Lady Jags bring home first blue map for program, coach
BIRMINGHAM – They were ready.
Ready to make history. Ready to avenge last year’s loss. Ready to give its coach one of the most long overdue titles in the state.
On Saturday, the Spain Park High School girls basketball team set out to do those things, and McGill-Toolen couldn’t do anything about it. The Lady Jags annihilated McGill-Toolen, 56-26, in the Class 7A state championship game.
It was the first girls basketball title in Spain Park’s history. It made right an overtime loss to Hoover in this game a year ago. It gave Mike Chase his first ring as a high school coach in Alabama.
“We said we want our fans to be happy, we want to be happy, and we want to come out and play as good as we can,” said Spain Park coach Chase.
All of those things happened, at the expense of neutral patrons hoping for a tight contest.
After taking the first quarter to settle into the game, the Lady Jags (31-6) poured it on and left McGill-Toolen in the dust. McGill led 9-7 after scoring the first bucket of the second quarter, and Spain Park proceeded to score the next 23 points. Claire Holt and Sarah Ashlee Barker hit 3-pointers to get it started, and Katelyn Walsh and Bailey Bowers hit 3s toward the end of it.
When it was said and done, the Lady Jags took a 30-10 lead into the halftime break after outscoring the Yellow Jackets 23-3 in the second period.
Any chance of a comeback was quickly thwarted, as Spain Park quickly scored the first eight points of the second half, behind a pair of Holt 3-pointers and a put-back from Barker.
The Lady Jags coasted to the finish line from there.
Holt finished her tremendous Spain Park career with 20 points and five rebounds on 6-of-13 shooting. Barker scored 12 and ripped down nine boards.
“When you come runner-up, you spend rest of the next season saying what can we do to push us over the top to the state championship,” Holt said. “It’s a bunch of small differences and you just want to add them all up. The motivation is so much more.”
Chase won his first state title after reaching the state final three previous times (twice at Clay-Chalkville and last season at Spain Park).
“Not only we were winning it for our team but also for Coach Chase,” said Herring, a USC Upstate signee who grabbed eight rebounds in the game. “Since I was a freshman, we’ve been through so much, so many trials. I can’t even describe it, it just feels so good.”
McGill’s Nya Valentine was held to just seven points after dropping 25 in the state semifinal game against Sparkman. Chase credited Ahrielle Parks for guarding her well.
When Chase was able to insert his lineup of the future into the game with four minutes to play, he coached them the same way he coached his starting five: loud and intense.
On Saturday, the Lady Jags were ready. And while he was wrapping up his first title, he was already making sure his team would be ready in the future.
But when his daughter Camille hit a 3-pointer late in the game, he broke a smile.