Moving closer
- Updated: January 8, 2021
Ragland moves closer to clinching area in what JCA coach Miller called ‘a real, real butt-whipping’
THURSDAY’S BOYS SCORES
Alexandria 60, Ohatchee 28
Glencoe 56, Pleasant Valley 46
Jacksonville 64, Etowah 57
Munford 65, Wellborn 42
Oxford 50, Springville 35
Ragland 65, Jacksonville Christian 24
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
JACKSONVILLE – It’s a little premature to say Ragland clinched the Class 1A Area 10 title Thursday night, but the Purple Devils took a big step in that direction.
The Purple Devils beat Jacksonville Christian handily for the second time this season 65-24 in what Thunder coach Tommy Miller called “an old-fashioned butt-whipping.”
It was a battle between the two favorites in the area and the Purple Devils (12-4) have now swept the season series to give them at least the upper hand if they can’t say they’ve clinched.
“We can’t say that yet because we have Faith Christian at our place (Friday),” Ragland coach Andy Eden said. “The first game we had scheduled them we couldn’t play because of COVID, which officially went down as a forfeit, but we were able to reschedule it for a couple weeks.
“So we haven’t played Faith yet, haven’t seen them and don’t know a lot about them. We’ll know a lot more tomorrow night after we play them as to where we stand. But we have taken a step closer.”
The game started out close with JCA holding a 10-6 lead with 6:46 left in the second quarter, but then the Purple Devils scored the next 34 points to take a 30-point lead. They finished it off with five 3-pointers in the fourth.
“We didn’t shoot the ball well the first quarter, of course they didn’t either, but the second quarter we heated up a little bit,” Eden said. “We try to make offense off our defense. We were able to get some steals and get some layups, and when we got our layups that sort of triggered our 3s.”
C.J. Lawler scored all 10 of his points in Ragland’s second-quarter run and Josh Phillips had seven of his game-high 20 in it. The Thunder (8-2) has lost only two games this season and both have been to the Purple Devils.
“This was a real, real butt-whippin’,” JCA coach Tommy Miller said. “This was as bad as when daddy used to cut a limb off the tree and wear me out. I told our kids there’s nothing to say, we don’t need to say anything about it. We just got one of our worst butt-kickings we’ve ever had.
“But Ragland is a great ball team. I’ve been saying that for a long time. I can’t see anything keeping them out of the Final Four. I’m not sure they won’t win it. Every position is solid. They’ve got a bench that’s solid and they shoot from all over the floor. They can jump out of the gym. They’re just an excellent ball team.”
Ragland 65, Jacksonville Christian 24
RAGLAND – C.J. Lawler 4 1-1 10, Matt Trammell 1 0-0 2, Jordan Turner 3 0-0 9, Josh Phillips 9 2-6 20, Kentrell Turner 6 0-0 14, Owen Schall 3 0-0 8, Jakolbe Brewster 0 0-0 0, Gavin Ward 1 0-0 2, Dante Pickett 0 0-0 0, Javaris Turner 0 0-0 0. Totals 27 3-7 65.
JCA – Tanner Wilson 3 0-0 8, Ethan Fair 1 0-0 2, Ethan Burrage 2 0-0 5, Tavian Alexander 0 0-0 0, Landon Wills 1 0-0 2, Drake Shew 1 0-2 2, Mason Johnson 0 1-2 1, Braxton Brown 1 0-0 2, Kam Moses 1 0-0 2, Brodie Clay 0 0-0 0. Totals 10 1-4
Ragland 6 25 13 21 – 65
JCA 8 2 6 8 – 24
3-point goals: Ragland 8 (Lawler, J. Turner 3, K. Turner 2, Schall 2); JCA 3 (Wilson 2, Burrage). Technical fouls: JCA (admin). Total fouls: Ragland 6, JCA 7.
JACKSONVILLE 64, ETOWAH 57: The Golden Eagles opened the fourth quarter with a 19-0 run to wipe out a seven-point third-quarter deficit and pull away. John Broom had a couple big blocks and Caden Johnson got to the foul line by attacking the rim spark the rally.
Johnson and Quinn Long led the Golden Eagles with 15 points each. Johnson struggled from the field, but was 11-of-15 from the free throw line. Broom had 11 points and three blocked shots.
“The kids finally fought and we finally had some shots fall,” Jacksonville coach Cordell Hunt said. “We’ve just not been a good shooting team and finally we got some shots falling late in the game that we’ve missed all year.”
The Golden Eagles wound up shooting 19-of-48 from the floor in the game. They were 22-of-35 from the free throw line, making six more free throws that Etowah took. Their bench scored 50 points.
Jacksonville 64, Etowah 57
ETOWAH – Steven Jones 4-13 8-8 18, Kahlil Hughley 7-13 0-0 18, Trent Davis 2-6 2-4 6, Tae Wright 2-9 0-0 5, Nyny Davis 1-4 0-0 3, Ollie Finch 0-3 2-2 2, Ethan Foster 1-3 0-0 2, Devan Greer 1-2 0-0 2, Dezmin Blair 0-0 1-2 1, Brevan Knight 0-4 0-0 0. Totals 18-57 13-16 57.
JACKSONVILLE – Quinn Long 6-11 2-4 15, Caden Johnson 2-9 11-15 15, John Broom 3-6 3-7 11, Omarion Adams 3-7 1-2 7, Cam Johnson 2-7 2-3 6, Nathan Barnwell 1-4 1-2 3, JaeTaj Morris 1-1 0-0 3, Jaylon Prater 0-1 2-2 2, Coby Zackery 1-2 0-0 2, Julian Hill 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 19-48 22-35 64.
