January 23, 2022
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
Boys roundup: Alexandria swamps St. Clair County to complete sweep of area schedule; JCA, Piedmont post Saturday wins
SATURDAY BOYS GAMES
Alexandria 73, St. Clair County 42
Jacksonville Christian 89, Coosa Christian 55
Piedmont 70, Cleburne County 55
Cherokee County Tournament
Spring Garden 51, Cherokee County 46
Talladega County Tournament
Sylacauga 65, Lincoln 50
When Collin Taylor was putting together his list of goals for the basketball season ahead going undefeated through the area was somewhere in the middle.
“It’s probably 5,” the Alexandria senior guard said. “We want to make the playoffs and we want to be the best in our area.”
The Valley Cubs crossed that goal off the list Saturday after swamping St. Clair County 73-42 to complete a running of the table in Class 5A Area 11. It made them 6-0 in the area and
“The kids want to do this because they want the home court advantage of getting the area tournament at their place,” Cubs coach Jason Johnson said. “And they wanted to have a good game against St. Clair because that’s more than likely who we’re going to have to play to get in the playoffs.
“That’s the No. 1 thing, to make the playoffs every year. So, it was important we had a good game tonight and show them we’re pretty tough and you’re going to have to play a good game to beat us. It was a good game coming back after a loss.”
The Valley Cubs got contributions for all corners. All nine players scored. Every one who scored a field goal shot at least 50 percent from the field.
D’Anthony Walton led all scorers with 21 points. Taylor hit four 3-pointers and had 16. Javais McGhee filled up the box score with six points, eight rebounds and 11 assists.
Taylor hit a 3 in the first quarter to give the Valley Cubs the lead for good, then hit three in a row to open the third quarter. It was a welcome turnaround after going 0-for-5 from the behind the arc in their Calhoun County Tournament semifinals loss to Jacksonville that snapped their nine-game winning streak and they have three tough road games coming up next week – Anniston, Jacksonville and Talladega.
“I wanted to come out here and shoot better than I have at the beginning of the season,” he said. “I came out here with a chip on my shoulder considering I haven’t been playing that good and I wanted teams to know that I’m here.”
“That’s going to be good for his psyche,” Johnson said. “He hadn’t seen that thing go through from the 3-point line in a little while, so for confidence sake that was good for him.”
McGhee knows a little about spreading the wealth. The way he filled the box score against the Saints was not unlike what he did a lot of teams on the football field last fall – throwing a touchdown pass, catching one and running for another all in the same game.
“That’s what it felt like out there,” he said.
By the way, the football team went undefeated in their region this fall, too.
Alexandria 73, St. Clair County 42
ST. CLAIR COUNTY – Jayce Mickens 3-7 0-0 9, Jakarious Moore 3-5 1-2 7, D.J. Miller 3-7 0-0 7, Garrett Whitehead 2-5 1-2 5, Kaeden Pennington 2-6 0-0 4, Brandon Scruggs 1-3 0-0 3, Jeremiah Hall 1-1 0-0 3, Wendell Hardin 1-2 0-0 2, Miller 1-3 0-0 2, Jordan Stephenson 0-4 0-0 0, Jacoby Blanks 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-43 2-4 42.
ALEXANDRIA (10-2, 6-0) – D’Anthony Walton 8-14 3-4 21, Collin Taylor 5-8 2-2 16, Julian Wright 4-5 1-5 9, Javais McGhee 2-3 2-2 6, Kory Cargal 2-4 2-4 6, Braxton Tucker 3-6 0-0 6, Evan Snow 2-3 0-0 5, Damon Parr 0-2 2-2 2, Javarious Williams 1-2 0-0 2. Totals 27-47 12-19 73.
St. Clair County 12 5 14 11 – 42
Alexandria 20 25 20 8 – 73
3-point goals: St. Clair County 6-20 (Mickens 3-7, Moore 0-1, Miller 1-4, Whitehead 0-1, Pennington 0-1, Scruggs 1-3, Hall 1-1, Stephenson 0-2); Alexandria 7-20 (Walton 2-8, Taylor 4-7, Cargal 0-2, Tucker 0-1, Snow 1-2); Rebounds: St. Clair County 15 (Stephenson 3); Alexandria 32 (McGhee 8, Walton 5). Fouled out: Stephenson. Total fouls: St. Clair County 17, Alexandria 13. Officials: Fletcher, Caldwell, Poss.
PIEDMONT 70, CLEBURNE COUNTY 55: Alex Odam had another big fourth quarter, helping the Bulldogs pull away from a game that was tied after three quarter.
Odam scored 13 of his game-high 27 points in the final eight minutes. He had 22 in the fourth quarter against Anniston in the Calhoun County Tournament.
Dayleon Brown scored 10 of his 17 points in the third quarter to help get the Tigers even before Odam went to work.
Piedmont 70, Cleburne County 55
CLEBURNE COUNTY – Andrew Adams 0 0-0 0, Brody Higgins 0 0-0 0, Grant Harcrow 0 0-0 0, Jackson Miller 2 2-4 8, Jaylan Groce 1 0-0 2, Ron Ervin 0 0-0 0, Dee Prothro 4 0-1 8, Grey Freeman 3 1-2 7, Isaac Marshall 5 0-0 13, Dayleon Brown 7 1-4 17. Totals 22 4-11 55.
PIEDMONT – Alex Odam 11 3-4 27, Omarion Foster 5 1-2 12, Gavin Lawler 1 2-4 5, Cassius Fairs 2 0-2 4, Cole Wilson 1 0-1 3, Ridge Fagan 0 0-0 0, Ish Bethel 2 2-5 7, Jake Rhinehart 0 0-0 0, Chance Murphy 2 2-4 6, Coleman Reid 0 4-6 4, Rhett Alford 0 2-2 2. Totals 24 16-33 70.
Cleburne County 13 14 18 10 – 55
Piedmont 14 19 12 25 – 70
3-point goals: Cleburne County 7 (Miller 2, Marshall 3, Brown 2); Piedmont 6 (Odam 2, Foster, Lawler, Wilson, Bethel). Total fouls: Cleburne County 24, Piedmont 11. Officials: Dyar, Wise, Hinkle.
JCA 89, COOSA CHRISTIAN 55: Cam Moses scored 28 points and Ethan Fair filled the box score with 25 points, seven rebounds, nine assists and five steals to lead the Thunder (9-10, 2-5). Brodie Clay added 13 points and Tyler Doggrell grabbed a team-high nine rebounds. [**read more]
**When you click read more you will be taken to the EA Sports Today website. Please make sure to come back to read more Calhoun County News.
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