Calhoun County, AL – Tuesday boys: Davis beats buzzer to lift Cubs over No. 2 UMS-Wright; Caden Johnson passes 1,000 in J’ville’s win over Cleburne County, Smith’s shot saves Saks, and more
TUESDAY BOYS GAMES
Alexandria 58, UMS Wright 57
Jacksonville 84, Cleburne County 47
Saks 55, Munford 53
Westminster Christian 68, Anniston 33
White Plains 80, Faith Christian 57
Cherokee County Invitational
Spring Garden 69, Gaylesville 38
Handley 65, Talladega Co. Central 31
Sand Rock 67, Cedar Bluff 40
Cherokee County 60, Bremen (Ga.) 30
Gaston Christmas Tournament
Piedmont 74, Southeastern 42
Gaston 38, Donoho 24
Ragland Christmas Classic
Championship: Westbrook Christian 48, B.B. Comer 44
Valley Head Invitational
Valley Head 77, Pleasant Valley 68
By Al Muskewitz
Everybody has a role on a basketball team and first-year Alexandria coach Will Ginn would like to think his Valley Cubs are starting to figure out theirs.
On Tuesday afternoon, Drake Davis’ role was to shoot it at the buzzer and when his shot found the bottom of the net it brought the Valley Cubs a victory.
In what will go down as the first Will Ginn signature win, Davis’ 3-pointer with one second left lifted the Cubs over No. 2 4A UMS-Wright 58-57 in the Chelsea Christmas tournament.
“I think that’s the biggest shot I’ve hit so far,” Davis said. “I hadn’t hit a game-winner. I’ve hit a few buzzer-beaters at the end of a half or the end of a quarter, but that’s probably the biggest one I’ve had.”
Davis had the hot hand early in the Cubs’ win over Saks Monday night, hitting four 3-pointers in the first quarter. The junior guard didn’t start as hot Tuesday, but kept the shooter’s mentality and was hot at the end when it counted most. He hit three of his last six from behind the arc and two in the fourth quarter.
The Cubs fell behind early and played catch up most of the game. They shaved the deficit to single digits in the third quarter and got within two with less than a minute to play. They went into a trap hoping to buy some time before having to foul, but the trap created a turnover, giving them a chance to win at the end.
Instead of calling time, Ginn let it play out. Drake popped open, the Cubs found him and he hit his game-winner from just to the right of top of the arc right before the horn sounded.
“We tried to run a play to get a quick layup to tie the game up, but it kind of broke up,” Davis said. “They were kind of face-guarding me and I had just got the ball. He gave me some space, so I just shot it with a few seconds left so we had time to get a rebound if we needed it and tie it up, but it went in. I went pretty crazy, but I made sure the time ran out first so coach didn’t yell at me.
“That’s exactly what you think about when you’re little in the driveway. That’s what I was telling my mom in the far, that’s exactly what it felt like, counting down, you shoot it and it goes in. It feels great when you’re actually in a game, but you can’t really think about it too much, though. If you think about it too much you’re going to miss.”
He didn’t miss this time.
Davis finished with game-high 18 points. Kory Cargal had 12. Bridges Simmons and Arthur Chitty had 13 apiece for the Bulldogs.
“Drake’s a good shooter,” Ginn said. “What I told the guys is everybody has a role, everybody doesn’t have to do all the scoring or do all the shooting. Their ain’t but one basketball out there and everybody kind of needs to know their role for everything to work cohesively and I think we’re kind of figuring that out a little better.”
It was the biggest win in Ginn’s nine-game tenure as the Valley Cubs’ coach, but he doesn’t want it to be the defining win. They have an even bigger game in the grand scheme of things Thursday when they play Southside in an area game.
“This is a good win for us,” he said. “I hope gives us confidence. We’re a young team, we need a little bit of confidence.
“They’re a real quality team and it’s a good win for us, but this is not the state championship. It’s a good win, good job, probably the most complete game we played, but at the end of the day if we turn around and were to lose Thursday this win doesn’t mean much.”
