On the down low
- Updated: January 30, 2021
Pleasant Valley takes down Weaver to set up interesting week for 3A Area 11 playoff picture, Raiders’ Winningham scores career-high 26
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
JACKSONVILLE – Pleasant Valley boys basketball coach Brad Hood had an easier time figuring out the playoff picture in Class 3A Area 11 when he was coaching on the other side.
The area boys race got slightly less complicated Saturday after Hood’s Raiders took down Weaver 76-65 to start an intense four-day round-robin shootout for area tournament positions. Only slightly less.
It’s all going to come down to the beginning of next week as PV, Weaver and Ohatchee weave their way through their gauntlet of games rescheduled due to their respective COVID quarantines before the Wednesday filing deadline with the state. Weaver plays Ohatchee Monday and Pleasant Valley again Tuesday.
After Saturday’s games – Piedmont beat Ohatchee and PV beat Weaver – here are the scenarios for determining the 2, 3 and 4 seeds in the area tournament. Piedmont has clinched the No. 1 spot by beating everybody.
- If Ohatchee beats Weaver and Pleasant Valley beats Weaver, it’ll be Piedmont, PV, Ohatchee and Weaver.
- If Ohatchee beats Weaver and Weaver beats PV, it’s a three-way tie with the tied teams all 2-4 and splitting among themselves. A double coin toss would determine the seeds.
- If Weaver beats Ohatchee, the Weaver-PV game decides second place with Ohatchee falling to No. 4.
“It was much easier when I was the girls coach,” Hood said.
Why is it so important? In the past, potential showdowns for 2 and 3 were just for determining jersey colors in area tournaments played at sites of the No. 1 seed. This year, because COVID-19 restrictions have changed the playoff format, the higher seeds will host area tournament games, so there’s a home-court component on the line and in some places that could be a huge advantage.
The Raiders and Bearcats played Saturday like there was something on the line.
Weaver was playing for the first time since falling into COVID quarantine the Monday of the Calhoun County Tournament. Coach Beau Winn hadn’t even seen his team during that period until it took the floor for pregame warmups.
The Bearcats looked like a team coming off quarantine early and late, but in between they found a rhythm that got them back in the game.
They opened the game with 10 empty possessions in the first 4:30 and the Raiders capitalized for a 12-0 lead. The Bearcats brought it back to 29-26 by halftime and had it tied at 43 with 1:00 to go in the third quarter. The Raiders then scored the next 10 points into the fourth quarter and the game was never close again.
A 14-4 stretch in the middle of the fourth quarter when the Bearcats were regularly getting beat on the boards made it an 18-point game.
Kohl Perry and Jeffrey Miles played big roles in bringing the Bearcats back. Perry scored all six of his points in the third quarter off his steals and Miles scored 11 of his team-high 18 in the second and third quarters, including the layup that tied the game at 43.
“We dug ourselves a pretty good hole, but that’s because we hadn’t been competing and playing in two weeks and then we really started digging in,” Winn said. “We told them you’re going to be tired, we’ve been off for two weeks and there’s nothing we can do about it, but you’re just going to have to dig deep inside of your heart of hearts. I think they dug as much as they could and they just couldn’t dig anymore and it showed it in the fourth quarter. We just didn’t have our legs.”
The Raiders made their bones down low. Justin Winningham scored the first 10 points of the game from the low block and continued finding success there. He scored a career-high 26 points and had at least half that many rebounds in what he called “my best game ever.” Kolby Battles worked it on the other side for six points.
“We’ve practiced it all week when we had the chance to practice; we’ve put trust in each other,” Winningham said. “(Hood) told us when we’re getting it down low you have to have three T’s – trust, timing and trust. I tell them to shoot the ball most of the time and I’ll go get it and they trust me if they should miss it to go get it.
“We knew we needed to beat them to put us in the right spot, so we realized we had to buckle down and work as a team and not just play individually.”
When they weren’t killing it on the inside, the Raiders nailed it from outside. Oliver Young scored PV’s first seven points of the second half and Zeke Johnson hit four of their eight 3-pointers. The Raiders hit six 3s in the second half. Johnson finished with 14 points and Young had 10.
“We’ve spent every practice for the past week and a half focusing on inside-out,” Hood said. “The difference in the game was Justin being physical inside and us getting him the ball inside. We did it against Hokes Bluff and were up 24-6 in the first quarter, and then we went back to our 1-on-5 or 1-on-3 forcing shot game. You didn’t see a whole lot of that tonight, did you?”
Pleasant Valley 76, Weaver 65
WEAVER – Brendyn Knight 5 3-4 14, Kyle Knight 3 6-10 14, Jackson Williams 0 0-0 0, Kohl Perry 3 0-0 6, Dawson Brooks 4 0-0 9, Jeffrey Miles 8 2-3 18, Tristan Brown 0 4-4 4, Elijah Smith 0 0-0 0. Totals 23 15-21 65.
PLEASANT VALLEY – Michael Glass 1 0-0 2, Garrett Cranmer 4 1-1 10, Jacob Teal 0 0-1 0, Josh Ballew 1 0-0 2, Oliver Young 4 0-0 10, Kolby Battles 3 0-2 6, Zeke Johnson 5 0-0 14, Sam Palmer 1 1-2 4, Pelham Parris 1 0-0 2, Justin Winningham 12 2-4 26, Nik Baggett 0 0-0 0. Totals 32 4-10 76.
Weaver 9 17 17 22 – 65
Pleasant Valley 18 11 19 28 – 76
3-point goals: Weaver 4 (B. Knight, K. Knight 2, Brooks); Pleasant Valley 8 (Cranmer, Young 2, Johnson 4, Palmer). Total fouls: Weaver 11, Pleasant Valley 14. Officials: Howell, Wilson, Elsworth.
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