Starting off strong
- Updated: December 20, 2022
Monday roundup: Alexandria, Ginn get busy week off to good start; Ohatchee sweeps Pleasant Valley, Crook goes for 51 in girls game, and more
MONDAY BOYS
Alexandria 69, Saks 40
Faith Christian 75, Wadley 60
Ohatchee 50, Pleasant Valley 42
Talladega 56, Clay Central 53
MONDAY GIRLS
Alexandria 64, Saks 17
Ohatchee 71, Pleasant Valley 55
Talladega 52, Clay Central 17
HOLIDAY TOURNAMENTS
Cherokee County Invitational, Cedar Bluff
Girls Games
Handley 61, Sand Rock 40
Gaylesville 40, Talladega Co. Central 20
Bremen 52, Cedar Bluff 33
Spring Garden 69, Cherokee County 28
Boys Games
Handley 57, Spring Garden 53
Talladega Co. Central 41, Gaylesville 37
Bremen 64, Cedar Bluff 54
Cherokee County 74, Sand Rock 56
Ragland Christmas Classic
Girls Games
Westbrook Christian 67, West End 20
Ragland vs. B.B. Comer
Boys Games
Westbrook Christian 66, West End 38
B.B. Comer 68, Ragland 39
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
With school out and no pre-Christmas tournament to play in, the Alexandria Valley Cubs could have eased their way into the holiday and no one would’ve been the wiser. But that’s not their way.
The Valley Cubs play four games this week before Christmas and they opened the gauntlet Monday with perhaps their best game of the year, a 69-40 victory over Saks.
Before the week is over, they also will play UMS-Wright at Chelsea Tuesday, host Southside in a big area game Thursday and travel to Pell City Friday. The Saks game originally was scheduled for the night of the National Championship football game and was moved to this week as well as the pickup with Pell City when the Champions Christmas Classic got canceled. The Southside game was moved due to Alabama North-South football game and the Cubs filled in for Southside at Chelsea.
“You’ve seen us play,” Valley Cubs coach Will Ginn said. “Every one we can get is good.”
The week started well for the Cubs. They opened a 25-5 lead in the first quarter and led 42-10 at halftime.
Drake Davis hit four of his five 3-pointers in the first quarter and he finished with 15 points. Kory Cargal also scored 15 points, with 11 coming in the first half. Antonio Ross returned to the squad from his North-South football commitment and gave the Cubs some good early energy, scoring eight of his 10 points in the first half.
“I thought we played about our best ball,” Ginn said. “I told the kids we hadn’t come out and played a good first quarter all year long. We’re always down after the first quarter it seems like just because we come out so slow, but we finally came out and played a good half of basketball the first half. For the first half we played about the best basketball we’ve played so far.”
ALEXANDRIA 69, SAKS 40
SAKS – Jakari Streeter 2 0-0 5, Dee Elston 4 0-0 10, Christian Smith 3 0-0 6, Anthony Bothwell 3 0-0 8, Tae Elston 0 0-0 0, Keondre Johnson 3 0-0 6, Christian Hall 2 0-0 5. Totals 17 0-0 40.
ALEXANDRIA – Drake Davis 5 0-0 15, Evan Snow 0 1-2 1, Antonio Ross 5 0-1 10, T.K. Downie 6 0-0 12, Jaylen Henderson 1 0-0 2, Matthew McElroy 2 0-0 5, Kory Cargal 7 1-5 15, Cleat Forrest 4 0-0 9. Totals 30 2-8 69.
Saks 5 5 18 12 – 40
Alexandria 25 17 12 15 – 69
3-point goals: Saks 6 (Streeter, D. Elston 2, Bothwell 2, Hall); Alexandria (Davis 5, McElroy, Forrest). Total fouls: Saks 12, Alexandria 3.
FAITH CHRISTIAN 75, WADLEY 60: Thomas Curlee scored 33 points and Yoshi Arevalo and Conner Richerzhagen combined for 28 more as the Lions completed a four-game sweep of the first half of their area schedule.
Realignment shuffled the Lions into Class 1A South for the next two years, so they’re seeing how the other half lives and they’re discovering it’s a different kind of game, although locally they seem to be holding their own.
“The first half we scored 38 points, for us that’s a lot,” Lions coach Cory Hughes said. “Scoring was never a problem.
“Part of the shift to this southern region is we’re getting way more athletic teams and that’s what I’ve tried to tell our guys. We’re a defensive-first team. The teams last year, they can’t handle the ball, they can’t handle the pressure and we get a lot of stuff.
