They came to play
- Updated: January 5, 2023
Thursday boys: Weaver responds to team meeting with a fast start and sends message to Saks for big matchups on the horizon; Piedmont’s Pinto goes for career high, Alexandria’s Davis has big game, and more
THURSDAY GAMES
Alexandria 76, Moody 72
Cedar Bluff 52, Pleasant Valley 33
Donoho 59, ASD 27
Faith Christian 78, Jacksonville Christian 60
Handley 71, Callaway (Ga.) 61
Pell City 53, White Plains 48
Piedmont 79, Wellborn 25
Ragland 76, Jefferson Christian 73
Weaver 55, Saks 43
Cleburne County at Cherokee County
Horseshoe Bend at Randolph County
Ohatchee at Hokes Bluff
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
WEAVER – Whether it was to set the table for the area tournament matchup they’re projected to play, their first-round matchup in the Calhoun County Tournament or a response to something else entirely, the Weaver boys made a statement Thursday that they are ready to play against Saks.
The Bearcats scored the first 12 points of the game against a Saks team that hadn’t played in 18 days and opened 23-8 lead early in the second quarter on their way to a 55-43 wire-to-wire win that flew in the face of their Calhoun County Tournament seeding.
Weaver was installed as the ninth seed for next week’s county tournament, while Saks pulled down the eighth seed.
“We wanted to make it known that we weren’t coming to play (mess around),” Bearcats senior Armane Burton said. “The way we started was real good. It was really fast. There was a really good tempo to the game. I liked it. It was really fun for me. I enjoyed it. I feel like we should play like this more often.”
While the teams play their two most important games of the year against each other going forward, the Bearcats were responding more to an air-clearing team meeting they had on Dec. 30 to set some parameters for the second half of their season.
“After the way we came out during the Heflin tournament, we had to fix some things amongst ourselves and that’s really what we’ve been focusing on,” Bearcats coach Beau Winn said. “Had a great day of practice yesterday. I could just feel the energy was different.
“Sometimes team meetings have a way of doing that. It really was not me. I didn’t do a lot of talking, did a lot of listening. I just think we played well.”
The Bearcats had been beset by slow starts all season, but that wasn’t the case on this night. They hit eight of 14 shots from the floor in the first quarter and got points from four different players before the Wildcats hit the scoreboard with 5:20 gone in the game.
Burton had the biggest impact on the Bearcats’ quick start, scoring nine points in the first quarter and 13 in the 23-8 run. He finished with 18 points in the game. Tristan Brown finished with a triple-double (16 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists), and ran his career points total to 969.
“When we won the first quarter and that was it,” Winn said. “That’s been our M.O., we struggle in the first quarter. But I thought we ran the offense well. We didn’t turn the ball over. Our live ball turnovers were negligible. The big thing was winning the little things.”
Saks coach Jonathan Miller doesn’t buy into the notion of this one impacting future matchups. It’s all about being the best team on the day you play and after such a long layoff for a team that hadn’t played many games to begin with the Wildcats (3-5) weren’t at their best.
They started getting their bearings midway through the second quarter and cut their deficit to 10 on several occasions, but couldn’t get over the hump. Dee Elston led Saks with 14 points.
“I thought it would be sloppy regardless who we played, but at the end we still made too many mental mistakes, just playing soft at times, things that require no effort – defending, rebounding, things like that – we made too many of those type mistakes to win a game,” Miller said. “We did get it under 10 a few times and we just didn’t get over the hump.
“But when you dig a hole, when you have to spend a lot of effort and energy to get back in it, we just didn’t make that play to get us over the top and, to their credit, they made the play when they needed to.”
SAKS (3-5) – Jakari Streeter 3 0-0 7, Tyreic Foster 0 0-0 0, Dee Elston 6 0-0 14, Christian Smith 3 2-4 8, Anthony Bothwell 4 0-0 7, Tae Elston 0 0-0 0, Keondre Johnson 0 0-0 0, Christian Hall 2 0-0 5. Totals 18 2-4 43.
