E.A. Sports Today

Dodd does it all

Alexandria senior scores 39 points, grabs 21 rebounds and makes game-defining plays on both ends of floor in final 10 seconds to secure Valley Cubs’ title

By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today

GLENCOE – Dalton Dodd remembers how badly it felt walking out of the gym last year after his Alexandria basketball team lost in the Glencoe Holiday Shootout championship game to a Boaz team that seemingly couldn’t miss from 3-point range.

He didn’t want to feel that way again and was determined to do all he could to ensure it wouldn’t happen again.

Literally, he did everything as the Valley Cubs edged Fort Payne 84-83 to win this year’s championship.

The UAH signee scored 39 points, grabbed 21 rebounds, scored the go-ahead layup with eight seconds left that turned into the game-winning basket and made the steal at midcourt that killed the Wildcats’ last-second chance to send the Valley Cubs home with that rainy-day feeling again.

“I knew Fort Payne was a really good team, so I knew I would have to come out and play hard, and I was just hitting shots all game,” Dodd said. “Today was just a special day because last year we came in here and got beat by Boaz in the championship game, so just coming in today I wanted to win it really bad, so we just played hard the whole game.”

Dodd had his double-double by halftime — 17 points, 14 rebounds – but the Cubs were still down five at the break.

He was far from done. He was 6 for 7 from the field in the second half, including three not-so-easy 3-pointers. Two of the treys came in 16-0 run in the third quarter that brought the Cubs from 10 down to ahead by six and kept the game tight the rest of the night.

From the end of that run the game was tied four times and had eight lead changes.

“It was an intense game the whole game,” Dodd said. “We hadn’t played a team like that. As soon as they get the ball they run it down the floor hard every possession and I was wore out.”

There were plenty of big-play heroics to go around, mostly in the form of big shots down the stretch. Jake Weathington hit a couple big 3s for the Valley Cubs (11-3). Landan Williams made three baskets from in close in the fourth quarter, none bigger than the one that got the Cubs within one inside of a minute to play.

“I knew it was going to take some really good performances by a number of players for us because of the number of good players they have who can score,” Cubs coach Jason Johnson said.

The Wildcats (12-5) lost a big one of those with three minutes to go when Nathan Waites fouled out. Waites hit seven 3-pointers, all of them at emotional points in the game.

Actually both of the Cubs’ big plays down the stretch were the result of a change in plans. The inbounds play that produced Dodd’s go-ahead basket was slightly different than what the Cubs normally run in that situation and the deflection and steal at the end was the result of a defensive switch suggested by Dru Davis during the timeout to set the end-game scenario.

The Cubs were down 83-82 with 11.3 seconds to go and had the ball on the far sideline. Everybody in the gym knew the play was going to go through Dodd. Adam Young’s inbounds pass led the 6-foot-7 senior toward the basket and it produced an easy driving layup.

The Wildcats put the ball in play from the baseline. The Cubs normally would play a man defense in that situation, but their recent history hasn’t been good and Davis suggested trying the zone press they talked about in practice earlier in the week.

All it did was cause Fort Payne’s Keyshawn Hightower to try throwing the ball over Dodd with two seconds left. Dodd deflected it at midcourt and then collected it to run out the clock.

“We’ve been beaten at the buzzer quite a few times,” Cubs coach Jason Johnson said. “We didn’t want that to happen again, so we tried a different defense and we got a steal out of it.

“As this team gets more mature, we don’t mind as a coaching staff getting suggestions from them. One of our kids said you said we were going to try it so we switched and got the turnover.”

And the Valley Cubs got the win.

Oneonta 53, Ohatchee 41: The Indians gave the top-ranked team in Class 4A all it could handle for two and a half quarters. They held the Redskins to two points in the first quarter on 1-of-17 shooting, were up two at halftime and down by only two with 3:20 left in the third quarter.

But in the end, the Redskins had something for which the Indians couldn’t answer: A player who could go and get the easy ones. Jaden Kent finally got untracked and wound up scoring 19 points. And while they weren’t all Kent’s, the Redskins did have 16 offensive rebounds in the game.

Ohatchee cut its deficit to five with less than five minutes left, but then the Redskins went on a 13-0 run to take the upper hand.

In the other two boys games Saturday, host Glencoe beat Ragland 63-45 and Cedar Bluff beat Sardis, 66-54.

Tournament of Champions Classic, Atlanta
Langston Hughes 94, Sacred Heart 73:
Virginia Tech signee Landers Nolley had a day against Sacred Heart that would fill a box score, but the Cardinals had some impressive performances, too.

Nolley scored 46 points with seven 3-pointers, grabbed nine rebounds and had six assists. He was 18-of-28 from the floor, 7-of-11 from 3-point range. The Panthers shot 61.5 percent from the field as a team.