“The southern teams – Wadley, Winterboro – they love it. They love for you to get up in them because they’re going to drive right by, toss it off the backboard and catch the rebound and put it up again and catch another rebound and put it up again. The first half we let Wadley go by us again and again and again. The only shift at halftime was take a step and a half back and keep everything in front of you. Our guys did that and it wasn’t a problem the rest of the game.”
Faith held the Bulldogs to 27 points in the second half. Meanwhile, Curlee and Arevalo scored 10 points apiece in the second half and Eli Robinson scored all eight of his points in the half as the Lions pulled away.
Curlee got the Lions (10-2) off to a big start with 16 points in the first quarter and 23 in the first half, but they only led by five at the break.
Carson Harris played his first game with the Lions varsity since transferring from Oxford. Although he didn’t score in the 13 minutes he played, he contributed four rebounds, two assists and a steal.
The Lions get the chance to learn where they stand against this year’s county hierarchy and perhaps pick up some serious county tournament seeding points Tuesday when they travel to White Plains.
FAITH CHRISTIAN (10-2) – Thomas Curlee 16-27 0-1 33, Yashua Arevalo 6-14 2-4 16, Conner Richerzhagen 5-14 2-2 12, Eli Robinson 4-4 0-0 8, Tyler Bell 2-4 1-2 6, Carson Harris 0-4 0-0 0, Parker Robertson 0-0 0-0 0, Will Smith 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 33-67 5-9 75.
WADLEY (3-6) – Jaquez Wilks 1 2-4 4, Tyquavian Wilks 0 0-0 0, Damarious Spraddling 9 4-4 24, Callan Hutchinson 0 1-2 1, Isaac Minnifield 5 1-2 11, Frisco Robertson 6 1-6 13, Lance Garrett 1 0-0 2, Jabari Burns 2 0-0 5. Totals 24-61 9-19 60.
Faith Christian 20 18 18 19 – 75
Wadley 17 16 11 16 – 60
3-point goals: Faith 4-18 (Curlee 1-5, Arevalo 2-6, Richerzhagen 0-2, Bell 1-3, Harris 0-2); Wadley 3-18 Rebounds: Faith 31 (Curlee 12, Arevalo 8); Wadley 38. Technical fouls: Faith coach Hughes. Total fouls: Faith 19, Wadley 11.
OHATCHEE 50, PLEASANT VALLEY 42: Despite missing three starters for various reasons and benching a fourth to start the game, the Indians gave one of their gutsiest performances of the season and beat Pleasant Valley.
“We had some kids step up big time,” Ohatchee coach Bryant Ginn said. “Offensively we made some shots, and we played pretty well defensively. If we can put pressure on people by making shots and getting to the rim, we get to be pretty good.”
Jake Roberts, who started the game, and Jake Robertson, the starter who didn’t, both stepped up for the Indians. Robertson wound up leading them in scoring with 12 points. Roberts broke out of a shooting slump and had 10. Eli Teem and Brent Jennings added nine points apiece. Teem hit three 3-pointers.
Ohatchee carried a 20-point lead into the fourth quarter. Bryce Smith tried to bring the Raiders back with 11 of his game-high 13 points in the fourth quarter.
OHATCHEE – Eli Teem 3 0-0 9, Jake Roberts 4 2-2 10, Jesse Baswell 2 0-0 4, Austin Carroll 1 1-5 4, Jake Roberson 6 0-4 12, Ethan Blackburn 1 0-0 2, Nathan Dover 0 0-0 0, Brent Jennings 4 1-3 9. Totals 21 4-14 50.
PLEASANT VALLEY – Jaden Sparks 2 0-0 4, Jesse Gannaway 1 2-2 5, Hunter Sparks 3 0-0 6, Freeman 0 0-0 0, Kolby Battles 4 0-1 8, Shane Cramer 1 0-0 2, Braxton Williams 2 0-0 4, Bryce Smith 4 3-6 13. Totals 17 5-9 42.
Ohatchee 15 15 11 9 – 50
Pleasant Valley 6 9 6 21 – 42
3-point goals: Ohatchee 4 (Teem 3, Carroll); PV (Gannaway, Smith 2). Technical fouls: Baswell. Fouled out: Williams. Total fouls: Ohatchee 15. PV 18. Officials: Jarrett, Railey, Kelley.
Girls Games
JACKSONVILLE – Ohatchee’s Jorda Crook had a 50-point night for the second straight game, this time going for 51 in a 71-55 victory over Pleasant Valley that will certainly score the Lady Indians some points when it comes to seeding the county tournament.
