Battle of Bulldogs 2.0
- Updated: January 18, 2023
Piedmont gets fast start, leads wire to wire in rematch with Anniston to reach Calhoun County semifinals; Jacksonville up next
By Joe Medley
East Alabama Sports Today
JACKSONVILLE – Piedmont is on the board in this school year’s high-profile sports Battles of the Bulldogs, and Piedmont’s brand did it on Calhoun County’s biggest stage for basketball Wednesday.
Early hot shooting helped Piedmont get out to a big lead, and the Bulldogs answered every Anniston uprising to win 66-53 during their county quarterfinal in Pete Mathews Coliseum.
Piedmont (16-3) advanced to the county semifinals for the first time in four years and hopes to make its first final since 2010. All the Class 3A and tourney No. 5 seeded Bulldogs have to do now is beat top seed and defending Class 4A state champion Jacksonville on Thursday at 7:30 p.m.
“This is huge,” Piedmont senior guard and Jacksonville State University signee Alex Odam said. “This school is more of a football school, so taking deep in the county in basketball is going to be big.”
Anniston and Piedmont played one of the county’s best games of the 2022 football season, with Anniston holding off a Piedmont’s fourth-quarter comeback to win 30-28.
Anniston’s beat Piedmont 68-63 in boys’ basketball on Dec. 17, but Piedmont flipped the script in the county tournament.
The difference this time?
“I think the first quarter,” Anniston coach Torry Brown said.
Piedmont, playing its second game in the tournament, got out to a 14-3 lead and led 25-11 at the quarter break. A top-four seed gave Anniston a bye into the quarterfinals.
“They came out hot, and a little bit of it had something to do with them playing the other day,” Brown said. “Their guys were more familiar, and we have pretty much all new guys.
“The first quarter, everyone was a little shell shocked, and they came out and shot it well.”
Piedmont got two first-quarter 3-pointers from Pinto and one each from Cole Wilson, Ishmael Bethel and Colton Proctor.
“”That was big,” said Odam, who finished with 18 points and moved into 16th place on the state’s all-time scoring list (2,897). “Getting out big on them was what got us going. Cole and Rollie and Ish, they all got us going early.
“I don’t think they ever could really fully recover from that.”
Anniston got the lead down to single digits three times in the second half, most notably when Bethel drew a technical foul for hanging on the rim at 2:31 of the third quarter. He attempted to tip pass a missed dunk.
Jayden Lewis hit one of two technical free throws, and Anniston capitalized on the ensuing possession with Malik Bailey’s 3-pointer to cut the margin to 42-35.
Odam responded with a driving bucket, a pullup jumper and steal and assist to Pinto to get Piedmont back out to a 48-35 lead by quarter’s end.
Piedmont coach Jonathan Odam partly blamed himself for Aninston’s surges to cut the lead under double digits.
“We were trying to hold it and slow it down once we got a lead,” he said. “We just decided, you know what, we’ve just got to play.
“We’re not very good at slowing things down. We’re better off with, if you’re open, shoot, and if it goes, it goes, and we’ll live with it.”
Anniston got 10 points apiece from Lewis and Javen Croft. Freshman center Hezekiah Harris added eight to go with his rebounding and blocks.
“We played them together, (Harris) and Javen, a few games back, but the last time we played them, we played small,” Brown said. “They got up so big, and they were killing us on the glass, so we put both of them in there together.
“We were pretty effective in the paint. It was outside shooting where we were ineffective, and missing 20 free throws don’t help you, either.”
PIEDMONT – Alex Odam 9 0-5 18, Rollie Pinto 7 4-5 21, Ishmael Bethel 3 2-5 9, Colton Proctor 1 0-0 3, Chance Murphy 2 0-0 4, Rhett Alford 1 0-0 2, Cole Wilson 3 0-0 9. Totals 26 6-15 66.
ANNISTON – Jacort Lane 3 0-2 7, Devin Coleman 2 2-3 6, Kyron Brown 2 1-2 5, Jayden Lewis 4 2-6 10, Javen Croft 3 4-5 10, Malik Bailey 2 0-0 6, Delroy Francis 0 1-8 1, Hezekiah Harris 4 0-2 8. Totals 21 10-28 53.
| Anniston | 11 | 12 | 12 | 18 – | 53 |
| Piedmont | 25 | 8 | 15 | 18 – | 66 |
3-point goals: Anniston 3 (Lane, Bailey 2); Piedmont 8 (Pinto 3, Bethel, Proctor, Wilson 3). Technical fouls: Harris. Fouled out: Bethel, Murphy, Alford. Total fouls: Anniston 15, Piedmont 17.
Cover photo: Piedmont’s Ishmael Bethel shoots as Anniston’s Hezekiah Harris (24) and Malik Bailey defend Wednesday in Pete Mathews Coliseum. (Photo by Greg Warren)
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