running the show fell to freshman Macey Roper and after some anxious moments early she filled in just fine. Everybody stepped up and the Lady Raiders wound up taking out area rival Saks 63-28 in the girls 8-9 seed game.
“It was very weird for me not to have RJ,” Sparks said. “We’ve played basketball together for the last four years of my basketball career; that’s my point guard. I was like, RJ where are you?’ She’s not here. I’m going to call her after and say I just wanted to let you know I missed you.”
All’s well that ended well. Sparks wound up scoring 24 points and Roper, who’s more a shoot-first type guard than a distributer, scored 15 points, and by the third quarter was more comfortable with all aspects of the position.
“Macey stepped up big,” PV coach Brad Hood said. “She made some freshmen mistakes, but by the time I could correct her she had already made up for it.”
Emma Hood scored eight of her 10 points in a 14-1 run that allowed PV to come from four points behind and go up by nine in the second quarter.
Sparks and Roper took care of business in the third quarter, scoring eight points apiece as the Raiders expanded to 22 points. Sparks had eight more points in the fourth quarter. She had nine rebounds to go with her 24 points.
“Our kids played hard,” Hood said. “We only have two players on our team that have ever played in this tournament, so they had to grow up fast and I was proud of the way they played today.”
The Lady Raiders’ reward for beating Saks for the third time this season is a 6 p.m. Monday date with top-seeded Anniston. Hood didn’t think Haynes would be back for the game, but that won’t deter the team from accepting the challenge.
“Anniston is a really good team, no joke,” Sparks said. “They’re the No. 1 seed, but we’re not coming in here Monday thinking we’re just going to come in here and not play. Our job is to come in here Monday and playing basketball.
“We can’t come in here and lay an egg and say, no, it’s Anniston, we have to play scared. We’re coming in here to play and we’re going to play basketball and if we lose we’re going to lose playing hard.”
Cover photo: Pleasant Valley defenders Anna Worthy (25), Macey Roper (23), Marlie Wright (11) and Gracie Hood surround Saks’ Alayzia Neal. To see more photos from the tournament click the following link: www.bjfranklin.smugmug.com
Pleasant Valley 63, Saks 28
PLEASANT VALLEY – Marlie Wright 3 0-0 8, Gracie Hood 2 0-0 6, Emma Hood 5 0-4 10, Macey Roper 7 1-3 15, Anna Worthy 0 0-0 0, Erin Rose 0 0-0 0, Karmyn Sparks 9 6-6 24. Totals: 26 7-13 63.
SAKS – Moe Stone 0 0-0 0, Alayzia Neal 0 0-0 0, Keilynn Williams 0 0-0 0, Deavian Stewart 0 0-0 0, Kierra Hudson, 0 0-0 0, Deja Almon, 0 0-0 0, Alicia Gooden 0 0-0 0, Teana Edwards 4 2-4 12, Kendale Welch 0 0 0 0, Miracle Bass 3 1-2 7, Destiny Elston 4 1-2 9. Totals 11 4-8 28.
Pleasant Valley 10 17 21 15 – 63
Saks 11 8 7 2 – 28
3-point goals: PV 4 (Wright 2, G. Hood 2); Saks 2 (Edwards 2).
Oxford 59, Piedmont 12
The fifth-seeded Yellow Jackets jumped all over 12th-seeded Piedmont as they scored the first 20 points of the game and swarmed all over the Bulldogs on defense. The Jackets play No. 4 Jacksonville Monday at 3 p.m.
Oxford had six different players score in the first quarter. Piedmont finally got on the scoreboard with 6:35 left in the second quarter on a basket by Gracie Naugher. Armoni Perry would score the only other Piedmont field goal in the second quarter.
Freshman Justice Woods scored eight Oxford points in the second quarter as it extended the lead to 33-5 at halftime.
Oxford got a lot of players into the game in the second half and continued to play shut-down defense as Piedmont scored only three field goals in the entire game and had its season-best three-game winning streak snapped.
Sophomore Kaleah Taylor was the Yellow Jackets’ scoring leader in the second half with nine.
“We have been playing some very good competition and that helped us in this game,” Yellow Jackets head coach Melissa Bennett said. “We are used to pressure defense types of games and we played really good defense tonight all over the court.
“I thought our guards got the ball up and down the court well tonight. We felt like we could bother them with a press and it worked wel.”
Oxford 59, Piedmont 12
OXFORD – Justice Woods 8 0-0 16, Lauren Ellard 1 1-2 3, Maya McGrue 1 0-0 2, Kaleah Taylor 5 2-2 14, Emma McCullough 0 0-0 0, Lisa Montgomery 1 0-0 2, Sara Paulson 1 0-0 3, Ashleigh Jackson 2 1-4 5, Ariana Averette 0 0-0 0, Akeria Robinson 4 0-0 8, Mira McLeod 2 0-2 4, Malika Wilson 1 0-0 2. Totals 26 4-10 59.
