January in Alabama usually means county tournaments in basketball as high school teams try to begin peaking as the regular season comes to an end. Poor weather hampered some county tournaments, especially those in north Alabama.
Still most counties that hosted tournaments did get them in by the end of last week.
ETOWAH COUNTY TOURNEYGlencoe (14-8) won its second consecutive Etowah County girls tournament title with a 50-46 victory over Gadsden-Southside at Beck Field House on the campus of Gadsden State Community College last weekend. The game featured 59 free-throw attempts with Southside hitting 15 of 24 and the winning Yellow Jackets nailing just 15 of 35. However, it was two free throws by Glencoe's
Laura Poovey with two seconds remaining that sealed the win. She finished with a game-high 15 points for Coach John Blackwell's Lady Jackets.
Kelsey Cooper, who scored eight points in the finals, was named tourney MVP for Glencoe.
The
Glencoe boys also won the Etowah County tourney title to make it a complete sweep as
Clay Zahorscak poured in 20 points and tourney MVP
Rhett Norman had 16 in a 56-49 win over Southside in the finals. The victory ended a three-year tourney winning streak for the Panthers. Glencoe improved to 18-4.
CALHOUN COUNTY TOURNEYThe biggest and oldest county tournament in Alabama concluded on Saturday night at Jacksonville State University's Pete Mathews Coliseum, with Class 6A
Oxford beating Piedmont 42-39 to claim the boys championship in the 60th annual tourney. A total of 30 teams, 15 boys and 15 girls teams, compete annually in the state's oldest continuously running county tourney. Point guard
Justin Lawler had 20 points for Oxford (12-8) in the finals.
Top seed
Anniston cruised to the championship of the girls division with a 66-57 victory over third seed Jacksonville. It was the 33rd tournament for the girls. High school basketball for girls didn't get started until 1978 for most schools in Alabama.
Patricia Pickens tallied 21 points and added 10 rebounds, three assists and two steals for Anniston (21-2). Jacksonville fell to 14-7.
DEKALB COUNTY TOURNEYIn the tournament played at the Rainsville Civic Center last week,
Plainview (Rainsville) defeated Ider 60-53 to win the varsity girls title – the school's first county tournament championship.
Sylvania downed Collinsville 73-63 to capture its second straight varsity boys crown.
TERROR ON THE BOARDSKevaundre Watford had career highs of 24 points and 26 rebounds in Central-Tuscaloosa's 78-44 boys basketball victory over Chilton County of Clanton last week. The Falcons improved to 9-11.
Greensboro Public High School's 6-foot-4 center
Miguel Shelton had a big game for Greensboro, perhaps the hottest 3A team in the state this month, with 29 points and 15 rebounds in a 64-49 win over Class 5A Demopolis.
The Raiders also handed Clarke County its first defeat last week with a 77-55 win in the Martin Luther King Classic on MLK Day. Greensboro closed the week with a 76-64 win over powerful R.C. Hatch of Uniontown on Saturday. Shelton went 9-for-11 from the field and scored 19 points and also had 13 rebounds in a 79-51 win over Akron in the MLK Classic first round. Shelton also had 13 rebounds.
Jimmie Taylor, a 6-foot-9 sophomore, added12 rebounds and five blocked shots in the win for Coach Earlando Courtney's Raiders. Taylor also had 17 points and 15 rebounds and Shelton chipped in 17 points and seven rebounds in the win over Clarke County.
LOPSIDED VICTORY FOR PICKENS COUNTYClass 1A
Pickens County (Reform) rolled over Hubbertville 110-17 in the week's most lopsided win.
Warren Betts had 20 points for the Tornadoes (17-1), who have been rolling over 1A opponents just like the team's nicknkame implies. Pickens County won the 2A state title last season but dropped to 1A this season.
WEATHER FORCES WRESTLING TOURNEY DELAYLast week's blustery winter weather that made travel conditions treacherous and forced many schools and businesses to close also caused the annual Arab Wrestling Invitational to be postponed until this weekend.
The tournament will be held Friday and Saturday at the Arab High School gym with at least 17 high school wrestling teams expected to be on hand, said Knights coach Michael Pruitt. Arab is currently 18-2 in dual meets with wins over Athens, 70-9, and Muscle Shoals, 82-0, last week. Among the schools planning to wrestle at Arab this weekend are Fort Payne, Southside-Gadsden, Hartselle, Moody, Tallassee, Austin, Oneonta, Deshler, Susan Moore and Cullman. Central of Chattanooga, Tenn., is the only team to officially pull out due to the changed date, he said. Pruitt is still awaiting word from several other schools, however.