Calhoun County in AL – Mon roundup: Alexandria and Ginn get off to a great start to the week; Ohatchee sweeps Pleasant Valley. Crook scores 51 in the girls game.
MONDAY BOYS Alexandria 69, Saks 40
Faith Christian 75, Wadley60
Pleasant Valley 42, Ohatchee 50
Talladega 56, Clay Central 53
MONDAY GIRLS
Alexandria 64, Saks 17
Pleasant Valley 55, Ohatchee 71, Pleasant Valley 71
Talladega 52, Clay Central 17
HOLIDAY TURNAMENTS
Cherokee County Invitational, Cedar Bluff
Games for Girls
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
Games for Girls
Westbrook Christian 67 West End 20
Ragland vs. B.B. Comer
Boys Games
Westbrook Christian 66 West End 38
B.B. B.B.
Al Muskewitz
The Alexandria Valley Cubs could have made it to Christmas without any pre-Christmas tournaments and school being out. They didn’t do it that way.
The Valley Cubs have four games this week, before Christmas. They opened the gauntlet Monday by winning 69-40 over Saks.
They will also play UMS Wright at Chelsea Tuesday, host Southside Thursday, and travel to Pell city Friday. The Saks game was originally scheduled for the National Championship football match. It was moved to this week along with the pickup with Pell City after the Champions Christmas Classic was cancelled. Southside was moved because of the Alabama North-South football match and the Cubs filled it in at Southside at Chelsea.
Coach Will Ginn of the Valley Cubs said, “You’ve seen our play.” “Everyone we can get is great.”
The Cubs started the week well. They took a 25-5 lead after the first quarter, and were leading 42-10 at halftime.
Drake Davis made four of five 3-pointers in quarter one and finished the game with 15 points. Kory Cargal scored 15 points as well, with 11 of those coming in the first period. Antonio Ross, who was away from North-South football and returned to the team for the Cubs, scored eight of his 10 points in halftime.
Ginn stated, “I thought that we played about our finest ball.” I told the children that we had not come out and played a solid first quarter throughout the year. It seems that we are always down after the first quarter. But, we finally got out there and played a decent half of basketball the first-half. We played some of the best basketball we have ever played in the first half.
ALEXANDRIA 69. SAKS 40
SAKS – Jakari streeter 2 0-0 5, Dee Elston 3 0-0 10, Christian Smith3 0-0 6, Anthony Bothwell3 0-0 8, Tae Elston0 0-0 0, Keondre John3 0-0 6, Christian Hall2 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 CHRISTIAN75, WADLEY60: Thomas Curlee scored a whopping 33 points while Yoshi Arevalo (contributing to 28) and Conner Richerzhagen (contributing to 26) completed the sweep of the Lions’ first-half of their area schedule.
Realignment put the Lions in Class 1A South for two years. They’re now seeing how each other lives, and are finding it’s a completely different game. However, they seem to be doing well locally.
Cory Hughes, Lions coach, stated that 38 points was the average score in the first half. “Scoring was never an issue.
“Part of the shift towards this southern region is that we’re getting more athletic teams, and that’s what my guys have tried to tell me. We’re a defensive-first team. Last year’s teams couldn’t handle pressure, the ball and they don’t have the ability to handle it. We get a lot.
It’s a favorite sport for the southern teams (Wadley, Winterboro) They want you to climb in them, because they will drive by and throw it off the backboard. The rebound will be thrown up again, and another rebound will be thrown up. We let Wadley pass us in the first half. Halftime saw us take a step back and keep everything in front. It was a great move by our guys and it didn’t hinder the rest of the game.”
Faith held the Bulldogs down to 27 points in second half. As the Lions won, Curlee and Arevalo scored 10 each in the second period. Eli Robinson scored all eight points of the half to give the Lions the victory.
Curlee started the Lions (10-2) to a strong start, scoring 16 points in each quarter and 23 in halftime. However, they trailed by only five at the end.
After transferring from Oxford, Carson Harris was able to play his first game with the Lions Varsity team. He did not score, but he had four rebounds, two assists, and a steal.
The Lions will have the opportunity to see where they stand in relation to this year’s county hierarchy, and possibly pick up some serious seeding points for Tuesday’s county tournament when they travel to White Plains.
FAITH CHRISTIAN (10-2) – Thomas Curlee 16-24 2-4 16, Conner Richerzhagen 5-14 2-12 12, Yashua Arevalo 6-14 2-16 16, Conner Richerzhagen 5-14 2-12 12, Eli Robinson 4-40-0 8, Tyler Bell 4-4 0-0 8, Carson Harris 0-40-0 0, Parker Robertson 10-0 0-0 0, Will Smith 10-0 0-0 0. Totals 33-67 5-9 75.
WADLEY (3-6) – Jaquez Wilks 0 0-0 0 Damarious Spraddling (9 4-4 24) Callan Hutchinson 0 1-2 1 Isaac Minnifield 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 19 -75
Wadley 17-16 11 16 – 60
3-point goals: Faith 4-18, Arevalo 2-6 Richerzhagen 0,2, Bell 1-3 and Harris 0-2); Wadley3-18 Rebounds. Faith 31 (Curlee 12, Arevalo 8); Wadley 38. Hughes, Faith coach. Total fouls: Faith 19, Wadley 11.
OHATCHEE 52, PLEASANT VALLEY 43: Despite losing three starters and having to bench a fourth, the Indians put on one of the most impressive performances of the season, beating Pleasant Valley.
Bryant Ginn, Ohatchee coach, said that “we had some kids step-up big time.” “Offensively, we made some shots and we played quite well defensively. We can make people feel pressure by taking shots and getting to rim.
