By Al Muskewitz
Faith Christian checks off two major items on its season-long to-do list, Ragland holds off JCA as Thunder lose track of time; Cade Phillips returns to lineup in Jacksonville rout; Alexandria, Saks fall in area title games
THURSDAY’S BOYS GAMES
5A-11 Championship game: Moody 69, Alexandria 62 (Subregion cross: Alexandria at Ramsay, Leeds at Moody)
5A-8 Championship game: Sylacauga 61, Clay Central 52 (Subregion cross: Area 5: Clay Central at Brewbaker Tech, Pike Road at Sylacauga)
4A-10 Semifinals: Etowah 69, Cherokee County 66 (Subregion cross: Area 9: Anniston vs. Handley Friday)
4A-10 Semifinals: Jacksonville 109, Ashville 49 (Subregion cross: Area 9: Anniston vs. Handley Friday)
3A-9 Championship game: Childersburg 74, Saks 62 (Subregion cross: Saks at Piedmont-Weaver winner, Piedmont-Weaver loser at Childersburg)
1A-10 Semifinals: Ragland 70, JCA 67 (Subregion cross: Area 11: Sumiton Christian vs. Cornerstone)
1A-10 Semifinals: Faith Christian 77, Coosa Christian 54 (Subregion cross: Area 11: Sumiton Christian vs. Cornerstone)
The list of items the Faith Christian basketball team wants to get done this season just keeps getting smaller.
The Lions checked off two more boxes on their to-do list Thursday night in a 77-54 victory over Coosa Christian in the semifinals of the Class 1A Area 10 tournament.
They won their 20th game of the season and they qualified for the sub-region tournament for the first time since 2016. They’ll go after their first area tournament title in 11 years Saturday night against Ragland, a team they split with during the season.
“It’s two more checks in the box, but the one thing that’s happening for us is the culture is starting to change,” first-year Lions coach Cory Hughes said. “Our AD said to me before the game, she said ‘I really like winning.’
“I do, too, and that’s part of what we’re trying to do: Be a winning program where people can get excited about our basketball night in and night out. That’s one of the things I want to do is come in and change the basketball culture and we’re right on the road doing that.”
The top-seeded Lions (20-10) had control of this one from the start, jumping out to a 16-2 lead. Coosa made several runs at them, largely behind the outside shooting of Hayden Peek, but each time it did, the Lions responded and pushed the lead back to a comfortable margin.
Faith’s top three scorers – Ethan Richerzhagen (23), Thomas Curlee (21) and Yoshua Arevalo (18) – combined to outscore the Conquerors by themselves. Coosa’s Peek led all scorers with 30.
Hughes was particularly impressed with Arevalo, who he called “the igniter” for being “super hungry” and playing “like the scrappiest dog.” In addition to his scoring, the junior had 12 rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots.
“I didn’t want to let down all the seniors,” Arevalo said. “I’m a starter and we’ve got seniors on the bench. I don’t want them to play their last game on the bench, so we had to come out hot.”
RAGLAND 70, JCA 67: Everybody in the gym thought they knew what was going to happen at the end. Until it didn’t.
JCA had the ball down three with 5.1 seconds left. Everyone expected them to turn to Ethan Fair for the potential game-tying 3 at the buzzer, but as the clock was winding down the junior gunner was driving hard to the basket.
When his shot missed and Emmanuel Kidd rebounded there was hardly any time to get up another shot let alone kick it to someone outside to salvage the situation and the Thunder fell.
“My whole thinking was we’re giving the ball to Ethan and he’s going to come down and shoot the 3,” JCA coach Tommy Miller said. “That (failure) goes back to undoubtedly we have not been coached well enough to know that situation and that’s on me.
“When you mess up, you mess up and we messed up there. In hindsight, if I’d have had any idea that we were not mature enough to know the situation I would have called that time out. We were going to give it to Ethan and I was looking for him to pull up and shoot the 3. I had no idea he was going on in there and why he did that who knows.”
To his credit, Fair brought the Thunder back with his outside shooting. He hit an AHSAA-record seven 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and had 10 in the game. JCA hit 17 as a team (in 47 attempts).
The Thunder trailed by 11 midway through the fourth quarter and by eight with 46 seconds to play. Fair hit his final two 3s to get them within two, 69-67, with 8.5 seconds go. Ragland’s Braxton Layton then made the second of two free throws with 5.1 seconds left to make it a three-point game and set the stage for the final drama.
Fair was 10-of-23 from behind the arc in the game and finished with 32 points. His seven 3s in the fourth broke the old AHSAA record of six set by Plainview’s Cole Millican in a game last year.
