Southside stuns state champs
- Updated: February 17, 2023
Lady Panthers put on defensive clinic, prove themselves worthy in 36-33 win over Guntersville for first-ever regional win
By Al Muskewitz
East Alabama Sports Today
JACKSONVILLE – All week long the Southside girls basketball team had been hearing the same story, how their Northeast Regional semifinal was a David-and-Goliath kind of thing and they’d better have the stone ready.
They listened to none of it. In the Panthers’ mind, they were just as worthy of being here as the defending state champions they were about to play and if they stuck to their guns they would prove it.
The Panthers more than proved they belonged, putting together a defensive effort that has defined their season and knocking off Guntersville 36-33 Friday for their first win ever in the Northeast Regionals. They will play Arab for a trip to the Class 5A girls Final Four here Wednesday at 9 a.m.
“Something I’ve preached about all year long is just how hard these girls work,” first-year Southside coach Justin Bowen said. “Everybody in Southside, all of the girls on our team, knew this wasn’t some David-and-Goliath matchup, that we deserved to be here on this floor and we could play with those girls.
“That’s something we heard the last three days, that David and Goliath speech, but we didn’t buy into that. We knew we were a formidable opponent and if they didn’t come to play we’d be ready. Every one of my girls work their tails off every day and I know, without a shadow of a doubt, that is the separator in this game.”
This was only the third time the Panthers had made the regionals — all in the last four years — and were playing their biggest game in program history, but they refused to change anything about the situation. That included practicing for an hour and a half Friday morning before they made their way to Pete Mathews Coliseum.
This was the game Bowen had been pointing to from the day he first got the job, and they proved the moment wasn’t too big. It was so much on his radar that he opened the first day of practice by introducing the players over the public address system just as they would hear it before they played in this game, and repeated it several times during the season.
Grace Anne Rose could still hear the echoes when she went to free throw line with 19 seconds left and hit her two shots that gave the Lady Panthers (23-7) the lead for good, 34-33.
“My free throws haven’t been as good as they were last year, but I’ve just been working on them,” Rose said. “I knew that was a pivotal moment for that game, that we needed those and I just hit them. I knew it was what we needed.”
The defensive effort Southside put forth was incredible, but that’s what the Lady Panthers have been known for this year. They held the Lady Wildcats to 24 percent shooting from the field for the game and only 2-of-23 from 3-point range. They held post Tazi Harris scoreless in the first half and got reigning Class 5A Player of the Year and Lipscomb signee Olivia Vandergriff to play most of the second half with four fouls.
Guntersville coach Kenny Hill used a number of adjectives to describe the game – atypical, strange, weird among them.
With their shot not falling, the Lady Wildcats started working the ball inside to Harris to give the Lady Panthers something else to worry about. She scored all 13 of her points after halftime.
A layup by Vandergriff gave Guntersville a 33-32 lead with 34 seconds to play. The Panthers called time once they got the ball across mid-court and then worked it around to Rose, who was fouled on her layup with 19 seconds left.
She hit both free throws to give Southside the lead for good, 34-33. Guntersville still had time to make something happen, but with 10.3 seconds left Vandergriff traveled driving the baseline.
Mallory Brooks hit one free throw with 6.9 seconds left, Laylah Davis was fouled rebounding the second shot and hit the first of her two free throws to make it a three-point game. Guntersville’s Brylee Hill rebounded the missed second shot and needed a 3 to force overtime but the Lady Wildcats couldn’t get off a shot in time.
Madison Shaw led Southside with 16 points. Davis, a move-back from Florida who Bowen called their X-factor, went 4-for-4 from the floor, had nine points and grabbed six rebounds. Rose had seven points and eight rebounds.
“We came here with the mentality it’s win or go home,” Davis said. “We put in so much work to just go home. We told ourselves we can’t go home. This is it. This is go time. And that’s what we did. We put everything out there on the floor.
“(Bowen) told us before we went out there put everything out on the floor, that way when you leave you can’t say you left anything. And we did.”
The outcome reduced Bowen to tears – for about the tenth time this season, he said –something he didn’t even do when his wife walked down the aisle on their wedding day. He expects to hear from her soon.
CLASS 5A NORTHEAST REGIONAL
GIRLS SEMIFINALS
GUNTERSVILLE (29-5) – Olivia Vandergriff 3-13 5-6 11, Lainie Phillis 0-4 0-0 0, Brylee Hill 2-6 0-0 6, Maddie Ward 1-5 0-0 2, Tazi Harris 4-8 5-7 13, Ivey Marsh 0-1 0-0 0, Britt Enloe 0-0 0-0 0, Kendall Teall 0-4 1-2 1. Totals 10-41 11-15 33.
SOUTHSIDE (23-7) – Jovi Marble 0-3 1-3 1, Sarakate Yancey 0-1 2-2 2, Mallory Brooks 0-3 1-2 1, Grace Anne Rose 2-3 3-4 7, Madison Shaw 5-12 5-8 16, Lexi Darnell 0-0 0-0 0, Laylah Davis 4-4 1-2 9, Leah Lewis 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 11-26 13-21 36.
Guntersville 7 4 13 9 – 33
Southside 10 4 11 11 – 36
3-point goals: Guntersville 2-23 (Vandergriff 0-8, Phillips 0-4, Hill 2-4, Ward 0-2, Marsh 0-1, Teall 0-4); Southside 1-8 (Marble 0-1, Yancey 0-1, Brooks 0-3, Shaw 1-3). Rebounds: Guntersville 28 (Harris 10); Southside 25 (Rose 8). Total fouls: Guntersville 19, Southside 16. Officials: Nelms, Austin, Brown.
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