They came
- Updated: January 21, 2025
A visit from seven-time defending Class 6A champion Hazel Green brought out a capacity crowd, Spring Garden’s best as the nine-time Class 1A champion Panthers roll to victory.
SPRING GARDEN — Two Alabama high school girls’ basketball teams, representing a combined 17 state titles, played in a small-school gym Tuesday.
It’s no ordinary small-school gym. There’s no official count of Spring Garden’s banners per square foot, but it would be a darned impressive number.
It’s a hoop-dreams house, Indiana and Kentucky style, plopped in Spring Garden, Alabama.
What’s grown in The Garden doesn’t need validation. Nine state titles do that nicely, but a Class 1A school can find something in seven-time defending Class 6A champion Hazel Green busing 125 miles to play a game here.
Hazel Green wouldn’t be the first 6A team Spring Garden has beaten, not by a long Ace Austin 3-point shot, but the Panthers’ 63-46 victory gave their students reason to chant a familiar victory chant.
“I … I believe,” rang out before accelerating in pace. “I believe that we have won! I believe that we have won! I believe that we have won!”
A special program just added to its extensive collection of nights to remember Tuesday. The game made Spring Garden the Alabama girls’ basketball epicenter, with local, regional and statewide media crowding a small gym’s spaces to get pictures and interviews.
A look around the bleachers revealed a who’s whom.
Alexandria’s state-champion coaching power couple, baseball coach Zac Welch and volleyball coach Whitney Welch, came to see the game. So did Alexandria girls’ basketball coach Craig Kiker and his point guard, Charlee Parris.
Jacksonville Christian’s Noah Lee, a college-bound quarterback in football and Maxpreps’ national rebounder leader in basketball, found him a seat up top, on the home side.
Spring Garden’s girls’ basketball program usually draws alumna for home games, but this game drew quite a few. Chloe Rule, the Panthers’ center for state-title runs in 2023 and 2024, came home and brought Snead State Community College teammates.
Those who often come, and those who came for the chance to see a best-on-best spectacle, filled the gym and their eyes.
Austin, Spring Garden’s Alabama-signed point guard, scored 43 points and passed Paige Anderson’s all-time school career scoring record, reaching 3,671.
For what it’s worth, Spring Garden didn’t beat just any 6A team. It beat the team that’s dominated 6A seven years running.
“I don’t even know what to say,” said a full-hearted Austin, holding the ball Ricky Austin, her father and head coach, presented to her in a postgame special announcement about her school record. “We wouldn’t have got the win without our fans, I’ll tell you that.
“They were amazing. We couldn’t even hear each other, so I’m just glad they came out and saw some real basketball, because we will never have this again.”
Shortly thereafter, Ricky Austin held court with enough reporters to fill out a starting five. He praised Hazel Green coach Tim Miller for bringing his team to Spring Garden’s home court.
“This game did not define his team this year, did not define his legacy,” he said. “He’s still the king in Alabama in women’s basketball in what he’s done, but my hat’s off to him for wanting to come here in this environment.
“A big school coming to a small school like this, he knew what was at state, but he was comfortable coming here. The fans got their enjoyment and entertainment, and that’s what I was hoping for.”
What’s left to see is how Tuesday’s game helps both teams continue their string of state titles. Hazel Green seeks its eighth in a row, Spring Garden its third and sixth since 2016.
“I challenged our girls to find something else about yourselves that you do not know,” Ricky Austin said. “If we’d have lost, we played well enough that we did that.
“I think we found something else, but, with a win, there’s obviously confidence as, we don’t play anybody this big, but we play some really good teams going forward.”
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