Roaring into regionals
- Updated: February 13, 2023
Crook, Ohatchee girls swamp Saks in final home game of season to earn trip to Northeast Regionals
CLASS 3A NORTHEAST SUBREGIONALS
Glencoe 66, Piedmont 50
Susan Moore 72, Sylvania 42
Ohatchee 73, Saks 25
Plainview 70, Vinemont 31
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
OHATCHEE — Lamar Bradford appreciates generational talent as much as any basketball coach out there, but even he was in awe watching Ohatchee senior Jorda Crook take care of her business against his Saks girls in the Class 3A subregion round Monday night.
In what was the final home game of her high school basketball career, Crook scored 37 points and grabbed 16 rebounds despite Bradford throwing “everything but the kitchen sink at her” in the Lady Indians’ 73-25 win.
Ohatchee (27-4) will now play Plainview in the Northeast Regional at Jacksonville State Monday at either 9 a.m. or noon.
The impressing started right away. On her way to her first basket of the game Crook raced up the right side of the floor, split Saks defenders Sania Angel and Alonna Crews at the elbow, going over Angel and dipping under and inside Crews, before kissing a layup softly off the glass.
As Bradford watched it all unfold in front of him, he uttered a soft but audible “Oooh, nice,” to no one in particular.
“That sums up … the game right there,” the Saks coach said. “You don’t realize how good she is until you actually get to play against her.
“You can scheme all you want to until you actually see her on the floor and play her. She’s phenomenal.”
Bradford saw a lot of Crook before she retired for the night with 3:24 left in the third quarter – after back-to-back three-point plays. The UAB volleyball signee came within one rebound of a double-double in the first quarter, scoring 10 points and grabbing nine rebounds. She had 17 in the 30-point second quarter that took the Lady Indians to a 46-10 halftime lead.
Before calling it a night, Crook bolted into third place on the state’s single-season girls scoring list (1,142) and moved to within five points of 17th on the all-time girls scoring list (3,045).
“To know that she’s going to play college for volleyball just shows you the type athlete she is,” Bradford said. “She’s phenomenal, a once in a generation type of talent. We just tried whatever we could, but when you have a player with that type of talent it doesn’t matter what you do she’s going to get her shots and that’s what I noticed tonight.
“She’s a special talent. When you have a talent like that, sometimes you just have to sit back and just be in awe. I was kind of in awe tonight.”
While Crook has spent all season impressing everyone else, she impressed herself Sunday in practice. No, she didn’t dunk, which is about the only thing she hasn’t done this year. She made a basket that even had her doing a double take.
She drove hard on the right side of the floor, looped underneath the goal and flipped up a right-handed shot from the left side of the basket.
“When she got done she just had her mouth wide open, like, “Did you see that?’ Ohatchee coach Bryant Ginn said. “I think she even amazes herself sometimes. It wasn’t bad.”
“I didn’t even know what I did,” Crook said. “I was shocked. I talked about it for five minutes.”
With Crook leading the way, the Lady Indians have pretty much had their way to this point in the season, but the task gets harder from here. They know they’ll have to play better than the way they started Monday.
“I told them congratulations, you’re one of the last 16 teams in, but there will be no easy ones from here on out,” Ginn said. “There will all have to be earned.
“I didn’t like the way we came out tonight. Effort wise I thought we were just kind of going through the motions. I told them that stuff can’t happen, you’re not going to get the chance to do that going forward.”
SAKS (3-19) – Savannah Walker 0 0-0 0, Jakailyn Carter 0 0-0 0, Deihanna Taylor 0 0-0 0, Sania Angel 2 0-1 5, Monterria Christopher 0 0-0 0, Alonna Crews 1 0-0 3, Madison Turner 6 1-4 13, Alayah Christopher 0 0-0 0, Jada Foster 0 0-0 0, Huguley 1 0-0 3, Lizoria Ferrell 0 0-0 0, Camrie Denham 1 0-0 2. Totals 11 1-5 25.
OHATCHEE (27-4) – Tabi Davidson 2 0-2 4, Katherina Marsh 0 0-0 0, Bailey Fowler 0 0-0 0, Emily Riddle 0 2-2 2, Whitney McFry 3 4-4 10, Makayla Brackett 1 0-1 2, Mia Waters 0 0-0 0, Greenlee Orman 0 0-1 0, Carly Hall 0 0-0 0, Priesly Davis 0 0-0 0, Kiana Garber 1 0-2 2, Jorda Crook 15 7-9 37, Lindsey Zurchin 4 1-2 13, Alyssa Davis 1 1-2 3. Totals 27 15-25 73.
| Saks | 2 | 8 | 11 | 4 – | 25 |
| Ohatchee | 16 | 30 | 20 | 7 – | 73 |
3-point goals: Saks 2 (Crews, Hughley); Ohatchee 4 (Zurchin 4). Total fouls: Saks 20, Ohatchee 13. Officials: Putnam, Armstrong, Martain.
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