Sacred Heart, meanwhile, got a double-double from Murdock Simmons (19 points, 13 rebounds), 21 points from Alabama signee Diante Wood, and 17 points and seven assists from Quin Riggins.

SATURDAY’s BOYS BOX SCORES

Glencoe Holiday Shootout
Championship Game
Alexandria 84, Fort Payne 83
ALEXANDRIA (11-3) –
Joe Tucker 4 0-3 8, Adam Young 1 0-0 2, Jake Weathington 5 4-6 15, Dru Davis 0 0-0 0, Grayson Chaffin 0 0-0 0, Dalton Dodd 11 14-16 39, Romeo Dye 1 1-2 3, Jared Ponder 0 1-2 1, Jalen Borders 0 2-2 2, Landan Williams 5 4-4 14. Totals 27 26-25 84.

FORT PAYNE (12-5) – Keon Walker 5 3-4 14, Brevin George 0 0-0 0, Kevin Hightower 3 0-0 6, Juoshua Bourne 0 0-0 0, Patrick Goggans 0 0-0 0, AJ Bynum 3 1-2 8, Ty Brooks 4 2-2 12, Nathan Waites 7 0-0 21, Keyshawn Hightower 6 7-10 19, Colton Wells 1 0-2 3. Totals 29 13-20 83.

Alexandria 16 19 22 26 — 84
Fort Payne 20 20 18 25 — 83

3-point goals: Alexandria 4 (Weathington, Dodd 3); Fort Payne 12 (Walker, Bynum, Brooks 2, Waites 7, Wells). Technical fouls: Weathington, Brooks. Fouled out: Davis, Bynum, Brooks, Waites. Total fouls: Alexandria 16, Fort Payne 30. Officials: Douthitt, Woods, Phillips.

Oneonta 53, Ohatchee 41
ONEONTA (17-1) –
Brody Moore 5 2-2 13, Devin Pendleton 1 0-0 2, Jalen Johnson 0 0-0 0, Jaden Kent 7 5-9 19, Deondre Elliott 0 2-6 2, Daniel McCary 1 3-4 6, A.J. Elrod 0 0-0 0, A.C. Rockett 0 0-0 0, Brandon Howard 0 0-0 0, Jacob Green 1 0-0 3, Eric Moore 1 3-6 6, Landon Bothwell 1 0-0 2. Totals 17 15-27 53.

OHATCHEE – Blake Buckelew 1 3-3 5, Ben Glass 4 6-10 15, Carson Stone 0 0-0 0, Grayson Alward 1 0-2 2, Kevin Williamson 0 0-0 0, Bayley Tillison 1 0-0 3, Evan Keller 2 5-7 11, Domonique Thomas 2 0-2 5, Aaron Moore 0 0-0 0. Totals 11 14-24 41.

Oneonta 2 17 14 20 — 53
Ohatchee 7 11 8 15 — 41

3-point goals: Oneonta 4 (B. Moore, McCary, Green, E. Moore); Ohatchee 5 (Glass, Tillison, Keller 2, Thomas). Total fouls: Oneonta 21, Ohatchee 20. Officials: Smith, Caldwell, Oden.

Tournament of Champions Classic
Langston Hughes 94, Sacred Heart 73
LANGSTON HUGHES –
Tyrel Morgan 7-9 0-3 14, Patrick Carter 5-6 0-0 12, Tyler Smith 3-10 2-2 8, Landers Nolley 18-28 3-6 46, Josh Butts 4-6 0-0 8, Papa Samba 2-4 0-0 4, Chris Todd 1-1 0-0 2, Armani Bolston 0-1 0-0 0, Ahmaude Jones 0-0 0-0 0, Christian Matthews 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 40-65 5-11 94.

SACRED HEART – Quin Riggins 5-14 2-2 17, Diante Wood 8-16 2-2 21, Victor Wilson 1-4 0-0 3, Murdock Simmons 8-20 0-0 19, Khalil Watkins 2-7 0-0 6, Jack Miller 0-0 0-0 0, Caleb Brown 3-5 0-0 7, Stephen Stansil 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 27-69 4-4 73.

Langston Hughes 27 19 20 28 — 94
Sacred Heart 12 16 24 21 — 73

3-point goals: Langston Hughes 9-14 (Morgan 0-1, Carter 2-2, Nolley 7-11); Sacred Heart 15-36 (Riggins 5-9, Wood 3-9, Wilson 1-4, Simmons 3-5, Watkins 2-5, Brown 1-3, Stansil 0-1). Rebounds: Langston Hughes 43 (Smith 10, Nolley 9); Sacred Heart 25 (Simmons 13). Asssts: Langston Hughes 22 (Smith 7, Nolley 6); Sacred Heart 14 (Riggins 7). Total fouls: Langston Hughes 6, Sacred Heart 15.

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