Championship Saturday
- Updated: February 13, 2021
Jacksonville takes next-man-up mentality to another level, Saks plays best game of the year
SATURDAY’S AREA TOURNAMENT SCORES
BOYS
1A-10: Ragland 73, Jacksonville Christian 44
2A-12: Sand Rock 64, Spring Garden 57
3A-9: Saks 60, Childersburg 52
4A-10: Jacksonville 78, Etowah 54
5A-8: Sylacauga 66, Talladega 52
GIRLS
3A-9: Childersburg 42, Saks 28
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
JACKSONVILLE – The Jacksonville basketball team has had a next-man-up approach to the game throughout coach Cordell Hunt’s tenure, but the last couple weeks the Golden Eagles have really had to walk the talk.
They’ve already been without one of their top players for about a month and went into the Class 4A Area 10 title game Saturday with another key player sidelined, a situation they’ll likely have to live with for however long they stay in the postseason.
Two players down at the most important time of the year is not the way to go. But they rose above it on this night, jumping out to a big lead early, putting four scorers in double figures, going nearly perfect from the free throw line and swamping Etowah 78-54 for their second area title in three years. They will host Area 9 runner-up Anniston Tuesday night in the sub-regional round; Etowah will travel to Area 9 champion White Plains.
The Golden Eagles have been making their way without Cam Johnson since the Calhoun County Tournament, but they lost another regular earlier this week when team leader Q Long suffered a foot fracture in practice Thursday.
“When Q got hurt we ended up finishing practice pretty down,” Hunt said. “We regrouped the next day and had a fantastic practice. Our kids are a tight-knit group. Now, they’re going to try to, I don’t want to say, play for Q, but they know Q would want them to give the best effort that they have.
“So, it was a next-man-up mentality. It was a team next-man-up mentality because every single guy on that bench contributed today.”
They inserted guard JaeTaj Morris into the lineup to compete the starting five, but Long’s role in the game shifted to Nathan Barnwell and the senior forward responded with one of the best games of his career.
“Having someone out like that it makes other people have to step up, other people who don’t get as big a role on the team like I do,” Barnwell said. “Everybody has to step up at certain times and do their role when it needs to be done.
“I just thought play as hard as I can. That’s what coach preaches to us, that we just have to play hard and see what happens. When you play hard it shows up on the scoreboard. I just wanted to give my all tonight.”
Barnwell scored 10 points in the first quarter to help the Golden Eagles open a 23-5 lead and finished with 16 points and eight rebounds in the game. He might have gotten more had he not left the game briefly after taking a shot in the nose.
“Nathan Barnwell, I can’t preach enough about him,” Hunt said. “He’s the worker. He’s the guy on this team that when we have a bad practice, he’s going to dive on the floor head-first and then all of a sudden what does the energy do, it goes through the roof. He’s that guy. I’m happy he got that game tonight because he’s been a workhorse for us all year.
“I was wondering where we were going to get those 8-12 points Q gives us tonight, and it was Barnwell tonight. We can play tomorrow and it may be Jacoby Zackery who gets those points. The better basketball teams across the state are balanced. They don’t have one or two guys who can do it; they have five and six and seven guys who can get it done. That’s what we’re trying to do here. We don’t want just one person doing it. John Broom is a good player, but John Broom has help around him.”
Caden Johnson led Jacksonville with 19 points and nine boards. John Brown had 18 points, five rebounds and three blocked shots; and Omarion Adams had 17 points, nine rebounds and six assists. The Golden Eagles’ four top scorers combined to shoot 24-for-48 from the field and go 17-of-18 from the free throw line, which might have been the biggest bonus they took away from the game.
“We all had to step up and play as a team, play together,” Adams said. “Everybody’s putting their mindset on one thing and we all wanted to win the area championship. It means something to us. We wanted another chance at the Bulldogs and I guess we got it.”
The Golden Eagles figure Anniston owes them one – or two. They lost a close game to the Bulldogs in the regular season, but the one that really hurt was losing a 12-point lead in the fourth quarter of their game in the County Tournament.
Anniston knocked the Golden Eagles out of the tournament last year in a two-point subregion game.
“We know what Anniston is and I can guarantee you Spoodie (Antonio Kite) and (Malcolm) Carlisle is going to be back,” Hunt said, referring to the Bulldogs’ two stars who were benched for various reasons in Friday’s loss to White Plains. “We know those two guys are great ball players. We’re going to put together a plan and we’re going to go fight with them.”
CLASS 4A AREA 10
Jacksonville 78, Etowah 54
ETOWAH – Dee Spears 9-14 1-3 20, Steven Jones 4-8 2-4 12, Brevon Knight 5-8 1-1 11, Trent Davis 2-9 0-2 5, Omarion Finch 1-8 1-1 3, Khalil Hughley 0-1 0-0 0, Dezmin Blair 0-2 0-0 0, Josh Graham 0-1 0-0 0, Devan Greer 0-0 0-0 0, Ethan Foster 0-1 1-2 1, NyNy Davis 1-3 0-0 2, Tate Wright 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 22-57 6-13 54.