Fair is the 25th player listed by the AHSAA to hit at least 10 3s in a game and 10th to hit 10. His 23 attempts are tied for ninth. The team’s 17 3s is tied for eighth with Mortimer Jordan in a 70-40 win over Corner in 2019.
The 24 combined 3s is tied for 10th. The teams combined for 10 3s in the first quarter and 13 in the first half.
“We shot the ball extremely well tonight, moreso than we usually do, honestly,” Ragland coach Andy Eden said. “I’m glad we did. When you’ve got shooters like they’ve got then they’re never really out of a game.”
Ragland placed four scorers in double figures led by Kentrell Turner’s 17 points. The Purple Devils (16-8) are missing a big piece of their offense with D.J. Turner out for whatever remains of their season with a broken collarbone.
The Purple Devils go for their third straight area title Saturday.
Faith Christian 77, Coosa Christian 54
COOSA CHRISTIAN –Grayson Malone 0-0 0-0 0, D.J. Smith 1-6 0-3 2, Ty Sims 1-5 1-2 3, Hayden Peek 11-23 3-4 30, Zachary Elrod 0-4 1-2 1, J.D. Justus 0-1 0-2 0, Dartavius Mackey 0-1 0-0 0, Elijah Motes 0-0 0-0 0, Jacoby Butler 5-8 0-1 10, Vincent Dupree 0-0 0-1 0, Clete O’Bryant 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-48 5-15 54.
FAITH CHRISTIAN – Ethan Richerzhagen 7-13 7-7 23, Thomas Curlee 5-12 10-12 21, Yoshua Arevalo 7-16 3-5 18, Jacques Prater 2-4 1-3 7, Tyler Bell 1-4 0-0 3, Demonde Bell 1-4 0-0 3, Colton Pahman 1-2 0-0 2, Damian Arevalo 0-0 1-2 1, Conner Richerzhagen 0-3 0-0 0, Brodie Dodson 0-1 0-0 0, Joseph Carroll 0-0 0-0 0, Eli Robinson 0-0 0-0 0, Will Smith 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-59 22-29 77.
Coosa 14 14 13 13 – 54
Faith 26 16 12 23 – 77
3-point goals: Coosa 5-19 (Peek 5); Faith 7-22 (E. Richerzhagen 2-4, Curlee 1-3, Y. Arevalo 1-5, Prater 2-4, T. Bell 1-2, Pahman 0-1, C. Richerzhagen 0-2, Dodson 0-1). Rebounds: Coosa 25, Faith 34 (Y. Arevalo 12, Curlee 8). Fouled out: Smith. Total fouls: Coosa 20, Faith 19.
Ragland 70, Jacksonville Christian 67
JACKSONVILLE CHRISTIAN – Emmanuel Kidd 1-3 1-3 4, Ethan Fair 10-25 2-7 32, Tyler Doggrell 2-8 0-0 4, Braxton Brown 5-14 4-5 18, Noah Lee 0-0 0-0 0, Jordan Garner 0-1 0-1 0, Cam Moses 2-10 0-0 6, Brodie Clay 1-4 1-2 3. Totals 21-65 8-18 67.
RAGLAND – Dante Pickett 0 0-0 0, Javaris Turner 5 1-1 13, Braxton Layton 6 2-6 16, Kentrell Turner 7 3-3 17, Taevon Williams 0 2-2 2, Ezra Hill 5 0-3 13, D.J. Turner 4 1-2 9. Totals 27 9-17 70.
JCA 15 10 16 26 – 67
Ragland 23 11 19 17 – 70
3-point goals: JCA 17 (Kidd, Fair 10, Brown 4, Moses 2); Ragland 7 (Ja. Turner 2, Layton 2, Hill 3). Rebounds: JCA 29 (Moses 7, Clay 6). Fouled out: Brown, Ja. Turner. Total fouls: JCA 19, Ragland 15.
Class 4A Area 10
JACKSONVILLE 109, ASHVILLE 49: Cade Phillips returned to the Jacksonville lineup for the first time in four weeks and as expected folded right back into the rotation as if nothing had been amiss.
The 6-foot-9 junior played seven minutes in his first action since hurting his ankle against Anniston on Jan. 14 and had seven points on 3-of-7 shooting from the floor, three rebounds, two steals and three blocked shots.
“It’s great to be back,” Phillips said. “I’ve gone through all this time watching my guys battle it out feeling like I let them down not playing and it’s great even in limited minutes to just get that energy we all bring back together.”
Five players scored in double figures for the Golden Eagles, led by freshman Devin Barksdale’s 17. John Broom had 15, Cam Johnson and JaLeik Long 14 apiece, and Caden Johnson 10. Thirteen of the 14 Golden Eagles who got in the game scored.