Crook went for 52 points, 25 rebounds and nine steals against Westbrook Christian. Although the night’s stats hadn’t been tallied at the time, Lady Indians’ coach Bryant Ginn figured she came close to that against the Lady Raiders.
“She gets a lot of what I call ‘junk defenses,’ different things teams do to try to stop her,” Ginn said. “But she’s so well-rounded offensively, defensively and rebounding, it’s just tough. When you dedicate two people to her you leave somebody else open and she still gets hers.”
She had 12 of the Lady Indians’ 16 points in the first quarter and nine of their 13 in the second. She had 30 of their 42 in the second half, when pulled away from a two-point halftime deficit.
Macey Roper scored 16 of her team-high 26 points in the first half and the Lady Raiders hit four 3-pointers to take a 31-29 lead into the break. Ohatchee took a five-point lead into the fourth quarter, then outscored PV 20-9 with Crook scoring 17.
OHATCHEE – Tabi Davidson 2 0-0 5, Whitney McFry 1 1-2 4, Mia Waters 0 0-0 0, Priesly Davis 1 0-0 2, Kiana Garber 0 0-2 0, Jordan Crook 22 7-9 51, Lindsey Zurchin 0 0-0 0, Alyssa Davis 4 1-2 9. Totals 30
PLEASANT VALLEY – Abby Parris 1 0-0 3, Laney Robinson 2 0-0 5, Lilly Robinson 0 0-0 0, Kianna Hester 2 0-0 6, Rebekah Gannaway 1 3-3 5, Haylie Lee 4 0-0 10, Macey Roper 11 3-7 26. Totals 21 6-10 55.
Ohatchee 16 13 22 20 – 71
Pleasant Valley 16 15 15 9 – 55
3-point goals: Ohatchee 2 (Davidson, McFry); PV 7 (E. Parris, La. Robinson, Hester 2, Lee 2, Roper); Total fouls: Ohatchee 13, PV 13. Officials: Jarrett, Kelley, Shelby.
ALEXANDRIA 64, SAKS 17: Allyssa Hunt scored 15 points in the best game of the three she’s played for the Lady Cubs since becoming eligible. The 5-foot-10 sophomore forward transferred in from Cleburne County and played for the first time last week.
She scored four points in her Lady Cubs debut against Glencoe and two against Cherokee County. She went 9-for-9 from the free throw line against Saks.
“I knew she was going to help us from Day One,” Alexandria coach Craig Kiker said. ““She brings us a little more size, she’s athletic and shoots it well. A couple of her points tonight were on mid-range jump shots, which was good to see. She brings us a little different element.
“She got a lot of wide-open looks tonight, but she did a good job of getting fouled, which is something I hope we can build off. We got to play against some size, which was good for us because we’re going to see some size with Southside Thursday, and we were trying to get the ball inside more tonight to her and (Kirsten) Heathcock. We just haven’t thrown the ball inside enough.”
Jordyn Walker led Alexandria with 18 points, nine in each half.
SAKS – Deihanna Taylor 0 0-0 0, Sania Angel 3 0-2 6, Alonna Crews 1 1-2 4, Madison Turner 2 3-5 7, Alayah Christopher 0 0-0 0, Jada Foster 0 0-0 0, Lizoria Ferrell 0 0-0 0, Camrie Denham 0 0-0 0. Totals 6 4-9 17.
ALEXANDRIA – Jordyn Walker 7 2-6 18, Kirsten Heathcock 3 1-2 7, Jill Cockrell 1 0-0 2, Cassidy Hartsfield 1 1-4 4, Charlee Parris 2 1-2 5, Kailey Dickerson 2 1-2 5, Sumira Duncan 2 0-2 4, Makayla Brewster 1 2-8 4, Allyssa Hunt 3 9-9 15. Totals 22 17-35 64.
Saks 6 3 6 2 – 17
Alexandria 15 16 20 13 – 64
3-point goals: Saks 1 (Crews); Alexandria 3 (Walker 2, Hartsfield). Total fouls: Saks 21, Alexandria 11.
SPRING GARDEN 69, CHEROKEE COUNTY 28: Ace Austin scored 18 points and came within two assists of a double-double and Chloe Rule had 13 points and came within two rebounds of the same as the Lady Panthers advanced to the championship game of the Cherokee County Invitational. They will play Bremen in Tuesday’s girls title game.
Austin went 7-of-14 from the field and also had six steals, four rebounds and three blocked shots. Rule had four steals. Libby Brown added 12 points and Maggie Jarrett had seven points, seven rebounds and five steals.
Spring Garden 21 24 21 3 – 69
Cherokee County 7 5 7 9 – 28
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