ALEXANDRIA 58, UMS-WRIGHT 57
ALEXANDRIA (6-3) – Drake Davis 6 1-2 18, Evan Snow 0 0-0 0, Antonio Ross 4 0-2 8, T.K. Downie 4 1-3 9, Jaylen Henderson 1 0-0 2, Kory Cargal 4 4-4 12, Cleat Forrest 2 1-2 6, Caleb Folsom 0 3-4 3. Totals 21 10-17 58.
UMS-WRIGHT – Bridges Simmons 5 2-2 13, Joe Lott 2 0-0 4, Christopher Jones 0 1-2 1, Ben Cameron 0 0-0 0, Hayden Nagy 0 0-0 0, Arthur Chitty 5 3-3 13, Jack Blackerby 0 0-0 0, Finlay Lavelle 3 0-0 6, Thomas Druhan 4 0-0 8, Jack Church 0 0-0 0, Bo Wills 3 4-4 12. Totals 22 10-11 57.
Alexandria 18 10 17 13 – 58
UMS-Wright 24 14 15 4 – 57
3-point goals: Alexandria 6 (Drake 5, Forrest); UMS-Wright 3 (Simmons, Wills 2). Total fouls: Alexandria 14, UMS-Wright 16. Officials: Clark, Pearson, Gray.
Gaston Tournament
PIEDMONT 74, SOUTHEASTERN 42: Alex Odam scored 27 points, Rollie Pinto scored 18 and neither played in the fourth quarter after Pinto hit two technical free throws early in the quarter as the Bulldogs won their opener in the Gaston Christmas Tournament. They’ll play the Gaston Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.
PIEDMONT – Alex Odam 12 2-2 27, Rollie Pinto 7 2-3 18, Ish Bethel 2 0-0 4, Colten Proctor 2 1-2 6, Luke Rhinehart 1 0-0 2, Jake Rhinehart 0 0-0 0, Trevor Pike 0 0-0 0, Chance Murphy 2 0-0 5, Rhett Alford 1 0-0 2, Cole Wilson 2 0-2 6, Dontavious Jordan 2 0-0 4. Totals 31 5-9 74.
SOUTHEASTERN – Benjamin Hall 0 0-0 0, Kannon Hudson 0 0-1 0, Rhoaden Harris 1 0-0 3, Victor Loyola 0 0-0 0, Wyatt Reid 0 0-0 0, Jackson McMillian 3 2-4 9, Rafael Nino 1 0-0 3, Jarrod Williams 4 0-0 9, Steven Wright 6 0-1 12, Jericho Pendleton 1 2-2 4, Jackson Owens 0 2-2 2, Jake Hill 0 0-0 0, Landon Davis 0 0-0 0, Adam Kenyon 0 0-0 0. Totals 16 6-10 42.
Piedmont 17 27 28 2 – 74
Southeastern 14 11 11 6 – 42
3-point goals: Piedmont 7 (Odam, Pinto 2, Proctor, Murphy, Wilson 2); Southeastern 4 (Harris, McMillian, Nino, Williams). Technical fouls: Southeastern (admin). Fouled out: Pike. Total fouls: Piedmont 18, Southeastern 5.
GASTON 38, DONOHO 24: Points were hard to come by for the anxious Falcons. Host Gaston took the lead in the second quarter and pulled away by outscoring the Falcons 7-1 in the fourth.
DONOHO – Jordan Cameron 5 0-1 11, Jack Wallace 0 0-0 0, Isaiah Smith 0 0-0 0, Rich Goad 1 2-6 3, Drew Williamson 3 0-0 6, Sean Keel 0 0-0 0, Cash Worley 0 1-2 1, Hayes Farrell 1 0-0 2, Bruce Downey 0 0-0 0. Totals 10 3-9 24.