WEAVER (7-12) – Tristan Brown 6 4-5 16, Elijah Smith 0 0-0 0, Jeffrey Miles 3 0-0 6, Keshawn Allen 3 0-0 7, Dawson Brooks 3 0-0 6, Jackson Williams 1 0-0 2, Armane Burton 8 1-2 18. Totals 24-46 5-7 55.
Saks 6 12 13 12 – 43
Weaver 17 14 10 14 – 55
3-point goals: Saks 5 (Streeter, D. Elston 2, Bothwell, Hall); Weaver 2 (Allen, Burton). Total fouls: Saks 10, Weaver 5. Officials: Taylor, Merritt, Barber.
PIEDMONT 79, WELLBORN 25: Rollie Pinto hit five 3-pointers and scored a career-high 30 points as the Bulldogs (11-2) won their seventh in a row. Chance Murphy added 12 points. The Bulldogs improved to 4-0 in the area.
Ethan Tidwell and Jackson Long each had 10 points for Wellborn. Tidwell picked up where he left off the night before against Munford, hitting a pair of 3-pointers in the first quarter. He had three in the fourth quarter against the Lions.
WELLBORN (0-12) – Ryan Wilson 0 0-0 0, Conner Woodard 0 0-0 0, Xavier Parker 0 0-0 0, Avery Odom 0 0-0 0, C.J. Hubbard 0 0-0 0, Jaylon Gilbert 0 0-0 0, Immanual Singleton 0 0-0 0, Chris Williams 1 0-2 2, Ethan Tidwell 4 0-0 10, Jackson Long 4 0-2 10, Trey Downs 0 1-2 1. Totals 10 1-6 25.
PIEDMONT (11-2) – Alex Odam 3 0-0 6, Rollie Pinto 12 1-2 30, Ish Bethel 2 1-1 6, Colten Proctor 4 0-0 9, Luke Rhinehart 0 0-0 0, Jake Rhinehart 0 0-0 0, Trevor Pike 1 0-0 2, Chance Murphy 3 5-7 12, Rhett Alford 2 2-2 6, Cole Wilson 2 0-0 5, Dontavious Jordan 1 1-2 3. Totals 30 10-14 79.
Wellborn 10 6 5 4 – 25
Piedmont 15 19 22 23 – 79
3-point goals: Wellborn 4 (Tidwell 2, Long 2); Piedmont 9 (Pinto 5, Bethel, Proctor, Murphy, Wilson). Total fouls: Piedmont 6, Wellborn 14. Officials: Burroughs, Railey, Nelms.
PELL CITY 53, WHITE PLAINS 48: Pell City hit seven of 11 free throws in the fourth quarter and was 18-of-23 in the game to hold off the Wildcats.
PELL CITY – Collin McCombs 1 5-7 7, Caleb Groce 0 2-4 2, Jaden Coleman 4 3-3 12, Jayden Young 4 0-0 10, Jarek Burroughs 3 0-1 6, T.J. Cooper 0 2-2 2, Garrison Hildebrant 1 4-4 6, Mike Snow 3 2-2 8. Totals 16 18-23 53.
WHITE PLAINS (7-10) – Dylan Barksdale 1 0-1 2, Paul Laube 1 2-2 4, Z.J. Rosario 6 0-1 13, Silas Hines 3 0-1 7, Josh Wheeler 0 0-0 0, Coleman Ray 1 0-0 2, Daniel Williams 1 0-0 2, Collin Spivey 0 2-2 2, Luke Bussey 5 1-2 14, Carter Johnson 1 0-0 2. Totals 19 5-9 48.
Pell City 13 13 12 15 – 53
White Plains 11 11 13 13 – 48
3-point goals: Pell City 3 (Coleman, Young 2); White Plains 5 (Rosario, Hines, Bussey 3). Total fouls: Pell City 13, White Plains 19. Officials: Calkins, Howell, Hollingsworth.