Jake Robertson, who was the starter, and Jake Robertson who wasn’t, each stepped up to support the Indians. Robertson ended up scoring 12 points, which was the team’s highest total. Roberts came out of a shooting slump to score 10. Eli Teem, Brent Jennings and Brent Jennings each added nine points. Teem made three 3-pointers.
Ohatchee led by 20 points into the fourth quarter. Bryce Smith attempted to bring back the Raiders with 11 of his game high 13 points in fourth quarter.
OHATCHEE- Eli Teem 4 2-2 9, Jake Roberts 2 0-0 10, Jesse Baswell 3 0-0 4, Austin Carroll 1 -5 4, Jake Roberson 6 4-12 12, Ethan Blackburn 1 1-5 2, Nathan Dover 1 0-0 2, Brent Jennings 4-3 9. Totals 21 4-14 50.
PLEASANT VALEY – Jaden Sparks 1 2-2 5, Hunter Sparks 1 2-2 6, Freeman 1 0-0 0, Kolby battles 4 0-1 8, Shane Cramer 0 0-0 2, Braxton Wilkins 2 0-0 4, Bryce Smith 3-6 13. Totals 17 5-9 42.
Ohatchee 15 11 9 9 – 50
Pleasant Valley 6 9 21 – 42
3-point goals: Ohatchee 4, Teem 3, Carroll; PV (Gannaway, Smith 2). Baswell. Foulled out by Williams. Total fouls: Ohatchee 15. PV 18. Officials: Jarrett, Railey, Kelley.
Games for Girls
JACKSONVILLE Ohatchee’s Jordacrook scored 50 points in her second consecutive game. She also scored 51 against Pleasant Valley. This win will be a big boost for the Lady Indians when seeding the county tournament.
Crook scored 52 points, had 25 rebounds and made nine steals in Westbrook Christian’s loss. Bryant Ginn, Lady Indians coach, thought Crook was close to scoring against Westbrook Christian’s Lady Raiders.
Ginn stated that she sees a lot of “junk defenses,” which are different tactics teams use to try and stop Ginn. It’s tough because she’s so versatile offensively, defensively, and rebounding. You can give her two people, but she gets the other one.
She scored 12 of the Lady Indians’ 16 first quarter points and nine of their 13 second quarter points. After overcoming a deficit of two points at halftime, she scored 30 of their 42 points in the second half.
Macey Roper scored 16 points of her team-high 26, while the Lady Raiders made four 3-pointers to lead 31-29 at the half. Ohatchee led by five points at the end of the third quarter. PV was outscored 20-9 by Ohatchee with Crook scoring 17.
OHATCHEE- Tabi Dan 2 0-0 5, Whitney McFry 0-1 4, Mia Waters 1 1-2 4, Priesly Davis 1 10-0 2, Kiana Garber 1 0-0 2, Jordan Crook 22-9 51, Lindsey Zurchin 1 0-0 0, Alyssa Davies 4 1-2 9. Totals 30
PLEASANT VALEY – Abby Parris 2 0-0 3, Laney Robinson 1 0-0 5, Lilly Robinson 2 0-0 5, Kianna Hester 2 1 0-0 6, Rebekah Gannaway 2 3-3 5, Haylie Le 4 0-0 10, Macey ROPER 11 3-7 26. Totals 21 6-10 55.
Ohatchee 16 23 20 -71
Pleasant Valley 16-15 15 9 -55
3-point goals: Ohatchee 2, McFry, Davidson; PV 7, E. Parris, La. Robinson, Hester 2, Lee 2, Roper; Total fouls: Ohatchee 13, P 13. Officials: Jarrett, Kelley, Shelby.
ALEXANDRIA 64. SAKS 17. Allyssa Hunter scored 15 points in her best game since she became eligible. The sophomore forward, who stands at 5’10”, was transferred from Cleburne County to play for the Lady Cubs last week.
In her Lady Cubs debut against Glencoe, she scored four points and two against Cherokee County. Saks was 9-for-9.
Craig Kiker, Alexandria coach, said that she knew she would help the team from Day One. “She’s athletic, a bit bigger than us and shoots well. A few of her points tonight were on midrange jump shots, which was great to see. Her unique perspective is refreshing.
She got lots of wide-open eyes tonight, but she did a great job getting fouled. This is something that I hope we can continue to improve upon. We were able to play against some size which was great for us as we will be seeing some with Southside on Thursday. And we tried to get the ball inside more tonight, to (Kirsten Heathcock). We haven’t been able to throw the ball in enough.”
Alexandria was led by Jordyn Walk with 18 points and 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 – Jordynwalker 7 2-6 18, Kirsten Heatherhcock 3 1-2 7, Jill Cockrell 1/0-0 2, Cassidy Hartsfield 1/1-4 4, Charlee Parrs 2 1-2 5 Kailey Dickerson 2/1-2 5, Sumira Dunn 2 0-2 4, Makayla Brawster 1 2-4 4, Allyssa Hunter 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 COUNTY28: Ace Austin had 18 points and was within two assists of a double double. Chloe Rule scored 13 points and got two rebounds as the Lady Panthers advanced into the finals of the Cherokee County Invitational. They will face Bremen in Tuesday’s girls’ title game.
Austin was 7-14 from the field. He also had six steals and four rebounds, and three blocked shots. Rule was able to steal four times. Maggie Jarrett added 12 points, while Libby Brown had seven rebounds and Maggie Jarrett had five steals.
Spring Garden 21 24 21 3 – 69
Cherokee County 7 7 9 – 28