GASTON – Brock Bagley 3 0-2 8, Devon Green 7 1-3 15, Adonis Jones 0 0-0 0, Mica Merriman 2 5-5 10, Will Bagley 1 0-0 2, Jakodie Bogle 2 0-0 4. Totals 15 6-10 38.
Donoho 10 3 10 1 – 24
Gaston 6 12 13 7 – 38
3-point goals: Donoho 1 (Cameron); Gaston 2 (Bagley 2). Technical fouls: Bruce. Total fouls: Donoho 16, Gaston 10.
Regular season
JACKSONVILLE 84, CLEBURNE COUNTY 47: Caden Johnson surpassed the 1,000-point plateau and the Golden Eagles enjoyed an offensive explosion in the first half on the way to their eighth straight win.
Johnson needed 11 points entering the game to reach the milestone and met the mark on an offensive rebound and putback with 3:45 left in the second quarter. He finished with 18 points, but was clipped by twin brother Cam for game scoring honors (19). He also had five rebounds, five assists and four steals.
“Caden is such a special player,” Jacksonville coach Tres Buzan said. “We’re privileged to have a really good group and so he doesn’t always get the highlight or his name is not always the first to come out, but he is so vital to what we do.
“He is a great player, a great teammate, he makes us go. When some of the other guys aren’t having good nights, it’ll be his turn. He regularly is one of the best for us day in and day out. We count on him to do a lot of things. We’re so proud of him for reaching 1,000. We knew he was getting it close and it’s great to see a great player and a great guy like that achieve a big milestone.”
John Broom had 17 points and seven rebounds, and Jaleik Long had 14 points behind four 3-pointers. The four double-figure scorers combined to shoot 28-for-41 from the field, 8-of-16 from 3-point range.
With so many clicking on all cylinders, the Golden Eagles scored 71 points in the first half, 40 in the second quarter.
“It wasn’t anything special,” Buzan said. “We were playing our style, we were playing fast, we were getting up and down and we were shooting the ball well. I thought the guys did a really good job in the first half of sharing the ball and it’s like we kept finding the right guy and finishing with the big shot or at the rim with a free throw. There was no one thing we did. It was just good team play. If we broke down the 71, you would see 2, 3, 4, 5 guys making big contributions.”
They stopped pressing in the second half and turned the game over to their bench.
CLEBURNE COUNTY – Jacob Cavender 4-8 2-2 14, Nathan Adams 5-6 0-0 10, Jake Littleton 3-5 0-0 7, Rico Huguley 3-7 0-2 6, Jackson Miller 2-8 0-0 5, Dawson Hayes 1-6 1-2 3, Silas Altman 1-1 0-0 2, Greyson Freeman 0-6 0-2 0, James Cotton 0-0 0-0 0, Hunter Gore 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 19-49 3-8 47.
JACKSONVILLE (9-3) – Cam Johnson 7-10 3-3 19, Cade Johnson 8-10 0-0 18, John Broom 8-14 1-2 17, Jaleik Long 5-7 0-0 14, Devin Barksdale 3-8 0-0 8, Ethan Duke 1-4 1-2 3, Kydric Fisher 1-2 0-0 3, DaMonte Sinclair 1-2 0-0 2, Jaquan Ervin 0-1 0-0 0, Dee Prothro 0-1 0-2 0, Imoree Young 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 34-61 5-9 84.
Cleburne County 11 7 15 14 – 47
Jacksonville 31 40 10 3 – 84
3-point goals: Cleburne County 6-19 (Cavender 4-7, Littleton 1-2, Miller 1-3, Hayes 0-4, Freeman 0-1, Gore 0-2); Jacksonville 11-29 (Cm. Johnson 2-4, Cd. Johnson 2-2, Broom 0-4, Long 4-6, Barksdale 2-7, Duke 0-1, Fisher 1-2, Sinclair 0-1, Ervin 0-1, Young 0-1). Rebounds: Cleburne County 26 (Freeman 6, Cotton 6); Jacksonville 38 (Duke 9, Broom 7). Total fouls: Cleburne County 8, Jacksonville 7.
