BY ROB DAVIS
The Lee-Scott Academy boys basketball team fought hard but could not recover from a poor second quarter as Montgomery Academy held the lead and came away with a 62-47 victory Wednesday in the first round of the boys 3A Central Regionals held at the Dunn-Oliver Acadome in Montgomery.
After a frenetic first quarter that was dominated by defense and turnovers and ended with Lee-Scott ahead 5-3, the Montgomery Eagles took over the second quarter by going on a 21-9 run to lead 24-14 at the half.
“That 21 spot in the second quarter I thought was the difference in the game,” Lee-Scott Head Coach William Johnson said. “We had a lot of loose ball turnovers that led to run outs. In a game that was such a tight game when I look back, 21 points in the second quarter cost us the game.”
Montgomery avenged an early loss to Lee-Scott and moved on to the second round of the regionals. Eagles sophomore Mason Ellis led all scorers with 21 points while Jarrett Friendly contributed 14 points and had 16 rebounds. Montgomery Academy Head Coach Jeremy Arant also thought the second quarter was pivotal for his team.
“We were really able to separate ourselves in the second quarter with good shooting and tough defense,” Arant said. “That’s a great team that we beat today. We lost to them early in the season so we knew we would be in for a fight today.”
The Eagles were 24 of 45 from the field while Lee-Scott was 16 of 49. The Warriors were outrebounded 38-25 and both teams had 13 turnovers. Lee-Scott made a run in the third quarter, closing the gap to nine when Haiden Harper hit a jumper. However, that was as close as they would get as Harper’s jumper was followed by a three by Montgomery’s Jay Jay Jackson. Harper led the Warriors with 13 points but left the game in the third quarter with an ankle injury. He returned in the final quarter but by then the Eagles had the game in hand.
“Haiden got injured and really wasn’t able to go,” Johnson said. “When you take a college basketball player like him off the court it’s going to have an effect. M A is an elite team defensively. Their defensive coach is an elite defensive mind. I actually played for their defensive coach and coached with him. He’s the one who got me into coaching.”
The Warriors made just 3 of 15 from outside the three-point line while Montgomery was 5 of 14. For the game Montgomery shot 53.3% while Lee-Scott shot 32.7%.“We just happened to be in a regional that’s the toughest in the state of Alabama,” Johnson said. “I don’t want this to blemish our accomplishments this year. We just didn’t play good enough to win the basketball game. I told our guys that I loved them, I’m proud of them and to keep their heads up.”
