Jacksonville, AL – Defending champion Golden Eagles going back to Class 4A Final Four after beating Etowah in Northeast Regional finals; Broom named MVP
By Al Muskewitz
The ‘Ville is going back to the ‘ham looking to bring back another ‘ship. Jacksonville earned a return trip to the Class 4A Final Four, where it won the school’s first boys basketball state title a year ago, with a resounding 71-52 victory over Etowah in the Northeast Regional final Wednesday at Jacksonville State. The Golden Eagles (27-6) will play either Hale County or Bibb County in the state semifinals 7:30 p.m. Tuesday in Birmingham’s BJCC Legacy Arena, keeping alive a projected championship matchup with Westminster Christian. “I think in our first team meeting we said our goal was to get back to Birmingham and that’s what we’ve done today,” said Jacksonville coach Tres Buzan, who was Jacksonville’s girls varsity coach last year when the boys won it all. “Now the goal is to keep going.” “I’m happy we made it this far again, this is something we really wanted, but we’re not finished yet,” senior Caden Johnson said.
“We’ve still got two more games to lock in as a team, play as a team, and try to pull it off again,” regional MVP John Broom added.
It admittedly wasn’t the prettiest game they’ve played this year, but the Golden Eagles did lead wire-to-wire. The Blue Devils (22-8) had a chance to tie it at 26 midway through the second quarter, but Cam Johnson blocked Davonte Shannon’s short jumper and John Broom finished it off at the other end with another alley-oop dunk from Caden Johnson, Caden scored on the next possession and Jacksonville eventually pulled back ahead by 10. Broom and Caden hooked up at least twice in the first half on the oop, both times with Caden tossing it up on the left side of the line and Broom flying down the right side to finish it off. The Golden Eagles outscored Etowah 18-2 on fast-break points “Me and Caden, we do that a lot,” Broom said. “We were actually talking about that on the way before we got here. I missed the first one, but I knew we were going to back and we were going to get it right.” “Just knowing me and John down the court on the transition, why not throw the alley-oop to him?” Caden said. “I feel like he’s going to catch it.”
Every time Etowah threatened, the Golden Eagles turned it back. The Blue Devils got it back within 3 three times in the third quarter, but the last time Broom hit a 3, put back his miss for another bucket and Caden Johnson scored again and it was back to a 10-point game again at quarter’s end. The Golden Eagles were finally back to playing their way and quickly pushed the lead to 20 before too long into the fourth quarter. “I was talking to my assistant coach on the bench and said if we could ever get this lead and put a little pressure on them … it might have been a different ball game because they’re not used to playing from behind,” Etowah coach James Graves said. “If we could’ve ever scratched away and got the lead, and we were right there … we just couldn’t put baskets together consistently. “We gave ourselves a chance and I appreciate those kids for doing that because nobody gave us a chance but us.”
Broom and Johnson both had 19 points to lead the Golden Eagles. Devin Barksdale had 12 and Cam Johnson had 12. When Jacksonville needed points early in the third quarter, it turned to Ethan Duke inside and the Golden Eagles’ other starter delivered six of his nine points to keep Etowah at arm’s length. “Four of our five starters get a ton of the limelight,” Buzan said. “Ethan is the guy behind the scenes doing all the stuff nobody wants to do. The guy works hard, he does all the dirty work. We couldn’t do what we do without him. He’s like an offensive lineman in football. He knows he’s not going to be glorified that much, but he’s perfectly happy playing his role and doing it at a high level.” [read more…]
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM: Josh Wheeler, White Plains; Brayden Harris, Hanceville; Josh Graham, Etowah; Jalein Walker, Etowah; Caden Johnson, Jacksonville; John Broom (MVP), Jacksonville
