Ohatchee, AL – Ohatchee girls win third straight area tournament title, Crook reaches another scoring milestone
CLASS 3A AREA 12 GIRLS
Championship game
Ohatchee 71, Glencoe 56
By Al Muskewitz
Jorda Crook is running out of room in her closet to put all the basketballs she’s collected over her stellar high school career and, quite frankly, Ohatchee coach Bryant Ginn is running out of balls to give her. Crook became the 18th player in Alabama girls basketball history to score 3,000 career points when she went for 47 Wednesday to lead the Lady Indians over Glencoe 71-56 for the Class 3A Area 12 girls tournament title, their third straight area crown.
As Class 3A Area 12 champions, the Lady Indians will host the loser of Thursday’s Piedmont-Saks game in Monday’s subregion round. Glencoe will travel to the Piedmont-Saks winner. “It’s crazy,” Crook said of the milestone. “I think it’s crazy that not a lot of people have done it and I accomplished that. I talk to my dad every day about hitting it. One of my goals was to hit 2,500 and now I’ve surpassed it and hit 3,000. “I think it’s great that not only did we win I hit that. I’m just going to carry this energy into the subregional game and hopefully we’ll go to state.”
Crook needed 39 points to join the elite scoring club and she reached it on a pair of free throws with 6:20 left in the fourth quarter. And she still wasn’t done, adding eight more points before retiring for the night with 1:10 to play. The UAB volleyball signee now has 3,008 points for her basketball career, and Ginn pointed out there were several games during the COVID year the Lady Indians didn’t play that would have added to that total. Next on the state’s all-time girls scoring list is Lisa Baswell Bates at 3,050. School officials presented Crook with a commemorative ball recognizing the feat after the game and before distributing the awards. She was the tournament MVP. Both Crook and Ginn both were glad they didn’t stop the game to recognize the milestone.
“I’ve just never been about that part of it,” Ginn said. “I kind of watched LeBron (James setting the NBA all-time scoring record) last night and (the Lakers) get beat and they needed that game. I don’t think she would want it that way and I’ve just never been. It’s about the team at the end of the day and then we’ll celebrate individual accomplishments.” This latest basketball now goes alongside balls for her 1,000th, 1,500th, 2,000th and 2,500th points. She got the 2,000, 2,500 and 3,000 balls this season as she’s scored more than 1,105 this year, fifth on the single-season scoring list. The girls single-season record is 1,261 by all-time leading scorer Courtney Strain Screws in 2007-08. “I told her I’m running out of basketballs, you’re going to have to slow down,” Ginn said as he watched the players cut down the net. “I don’t mind giving them to her. I’ll start buying them out of my pocket if that’s what it takes.” [read more…]
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM: Jorda Crook, Ohatchee (MVP); Kayla Traylor, Hokes Bluff; Bella Millirons, Westbrook Christian; Kinlee Gray, Glencoe; Jaxson Sizemore, Glencoe; Kiana Garber, Ohatchee; Alyssa Davis, Ohatchee; Whitney McFry, Ohatchee.
