Regional basketball: Lady Lions' run ends

HANCEVILLE – Weather concerns altered the high school basketball regional schedule at some sites Thursday, forcing the postponement of Hoover’s boys and girls games at the Northwest Regional.

However, several games involving local teams were still played during the morning hours. Here’s a rundown of those contests.

Lady Lions’ run ends at regionals

The Briarwood girls team played some of its best basketball toward the end of the season, advancing to the Class 6A Central Regional tournament at Bill Harris Arena in Birmingham.

But Thursday, the Lady Lions ran up against a strong Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa team, and fell 53-22 in the regional semifinal.

Briarwood got off to a strong start, leading 9-8 after a quarter of play. But Hillcrest put the clamps down on defense and held the Lady Lions to just two points in the second quarter, opening up a 23-11 lead at halftime.

The rest of the game went much the same way, as the Lady Patriots cruised to victory.

Taylor Smith led Briarwood with 13 points and 8 rebounds in the game. Farrah Buckner led Hillcrest with 14 points.

Briarwood finishes the season with a 22-9 record.

Spartans dominate Parker

Tyler Davis has yet to miss a regional final game in his three years as head coach of the Mountain Brook boys. His team secured an appearance in this year’s Class 6A Northeast Regional final by blasting Parker 71-30 on Thursday morning inside Jacksonville State University’s Pete Mathews Coliseum.

“Coming in, we knew Parker liked to put a lot of pressure on the ball and we turned them over 15 times in the first half, which to me was the difference in the game,” Davis said. “We know that we can hang our hat defensively on what we do and we showed that today.”

Mountain Brook held Parker to five made field goals in the first half while scoring 17 points off the Thundering Herd’s turnovers. Junior guard Ty Davis scored all 10 of his points in the first half and was accompanied by senior forward Julius Clark, who led the team with 15 points at the break. He finished with a game-high 23 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the field.

“It really feels great to get back in here and get a win,” Clark said. “We feel really comfortable playing here with our crowd support and we’re excited to advance.”

The Spartans defense only allowed Parker nine points in the second half and led by as many as 42 with just minutes to play. All 15 players on the Spartans’ roster saw playing time, while a total of 10 guys contributed in the scoring column. Junior guard John Webb was the only other double-digit scorer for Mountain Brook, adding 10 points in 11 minutes of action.

“It says a lot that we were able to have this many guys contribute,” Tyler Davis said. “In the playoffs, depth is key and we were fortunate to have every guy play a role today.”

The Spartans will face Huffman in the regional final on Tuesday at 2:15 p.m., back at JSU. This marks Mountain Brook’s 10th appearance in the regional final game in the last 11 years.

William Galloway contributed to this report.

Lady Rebels struggle in loss

The Vestavia Hills girls saw their season come to a close on Thursday morning, after losing to Bob Jones 42-31 in the Class 7A Northwest Regional semifinal at Wallace State Community College. 

“From the way we played, we did everything to win, except the ball going in,” Vestavia Hills head coach John David Smelser said.

The Lady Rebels shot 1-for-21 from behind the 3-point line and only two players, Anna Towry and Sarah Gordon, scored against a difficult Bob Jones defense.

Bob Jones led 17-16 at halftime after both teams traded baskets for much of the opening 16 minutes of the game. In the second half, however, the Lady Patriots’ defense made the difference, as it held Vestavia to 15 second-half points.

While Vestavia struggled to score, Alana Obianozie scored seven unanswered points for Bob Jones, which gave the Lady Patriots their largest advantage at the end of a quarter, leading by five heading into the fourth quarter. 

Bob Jones cushioned its lead in the fourth quarter, but Towry tried to will Vestavia back, forcing turnovers and hitting tough shots, putting Vestavia within six points before the Lady Patriots converted at the free throw line to put the game away.

Towry is Vestavia’s only senior and says that the future is bright for the Lady Rebels. Despite losing key players from last year’s state runner-up team, the Lady Rebels went 28-5 this year.

“We had a really strong season and won a lot of games we weren’t supposed to win and did it with a very young team,” she said. 

Towry led all scorers in the game with 19 points, while Gordon added 12 of her own. 

“We’re better than the sweet 16 and being done right now,” Smelser said. “It’s just really unfortunate that we don’t get to see games like this in the final four.”

Smelser added that he thinks there should be some consideration to fixing the playoff system so the best teams don’t have to play at this stage of the playoffs, noting that three of the highest-ranked teams in the state were playing in the Northwest Regional.

Obianozie led Bob Jones with 12 points and 6 rebounds. 

Bob Jones will play the winner between Hoover and James Clemens in Hanceville at a time and date that has yet to be announced following Thursday’s postponements.

Stingy defense leads Rebels

The Vestavia Hills boys used the same script it has all season long: suffocating defense.

The Rebels beat Bob Jones 56-29 on Thursday morning in the Class 7A Northwest Regional semifinal at Wallace State Community College. Vestavia held the Patriots to just 22% shooting on the day.

“That’s kind of where we’ve hung our hat, and that’s a typical regional game,” Vestavia Hills head coach Patrick Davis said.

Win Miller, Vestavia’s unquestioned leader, led the way with 21 points and 3 assists in the contest. But he was most pleased with his team’s ability to guard.

“It’s our main focus every week and every day at practice. We think we’re the best team in the state, so we’re going at each other every day in practice. It translates to the games,” he said.

Vestavia’s offense got on track after a slow first quarter, after which the Rebels led 6-2. Once the ball start going in the bucket, that was all she wrote.

“We know that even if the offense starts off slow like it did tonight, defense always picks up,” said Jackson Weaver, who scored 15 points in the game. “That’s something we pride ourselves in, and that’s won us a bunch of games.”

Jordan Ross added 11 points and 8 rebounds, and blocked 3 shots. 

“To be the toughest team every day,” Davis said of the team’s mindset. “That sounds cliché, but we just pride ourselves on how we do what we do every day. Every practice is how tough we can be. You hold somebody to 22% from the field, you’re going to win games.”

The win gives the Rebels their first appearance in the regional final since 2019. They will take on the winner between Hoover and Austin, which was postponed to Friday afternoon due to severe weather. The regional final will take place Tuesday at Wallace State.

“We’ll go rest and recover and see what we’ve got from here,” Davis said.