Jacksonville, AL – Piedmont overcomes cold stretch, rallies in second half to outlast Geraldine in 3A Northeast Regionals; Plainview uses two big runs to turn back Glencoe in other semifinal
By Al Muskewitz
Rollie Pinto saw the ball bouncing in his direction and a big smile crossed his face. All he could think of was scooping it up and he had to score. He got step one, finished with step two and it only became the biggest play of the game. The freshman guard’s scoop and score with 65 seconds left gave Piedmont a three-point lead in a highly charged regional semifinal and was the emotional dagger that carried the Bulldogs to a 65-59 victory over Geraldine in the Class 3A Northeast Regionals at Jacksonville State. “I was just so happy when it came out,” Pinto said. “As soon as he fell I was like, ‘Oh, I’ve got to get that.’ When it hit the ground I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I have a chance to lay up it up. As I was going to put it up, I was like, ‘This is real big,’ I was real excited. “That got me back to where I was playing in the middle of year, like real confident. It just got me where I needed to be going into the next game: real confident, just excited about playing another one.” And that other one will be Thursday in the 10:45 a.m. regional finals against Plainview. It’ll be the third time in the last six years – and first since 2019 – the teams have met with a trip to the Final Four on the line. They played a memorable five-overtime game in the semifinals in 2016.
Pinto’s pivotal play might not have happened if something bad didn’t happen to the Bulldogs the play before. Chance Murphy gave Piedmont (25-5) its first lead since late in the first quarter 60-59 on a pair of free throws with 2:16 to play and the Bulldogs got the ball back after Geraldine missed a 3. They were milking the clock down when Alex Odam dribbled the ball off his foot out of bounds. Geraldine (20-13), also the Bulldogs, set up a typical inbounds play along press row near midcourt, but Cooper Johnson slipped before he could get to Jaxon Colvin’s pass. Pinto picked it up mid-stride and easily laid it in to make it 62-59. “Once we got behind you have to do things that you normally don’t do,” Geraldine coach Jeremy Smith said. “It was just one of those things he just slipped there and fell. They really weren’t putting any pressure on us so to speak. It was a close game, obviously, they weren’t going to foul right there. He just slipped, wound up with a turnover and they got a bucket out of it. It’s pretty much over at that point.” “I don’t think it’s Cooper’s fault,” Colvin said. “I think if we played better defense, got rebounds, that wouldn’t have led to that.”
Piedmont coach JoJo Odam didn’t necessarily feel the game was in the bag after that play the way Geraldine shoots the ball, but things certainly were looking that way – especially with what happened next. The Bulldogs guarded the arc to make any 3-point shot difficult and as Geraldine worked to get one Connor Johnson stepped on the sideline with 20.2 seconds left. Pinto got fouled immediately and hit two free throws to make it a five-point game with 17.2 seconds left and the coach could finally exhale. Geraldine missed a pair of 3s at the other end of the floor, Murphy rebounded the second miss and was fouled. He hit the second of his two free throws with 4.1 seconds left to put it out of reach.
Murphy was big off the bench, especially in the second half. He scored all 10 of his points, hitting 6-of-9 free throws, and grabbed 10 of his 13 rebounds in the final two quarters. “I’d say that he may be (the big difference) in the second half,” JoJo Odam said. “Defensively and rebounding he just controlled the boards. He’s an energy guy anyway, he’s going to give you 100 percent effort all the time, but his effort on the defensive end and rebounding. “And he hit free throws. I don’t know if he’s one of our better free throw shooters, but he was today. I don’t know what he was from the line, but he made the ones that we needed.” Piedmont looked in trouble early. Geraldine held the Bulldogs scoreless for more than six minutes between the first and second quarters, while running off a 13-0 speed that turned a 14-12 deficit into a 25-14 lead. Piedmont went 0-for-11 from the field in the run, missing several open looks. “I thought our game plan was great,” Smith said. “We were trying to limit 1 (Alex Odam) and how many touches he got and we were going to make somebody else beat us. And we gave them one shot and that was one. And we were able to score a little bit there, too, and it always makes you look better … when you’re scoring on one end, you’re defense looks better on the other end.” [read more…]