PIEDMONT – Ava Pope 1 0-0 2, Emma Todd 0 0-0 0, Whitney McFry 0 0-0 0, Lele Ridley 1 1-4 4, Hannah Barbee 0 0-0 0, Armoni Perry 1 0-3 2, Jenna Calvert 0 0-0 0, Sarah Goss 0 0-0 0, Gracie Naugher 1 0-0 2, Z’Hayla Walker 0 2-4 2. Totals 4 3-11 11.
Oxford 20 13 17 9 – 59
Piedmont 0 5 5 2 – 12
3-point goals: Oxford 3 (Taylor 2, Paulson).
JCA 55, Wellborn 24
The Thunder used a suffocating defense and 30 points from Kylie Cupp to take out Wellborn. JCA now plays White Plains Monday at noon.
“Kylie has always been awesome,” JCA coach Katy Bryant said. “She is a great leader and great character.”
The 10th-seeded Thunder jumped out to a 5-0 lead and never trailed. Cupp had a big first quarter with seven points, including 3-of-3 from the foul line. Mia Morales also nailed a 3 as the lead stretched to 12-1 by quarter’s end. Cupp had 14 in the third quarter as the Thunder stretched the lead to 27.
“I do not think we played as well as we could have,” said Bryant. ”However, it was a great win and a great experience for our kids to enjoy.”
Rebekah Carter had 11 points and seven rebounds for the Thunder.
JCA 55, Wellborn 24
JCA – Rebekah Carter 2 6-7 11, Kylie Cupp 9 11-18 30, Kara Grace 0 0-0 0, Kristen Walker 0 0-0 0, Mia Morales 2 1-2 7, Karlie Barnwell 1 0-2 3, Elizabeth Goss 0 0-0 0, Abbie Stovall 2 0-0 4, Hannah Clayton 0 0-2 0, Krymson Clay 0 0- 0 0. Totals 16 18-31 55.
WELLBORN – Brooklyn Singleton 2 1-4 5, Blakely Cupp 1 3-4 5, Nicole Burrell 0 0-0 0, Cloie Adkison 1 2-2 4, Ella Minor 0 0-0 0, Taniya Traylor 0 0-0 0, Annelies Boot 1 0-0 2, Jayla Lowe 2 0-0 4, Kendejah Traylor 0 0-0 0, Kate Hulsey 0 0-0 0, Kinlee Pritchett 1 0-0 2, Kylie Hardy 1 0-0 2. Totals 9 6-10 24.
JCA 12 12 23 8 – 55
Wellborn 1 9 12 2 – 24
3-point goals: JCA 5 (Morales 2, Barnwell, Cupp, Carter).
Weaver 42, Faith 30
Weaver’s Kayleigh Hindsman and Haley Homesley stepped up and buried 3-point baskets in the three minutes to help Weaver pull away. The 14th-seeded Bearcats move on to face sixth-seeded Ohatchee Monday at 9 a.m.
Clinging to a three-point lead with a little over two minutes to go senior center Hindsman stepped out and calmly drilled a 3 to it break open and 11th-seeded Faith never scored again.
“We work on that some in practice,” Weaver coach Gary Atchley said. “She has a soft touch, so I told her if she gets the shot, take it – and she did.”
Homesley finished with four 3-pointers, a game-high 22 points and seven rebounds. Hindsman had five points and nine boards.
Faith’s Ariana Arevalo had 10 points and 10 rebounds to keep the Lions in the game. Faith led 28-27 in the early part of the final quarter before Weaver came up big.
“We play hard,” Atchley said. “We always have exciting close games and I am not sure I will live much longer coaching these type games, but we leave it all out there on the floor. We are a blue-collar team and play our guts out.”
Weaver got off to a hot start in the first quarter as Homesley scored 11 points. Faith rallied to tie the game by quarter’s end with four straight points by Arevalo.
Weaver 42, Faith 30
WEAVER – Marley Tucker 0 0-0 0, Madison Atchley 0 0-0 0, Kiese Hubbard 3 3-4 9, Loralei Brown 0 0-0 0, Carmella Reese 0 0-0 0, Taylor Lawrence 0 0-0 0, Kayleigh Hindsman 2 0-3 5, Tiana Lawrence 0 6-6 6, Nevaeh Hawkins 0 0-0 0, Kyra Smith 0 0-0 0, Haley Homesley 9 0-1 22. Totals 14 9-14 42.
FAITH – Onastasia Marple 0 0-0 0, Grace Johnston 0 0-0 0, Ariana Arevalo 4 2-4 10, Anna Strautman 4 0-0 8, Kassidy Nix 0 0-0 0, Alligrace Emerson 1 0-0 3, Elizabeth Bedford 0 0-0 0, Sydnee Johnson 3 1-3 7, Sierra Pittman 0 0-0 0, Hannah Kramer 0 0-0 0, Erin McVeigh 0 0-0 0, Avarie Daniel 0 0-0 0, Meagan Ford 0 0-0 0, Babat Aremu 1 0-0 2. Totals 13 3-7 30.
Weaver 13 10 4 15 – 42
Faith 13 7 6 4 – 30
3-point goals: Weaver 5 (Homesley 4, Hindsman); Faith 1 (Emerson).
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