Jags make 2nd straight final four run
The Spain Park High School boys basketball team’s postseason run came to an end in the same round for the second straight year.
On March 3 at the BJCC’s Legacy Arena, Spain Park suffered a 73-58 loss to Enterprise in the Class 7A state semifinals. The Wildcats have now knocked out the Jaguars in the semis in back-to-back years.
Enterprise jumped out to a big lead early, opening the game on a 16-3 run, only broken up by a Chase James 3-pointer in the game’s first four minutes. Spain Park settled in, though, closing the opening frame on a 9-2 spurt to close the gap to 18-12.
“Since December, we’ve had really good starts to games, and today we didn’t,” Spain Park head coach Chris Laatsch said. “To their credit, they came out and got after us. Our kids withstood it, but they came back, and we just couldn’t quite get over the hump.”
Neither team did much offensively in the second quarter, and Enterprise took a 26-21 lead into halftime.
Consecutive buckets from Colin Turner in the third quarter cut the Jags deficit to 32-27, but Enterprise closed the period with 11 straight points to take a commanding 43-27 lead heading into the fourth.
As Spain Park attempted to speed up the game in the fourth, Enterprise broke the full court press several times and got easy buckets to finish off the game. Spain Park turned the ball over 20 times in the contest.
“Their physicality and aggressiveness made it really hard for us to run things,” Laatsch said. “We’ve been playing in front most of the year, and we were behind today.”
Josh Harrington led the Jaguars with 18 points and eight rebounds. Turner went for 17 points on 8-of-12 shooting with a team-high nine rebounds.
James joined both of those guys in double figures with 10 points. Sam Wright had 8 points and six boards as well.
Spain Park had six seniors on this year’s team, with Harrington, Ben Corley, Chantz Pickett, Solomon Robinson, Pierson Cole and Turner finishing their careers with consecutive final four appearances.
Harrington recalled a conversation with a younger teammate over the summer about the possibility of Spain Park making a repeat run to the state tournament this year, despite losing eight seniors from last year’s squad. He assured the teammate that the talent was there, as long as the collective buy-in and development followed.
It did, and the Jags played as one of the better teams in the state from mid-December on.
“I don’t know if many people thought this group could get there, but they did,” Laatsch said. “A lot of it goes to these guys [Harrington and Turner]. These two guys mean so much to me. … They’ve surpassed a lot of people’s expectations.”
Spain Park won the Class 7A, Area 6 tournament this year by beating Vestavia Hills in the championship game. The Jags then won two games at the Northeast Regional, notching victories over Sparkman and Huntsville to reach the state semifinals.