WHITE PLAINS 80, FAITH CHRISTIAN 57: The Wildcats used a balanced scoring attack and a 29-point third quarter to offset Faith’s two big scoring threats
White Plains put four scorers in double figures, led by Paul Laube’s 16. Z.J. Rosario and Josh Wheeler had 14 apiece and Luke Bussey had 11. It countered the combined 43 points from Faith’s Thomas Curlee (25) and Yoshi Arevalo.
Both teams came out firing in the first quarter, but the Wildcats pulled away from being down one at the half with its big third quarter.
“Paul was great off the bench, so efficient,” White Plains coach Chris Randall said. “Luke Bussey ignited the run in the second half with his passing and ball pressure on defense.”
FAITH CHRISTIAN (10-3) – Thomas Curlee 10-21 1-1 25, Yoshua Arevalo 5-12 5-7 18, Eli Robinson 4-6 0-0 8, Conner Richerzhagen 1-4 0-0 3, Tyler Bell 1-3 0-0 3, Carson Harris 0 0-0 0, Carson Limbaugh 0 0-0 0, Will Smith 0 0-0 0. Totals 21-46 6-8 57.
WHITE PLAINS – Dylan Barksdale 1 0-2 2, Paul Laube 7 0-0 16, Z.J. Rosario 7 0-0 14, Silas Hines 3 1-2, Josh Wheeler 5 1-2 14, Coleman Ray 3 0-0 7, Cam Almon 1 0-0 2, Daniel Williams 2 0-0 5, Luke Bussey 5 0-0 11. Totals 34-49 2-6 80.
Faith Christian 22 12 11 12 – 57
White Plains 18 15 29 18 – 80
3-point goals: Faith 9-15 (Curlee 4-5, Arevalo 3-6, Robinson 0-1, Richerzhagen 1-2, Bell 1-1); White Plains 10-18 (Laube 2, Rosario, Hines, Wheeler 3, Ray, Williams, Bussey). Total fouls: Faith 12, White Plains 15. Officials: Burroughs, Hyde, Nelms.
SAKS 55, MUNFORD 53: Christian Smith hit a shot in the lane as time was running out to lift the Wildcats to their victory.
The Wildcats got the ball with less than 30 seconds left after Munford tied the game with a free throw. They got the ball across midcourt, ran a little more time off the clock and then called time with 11 seconds left to set up their final play.
“We basically set up a play to Christian and the kids executed the play flawlessly – that was the thing I was excited to see,” Saks coach Jonathan Miller said. “It was kind of designed for him to take the shot. He did a good job of not getting in a hurry, not getting panicked. He took his time and got to his spot and made the shot. That’s what I was excited to see.”
White finished with six points. Teammate Dee Elston led all scorers with 18. Keondre Johnson had 11.
Javion White led Munford with 15 points. Lathan Stephens had 13 and Sylvester Smith, celebrating his signing with Auburn football, had 11.
SAKS – Jakari Streeter 3 0-2 6, Dee Elston 7 1-4 18, Christian Smith 3 0-1 6, Anthony Bothwell 1 3-7 5, Tae Elston 0 0-0 0, Joshua Todd 0 0-0 0, Keondre Johnson 5 1-1 11, Christian Hall 3 1-2 9. Totals 22 6-17 55.
MUNFORD – Demetrius Norwood 3 2-2 8, Sylvester Smith 4 3-7 11, Keyshawn Castleberry 0 0-0 0, Alex Petty 0 2-2 2, Lathan Stephens 4 5-5 13, B.J. Anderson 1 0-2 2, Austin Wynn 0 2-4 2, Kelby Tucker 0 0-1 0, Javion White 7 1-2 15. Totals 19 15-25 53.
Saks 17 9 16 13 – 55
Munford 6 17 16 14 – 53
3-point goals: Saks 5 (D. Elston 3, Hall 2); Total fouls: Saks 20, Munford 17. Officials: Caldwell, Smith, Ware.