They scored 42 points in the second quarter and led 69-18 at halftime. The 42 points ties for sixth most in a quarter in state history. Good Hope scored 42 in the first quarter of a 119-76 win over Addison in 1979.
They’ll play Etowah for the area title and right to host a subregion game Saturday at 1 p.m. The Blue Devils beat Cherokee County 69-66.
ETOWAH 69, CHEROKEE COUNTY 66: Dee Spears led the Blue Devils with 25 points. Steven Jones had 14 and Caden Argo 10. Jaden Wilson led Cherokee County with 22.
Jacksonville 109, Ashville 49
ASHVILLE – Jacob Wilson 9-13 3-5 19, Ashton Vann 3-13 1-2 9, Jonah Carden 3-7 0-0 9, Braxton Nall 2-6 2-2 6, Elijah Turner 1-4 2-2 4, Justin Jones 1-1 0-0 2, Tristan Dickinson 0-1 0-0 0, Ashton Mostella 0-0 0-0 0, Walker Griffith 0-3 0-0 0, Chandler McGinnis 0-4 0-0 0. Totals 18-52 8-11 49.
JACKSONVILLE – Devin Barksdale 6-9 0-0 17, John Broom 5-7 4-4 15, Cam Johnson 4-4 2-2 14, JaLeik Long 5-8 2-4 14, Caden Johnson 5-7 0-0 10, Jacoby Zackery 2-3 2-2 8, Ethan Duke 1-1 4-4 7, Cade Phillips 3-7 1-2 7, Julian Hill 2-4 1-2 6, Kydric Fisher 1-3 3-4 5, JaeTaj Morris 1-1 0-1 2, Hayden Robinson 1-2 0-0 2, Monte Sinclair 1-4 0-0 2, Quin Long 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 37-61 19-25 109.
Ashville 9 9 13 18 – 49
Jacksonville 27 42 25 15 – 109
3-point goals: Ashville 5-20 (Wilson 0-1, Vann 2-7, Carden 3-6, Turner 0-1, Dickinson 0-1, McGinnis 0-4); Jacksonville 16-30 (Barksdale 5-7, Broom 1-2, Cm. Johnson 4-4, J. Long 2-4, Zackery 2-3, Duke 1-1, Phillips 0-1, Hill 1-3, Fisher 0-2, Robinson 0-1, Sinclair 0-2). Rebounds: Ashville 30 (Turner 5); Jacksonville 38 (Cd. Johnson 7, Broom 5). Fouled out: Turner. Total fouls: Ashville 16, Jacksonville 11.
Class 5A Area 11
MOODY 69, ALEXANDRIA 62: The Blue Devils hit five 3-pointers in the first quarter to open a 26-9 lead that swelled to 22 points at halftime and although the Valley Cubs put on a furious comeback in the second half it just proved too big a deficit to overcome.
Davion Dozier hit three of the early 3s and led the Blue Devils with 23 points. Alexandria’s D’Anthony Walton led all scorers with 26 points.
The Valley Cubs will now travel to Area 10 champion Ramsay for its subregion game Tuesday. They played the Rams on Feb. 1, losing on the road 71-45.
Moody 69, Alexandria 62
MOODY – Davion Dozier 8-16 4-8 23, Tyre Brown 4-5 7-13 15, Carson Dillashaw 3-9 2-2 9, Mason Trimm 2-6 4-8 9, Caden Helms 1-5 1-2 4, Morgan Pinkney 2-3 0-0 4, Kolby Seymour 1-3 1-3 3, Adam Davis 0-0 2-2 2, Mason Myers 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 21-47 21-38 69.
ALEXANDRIA – D’Anthony Walton 8-17 8-10 26, Collin Taylor 2-11 6-7 11, Julian Wright 5-8 1-5 11, Javais McGhee 3-7 1-2 7, Evan Snow 2-2 0-0 5, Kory Cargal 0-0 2-7 2, Braxton Tucker 0-2 0-0 0, Damon Parr 0-0 0-2 0, Drake Davis 0-0 0-0 0, Javarious Williams 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 20-47 18-33 62.
Moody 26 14 7 22 – 69
Alexandria 9 9 20 24 – 62
3-point goals: Moody 6-14 (Dozier 3-5, Dillashaw 1-1, Trimm 1-4, Helms 1-3, Seymour 0-1); Alexandria 4-18 (Walton 2-7, Taylor 1-6, McGhee 0-2, Snow 1-1, Tucker 0-2). Rebounds: Moody 33 (Dozier 9, Dillashaw 6); Alexandria 37 (Walton 8, Cargal 8). Fouled out: Trimm, Pinkney, McGhee, Cargal. Total fouls: Moody 24, Alexandria 26. [*** read more]