JACKSONVILLE – Caden Johnson 6-15 7-7 19, John Broom 7-12 2-2 18, Omarion Adams 5-14 4-4 17, Nathan Barnwell 6-7 4-5 16, Jaylon Prater 2-2 0-0 4, JaeTaj Morris 1-5 0-0 2, Coby Zackery 1-2 0-0 2, Julian Hill 0-1 0-0 0, Ethan Duke 0-0 0-0 0, Cam Johnson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 28-58 17-18 78.
Etowah 5 17 20 12 – 54
Jacksonville 23 9 24 22 – 78
3-point goals: Etowah 4-18 (Spears 1-4, Jones 2-3, T. Davis 1-4, Finch 0-1, N. Davis 0-2, Foster 0-1, Hughley 0-1, Wright 0-2); Jacksonville 5-14 (Johnson 0-1, Broom 2-4, Adams 3-5, Morris 0-2, Zackery 0-1, Hill 0-1). Rebounds: Etowah 26 (T. Davis 6, Finch 6); Jacksonville 45 (Adams 9, Johnson 9, Barnwell 8). Technical fouls: Johnson. Total fouls: Etowah 16, Jacksonville 12. Officials: Calkins, Howell, Railey.
Saks 60, Childersburg 52
CHILDERSBURG – Saks lost two close games with Childersburg during the season, but the Wildcats played what coach Jonathan Miller called their best game of the season Saturday to win their first area championship since 2017.
The Wildcats handled the Tigers’ pressure in the backcourt early, rebounded better than they had in the previous two meetings and when Childersburg did threaten in the second half Connor Morgan turned them back with some timely 3-pointers.
“We probably played our best game of the season today,” Miller said. “We’ve played better of late and I think we just finally put it all together and were able to go down there and get a big one.”
Martin hit a pair of 3s in the first quarter to help the Wildcats open a 19-13 lead and the teams basically played even the rest of the game.
Martin finished with 16 points. Jordan Cosper had 13 points, Patrick Williams had 12 and did a good job keeping the Tigers off the offensive boards, and Jalen McCants had 10.
“We did a good job rebounding the basketball; that’s kind of been our Achilles heel with them,” Miller sad. “They’re real aggressive going to the glass and we had to make sure we did a great job of boxing out. That was one of the big differences today as opposed to the first two meetings. We did a good job of keeping their guys off the glass.”
The Wildcats will host Weaver in their subregion game Tuesday. Childersburg will travel to Piedmont.
CLASS 3A AREA 9
Saks 60, Childersburg 52
SAKS – Jordan Cosper 6 1-1 13, Patrick Williams 4 4-4 12, Will Mixson 1 1-2 3, Shon Elston 0 0-0 0, Sean Parnell 1 1-3 3, Jalen McCants 3 4-6 10, Connor Martin 5 2-5 16, C.J. Gresham 1 1-4 3. Totals 21 14-25 60.
CHILDERSBURG – Lamar Duncan 6 0-2 14, Sherod Robertson 1 0-0 2, Jordan Mann 0 0-0 0, Javius Jones 1 1-2 3, D.J. Truss 2 1-2 5, J.T. Stone 0 2-2 2, Calib Swain 0 4-4 4, Jarius Celestine 4 0-0 10, Isaac Marbury 5 0-0 12. Totals 19 8-12 52.
Saks 19 12 12 17 – 60
Childersburg 13 10 12 17 – 52
3-point goals: Saks 4 (Martin 4); Childersburg 6 (Duncan 2, Celestine 2, Marbury 2). Total fouls: Saks 14, Childersburg 22.
Ragland 73, JCA 44
RAGLAND – C.J. Lawler scored all 15 of his points in the middle two quarters when Ragland took control of the game on its way to the Class 1A Area 10 title.
Tavian Alexander hit two 3-pointers in the first quarter to help JCA grab a 15-13 lead, but the Purple Devils outscored the Thunder 48-19 over the next two quarters to settle the issue.
Ragland’s tournament MVP Josh Phillips had six of his 14 points in the third quarter and 10 in the second half. Matt Trammell scored all 14 of his points in the second half with the help of four 3-pointers.
Alexander scored all 12 of his points on four first-half 3-pointers. Tanner Wilson had 10 points for the Thunder (17-7), which knocked Ragland out of the regionals last year on its way to the Final Four.
Ragland now hosts Sumiton Christian in its subregional game Tuesday. JCA travels to Appalachian.
CLASS 1A AREA 10
Ragland 73, Jacksonville Christian 44
JCA – Tanner Wilson 4 0-0 10, Ethan Fair 3 0-0 9, Ethan Burrage 0 0-0 0, Tavian Alexander 4 0-0 12, Landon Wills 2 2-2 6, Drake Shew 1 3-4 5, Braxton Brown 0 2-3 2. Totals 14 7-9 44.
RAGLAND – C.J. Lawler 6 1-2 15, Matt Trammell 5 0-0 14, Jordan Turner 4 0-2 9, Josh Phillips 5 4-4 14, Kentrell Turner 4 2-2 11, Owen Schall 3 0-0 8, Javaris Turner 1 0-0 2. Totals 28 7-10 73.
JCA 15 13 6 10 – 44
Ragland 13 22 26 12 – 73
3-point goals: JCA 9 (Wilson 2, Fair 3, Alexander 4); Ragland 10 (Lawler 2, Trammell 4, J. Turner, K. Turner, Schall 2). Total fouls: JCA 11, Ragland 11. Officials: Simpson, Edwards, Sanders.
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