FAITH CHRISTIAN 78, JACKSONVILLE CHRISTIAN 60: Thomas Curlee scored 30 points over the first three quarters and Conner Richerzhagen and Yoshua Arevalo combined for 34 to lead the Lions.
Curlee hit 12 of 18 shots from the field and also grabbed 12 rebounds. Arevalo hit four 3-pointers and had 10 boards, six assists and blocked two shots. Richerzhagen dished four assists. The Lions hit 12 3-pointers as a team.
FAITH (13-4) – Conner Richerzhagen 7-16 0-1 16, Tyler Bell 1-4 0-0 3, Eli Robinson 2-3 0-0 4, Yoshua Arevalo 7-15 0-0 18, Thomas Curlee 12-18 3-5 30, Carson Harris 0-1 1-2 1, Parker Robertson 0-1 0-2 0, Carson Limbaugh 0-0 0-0 0, Toby Ricard 2-5 0-0 6, Kolton Eubanks 0-3 0-0 0, Will Smith 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 31-66 4-10 78.
JCA (11-4) – Ethan Fair 1 4-6 6, Tyler Doggrell 4 5-8 13, Braxton Brown 5 4-6 16, Noah Lee 2 0-1 6, Jordan Garner 0 3-4 3, Harrison McNeal 0 0-1 0, Cooper Bates 6 1-2 13, Hunter Brown 1 0-0 3. Totals 19-52 17-28 60.
Faith 19 26 25 8 – 78
JCA 9 18 14 19 – 60
3-point goals: Faith 12-37 (Richerzhagen 2-9, Bell 1-2, Arevalo 4-11, Curlee 3-6, Ricard 2-3, Robinson 0-1, Harris 0-1, Robertson 0-1, Eubanks 0-3); JCA 5-22 (B. Brown 2, Lee 2, H. Brown). Rebounds: Faith 38 (Curlee 12, Arevalo 10); JCA 30. Fouled out: Robertson. Total fouls: Faith 27, JCA 14.
DONOHO 59, ASD 27: Drew Williamson and Jordan Cameron combined for 15 points in the first quarter as the Falcons got off to a fast start. Williamson finished with 19 points, while Cameron and Rich Goad each had 13.
DONOHO (10-5) – Jordan Cameron 6 0-0 13, Jack Wallace 1 1-2 3, Rich Goad 6 1-5 13, Drew Williamson 8 3-3 19, Sean Keel 2 0-0 4, Cash Worley 1 1-2 3, Sam Johnson 2 0-0 4. Totals 26 6-12 59.
ASD – Stacey Phillips 3 2-6 8, Taylor Dubose 1 0-4 2, Lakendrick Agee 4 0-0 8, Trillien Washington 2 0-0 5, Peter-Joseph Brownlee 2 0-0 4, Kris Williams 0 0-0 0, Dominick Jefferson 0 0-0 0. Totals 12 2-10 27.
Donoho 23 12 19 5 – 59
ASD 7 8 5 7 – 27
3-point goals: Donoho 1 (Cameron); ASD 1 (Washington). Total fouls: Donoho 11, ASD 13.
ALEXANDRIA 76, MOODY 72: Drake Davis has come up big for the Valley Cubs in several games in the past month and may have had his best game of the year against the Blue Devils.
The guard who has hit several big shots in recent games had 26 points, 11 assists and came within two rebounds of a triple-double. He was 6-of-12 from 3-point range and 8-of-10 from the free throw line. He is now averaging 13.8 ppg, shooting just under 50 percent from the field and 40 percent from 3-point range, and has 63 assists.
Kory Cargal delivered 20 points and Antonio Ross had 12. T.K. Downie gave them eight rebounds and six assists. The Valley Cubs shot 21 of 25 from the free throw line.
The Cubs host Jacksonville Friday night in a potential preview of the Calhoun County Tournament finals. Jacksonville is seeded No. 1 and Alexandria is No. 3.
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