Tiger talk
- Updated: February 22, 2023
After another postseason run ends in the ‘Elite Eight,’ Handley’s Screws cites her players’ ‘fight,’ calls for more statewide respect
By Joe Medley
East Alabama Sports Today
JACKSONVILLE — Courtney Screws knows the pain of losing in the regional finals all too well, but regional finals do serve as Alabama high school basketball’s de facto “Elite Eight.”
After her Handley team lost in the Northeast Regional final for the third year in a row, making it four years in a row to fall in regional finals, she came to the postgame news conference ready to talk top 10.
“I’ll just go ahead and dive into my feelings right now about what I think … ,” Screws said. “At what point does my program get respect in this state?”
Like so many elbow bends when she shot her way to the state’s career scoring record with Woodland, the former Courtney Strain took aim at the Alabama Sports Writers Association poll.
“Not in the top 10 one time the whole year,” she said. “Not that rankings matter. Please don’t take me for that type, because I’m not.
“I’ve got people, some of our own Handley people, telling us to our face yesterday, ‘Oh you’re going to get your butt waxed’.”
Wednesday’s regional final hardly went down as a waxing. Handley outscored the team that beat the Tigers in last year’s regional final 19-9 in the second quarter and led 27-22 at halftime.
Led by Takeriauna Mosley’s 15 points and Kristiana Tucker’s 13, the Tigers led all through the third quarter and into the fourth.
New Hope regained the lead on two Lauren Busbey free throws to make it 39-38 at 3:56 of the fourth. By then, Handley found itself stuck in a six-minute, four-second scoring drought.
It was no accident. New Hope started trapping Mosley, who shot Handley into the lead with back-to-back 3-pointers in the second quarter.
‘We did try to get it out of Mosley’s hands,” New Hope coach Terrance McGill said. “She’s a great player.
“We knew them well. They know us well. Coach Screws does a fantastic job with them. They fight. They’re fighters, and they’re going to fight you until the end. I thought they punched us in the mouth early, and we didn’t respond real well. In the second half, I thought we responded.”
Tourney most valuable player Kaylee Yarbrough scored a game-high 16 points. Kaylee Lebon added 13 and Busbey 11, and New Hope (23-5) is headed back to the Final Four, where the Indians lost in the semifinals a year ago.
Handley (24-8) comes away with another Elite Eight finish, the fourth in as many years, and a shout from one of the state’s big-media voids. The state noticed Screws as a player and her Woodland teams through the years she, her dad as coach, her sister, her cousins and other strong players made the Bobcats a perennial contender.
She wants folks to notice the team she coaches in nearby Roanoke, a team that’s a lot like the Woodland teams for which she played … knocking, beating and kicking at the door.
Woodland eventually broke through and won two state championships, in 2013 and 2014.
“This has nothing to do with me,” she said. “It has to do with the disrespect to my kids.
“If you look at it, basketball for basketball player, New Hope vs. Handley, we shouldn’t be on the floor with them, but I’ll tell you what we do have. That’s heart. That’s guts, and that’s fight. At some point, somebody’s got to respect that.”
CLASS 4A NORTHEAST REGIONAL
GIRLS FINAL
NEW HOPE 50, HANDLEY 42
NEW HOPE (23-5) – Kaylee Lebon 5-8 3-3 13, Jada Bates 0-6 6-8 6, Lauren Busbey 3-5 4-6 11, McKinnlee Keel 2-3 0-1 4, Kaylee Yarbrough 5-17 6-9 16, Eevy Bellar 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 15-41 19-27 50.
HANDLEY (24-8) – Akia Brown 0-0 0-1 0, Takeriauna Mosley 6-21 1-3 15, Takeira Tucker 1-3 2-4 4, Iyanna Norman 3-3 0-0 4, Za’Nautika Smith 2-9, 0-2 4, Kristiana Tucker 4-10 3-4 13, Millie Greer 0-1 0-2 0. Totals 16-47 6-16 42.
New Hope 13 9 13 15 – 50
Handley 8 19 9 6 – 42
3-point goals: New Hope 1-6 (Busbey 1-1, Keel 0-1, Yarbrough 0-2, Bellar 0-2); Handley 4-8 (Mosley 2-2, Tucker 2-6). Total fouls: New Hope 17, Handley 16. Fouled out: Keel, T.Tucker. Technical fouls: none. Officials: Dupree, Putnam, Johnson.
All-tournament team: (Oneonta) Baylor Phillips; (Talladega) Trinity Webb; (Handley) Mosley, K.Tucker; (New Hope) Lebon, Yarbrough (MVP).
Cover photo: Handley coach Courtney Screws watches as the final seconds tick away in the Tigers’ loss to New Hope in Wednesday’s Class 4A Northeast Regional final. (Photo By Al Muskewitz)
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