Etowah 9 20 17 11 – 57
Jacksonville 16 7 16 25 – 64
3-point goals: Etowah 8-25 (Jones 2-7, Hughley 4-8, T. Davis 0-3, Wright 1-4, N. Davis 1-1, Foster 0-1, Greer 0-1); Jacksonville 4-17 (Long 1-4, Cd. Johnson 0-3, Broom 2-4, Adams 0-2, Cm. Johnson 0-3, Morris 1-1). Rebounds: Etowah 39 (Jones 8); Jacksonville 43 (Cm. Johnson 6). Total fouls: Etowah 23, Jacksonville 15.
OXFORD 50, SPRINGVILLE 35: Roc Taylor scored nine of his 11 points in the first quarter as the Yellow Jackets opened a 19-6 lead on the way to extending their winning streak to 11 games and improving to 2-0 in their area. Rylan Houck had 15 points, with eight coming in the second quarter as the Jackets opened a 32-13 halftime lead.
Oxford 50, Springville 35
OXFORD – Avelon Bush 2 0-1 4, Cordell Chatman 1 0-0 2, Rylan Houck 7 1-2 15, Peyton Watts 1 0-0 3, Mike McGraw 1 0-2 2, Roc Taylor 5 0-1 11, Bakari Dailey 1 0-0 3, Justin Moore 3 2-4 8, Josh Johnson 0 0-0 0, Josh Patton 1 0-0 2, Zurrell Garrett 0 0-0 0, Aaron McFarland 0 0-0 0. Totals 22 3-10 50.
SPRINGVILLE – Jamel Williams 0 0-0 0, Garrett Howard 1 0-0 2, Luke Richardson 1 0-0 2, Cason Kersh 0 0-0 0, Amari Cowan 0 0-0 0, Larry Winston 1 0-0 3, Rece Gleason 2 0-0 4, Pearson Baldwin 2 0-0 4, Gage Frederick 1 0-0 2, Vincent Gooch 1 1-4 3, Chase Higgins 1 0-2 2, Jake Goolsby 0 0-0 0, Ben Bianchi 6 1-1 13. Totals 16 2-7 35.
Oxford 19 13 12 6 – 50
Springville 6 7 9 13 – 35
3-point goals: Oxford 3 (Watts, Taylor, Dailey); Springville 1 (Winston). Total fouls: Oxford 12, Springville 11. Officials: Collins, Davis, Cochran.
GLENCOE 56, PLEASANT VALLEY 46: T.J. Peeples and Nolan Fairley each scored 12 points as Glencoe steadily increased its lead. Peeples and Cameron Atchley combined for 14 points in a 20-point second quarter that gave the Yellow Jackets a 28-23 halftime lead. PV’s Josh Ballew led all scorers with 17 points, running his career total to 1,033.
Glencoe 56, Pleasant Valley 46
PLEASANT VALLEY – Michael Glass 0 0-0 0, Garrett Cranmer 1 0-2 2, Josh Ballew 6 2-4 17, Oliver Young 2 0-0 5, Kolby Battles 2 1-2 5, Zeke Johnson 2 0-0 5, Justin Winningham 5 2-4 12. Totals 18 5-12 46.
GLENCOE – T.J. Peeples 6 0-0 12, Levi Long 0 0-0 0, Braylen Smith 2 0-1 4, Nolan Fairley 4 4-5 12, Cameron Atchley 4 0-0 8, Garrett Gaskin 2 0-0 4, Hayden Smith 1 1-2 3, Kade Kueny 1 0-0 2, Reid Drenner 1 5-9 7, Andrew Greene 2 0-0 4. Totals 23 10-17 56.
Pleasant Valley 7 16 12 11 – 46
Glencoe 8 20 15 13 – 56
3-point goals: Pleasant Valley 5 (Ballew 3, Young, Johnson). Total fouls: Pleasant Valley 21, Glencoe 16. Officials: Roberts, Morriss, Dupree.
MUNFORD 64, WELLBORN 42: Jaquan Anderson and Rashard Russell both scored nine points in the first quarter to sent the Lions on their way. Anderson finished 20 points and Russell had 16. Ethan Tidwell and Lewis Patterson led Wellborn with 12 and 10 points, respectively.
Munford 65, Wellborn 42
MUNFORD – Jaquan Anderson 8 1-2 20, Dwiight Moore 2 1-2 5, Rashard Russell 7 2-7 16, Jay Tuck 2 2-4 6, Ron Ervin 2 0-0 5, Connor Morgan 1 0-0 3, Demetrius Norwood 1 0-0 2, Logan Smith 1 1-3 4, Kyler Gibson 2 0-2 4. Totals 26 7-20 65.
WELLBORN – Lewis Patterson 4 1-3 10, Messiah Moore 1 1-2 4, Nathan Sanders 4 0-0 9, Keyonte Curry 0 0-0 0, Jeremiah Scarbrough 0 0-0 0, Trey Downs 1 2-2 4, Zaybin Wilis 0 1-2 1, Ethan Tidwell 6 0-0 12, Kameron Jackson 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 5-9 42.
Munford 22 15 13 15 – 65
Wellborn 11 9 14 8 – 42
3-point goals: Munford 6 (Anderson 3, Ervin, Morgan, Smith); Wellborn 3 (Patterson, Moore, Sanders). Fouled out: Gibson. Total fouls: Munford 13, Wellborn 19 Officials: Lackey, Elworth, Hall.
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