Lady Eagles Finish Second in Tallassee Thanksgiving Tournament

Alabama Christian met Catholic in the championship game of the Tallassee Tournament again this year, but were unable to repeat as champions as the Lady Knights defeated ACA, 48-32. ACA scored 16 points in a high scoring first quarter, but managed only 16 more over the final three quarters. Despite the lack of offense, the contest was close until the end of the third quarter when Catholic scored the final five points of the period to take a 38-27 lead to the fourth. The Lady Knights extended the lead in the final quarter to win the contest by 16 points. Michaelyn Manning led the offense with eight points while Rose Costanza, Heather Ford and Sarah Johnson each scored six points.

In the first game of the tournament ACA defeated Elmore County 43-31 to advance to the finals. The Eagles started cold, connecting on only one field goal in the first quarter, but only trailed by one point heading into the second. ACA shot close to 40% from the field for the rest of the game and outscored the Panthers in every quarter. Mary Hall led all scorers with 15 points and tallied 12 rebounds. Michaelyn Manning added 11 points with three rebounds and three assists. Hall and Manning were both named to the all tournament team.

The boys team also split their two games in Tallassee, losing to Elmore County, 47-49, on Monday afternoon and defeating BTW convincingly, 67-29, on Tuesday. The Eagles controlled the contest against Elmore County for three quarters, but allowed an 11-0 run from the Panthers to tie the game with 4:00 left in the game. Elmore County scored the winning basket with 2.5 seconds on the clock for the two point victory. Braden Alford led the Eagles in scoring with 14 points with Jalen Clark and Caden Perry each scoring 12 points.

Game two of the tournament, on Tuesday, the Eagles were matched up for the second time this year against BTW. The Yellow Jackets defeated ACA in their first meeting and the Eagles exacted a measure of revenge with a 67-29 throttling of their opponent. Alabama Christian led 35-22 at the half and proceeded to shut BTW down in the second half as they outscored the Jackets 34-7 over the final two quarters. Avery Stuart paced the offense with 18 points. Jalen Clark scored ten points and Hayes Hunt added nine points in the contest. Clark was named to the all tournament team for the boys.

Both the boys and girls will have the rest of the week off and will return next Tuesday to face MA.

Mary Hall Named ACA Athlete of the Week

Mary Hall’s season ended in injury last year, but she has bounced back this season as one of the Lady Eagle’s top performers. The lone senior starter helped ACA split their two games this week and earned her Atlete of the Week honors. Hall scored seven points with ten rebounds and seven steals in a win against BTW and had 16 points and 15 rebounds, both season highs for the team, in a losing effort to J F Shields. Hall leads the Lady Eagles in rebounds (8.0) and blocks (0.8) so far this season and is second in scoring (7.4).

ACA Boys and Girls Both Defeated by J F Shields

Alabama Christian traveled to Beatrice, AL to take on J F Shields Friday night. Both teams had their chances to come away with a victory, but were unable to overcome the Panthers.

The boys game was close throughout the first half with neither team leading by more than five points. Jalen Clark scored the last basket before the half and the Eagles took a 30-28 lead at the intermission. The second half started with J F Shields outscoring ACA 10-3 in a little over a minute which caused Coach Scott Galloway to call a timeout to try to stop the momentum, The Panthers continued to play well and outscored ACA 20-9 in the quarter to take control of the game and went on to win, 61-48. The Eagles were led in scoring by Avery Stuart who came off the bench to score ten points with eight rebounds. Jalen Clark added nine points with seven assists and four rebounds while Caden Perry scored nine points with four rebounds.

The Lady Eagles lost to J F Shields 45-46 in a closely contested game. The lead changed hands several times during the game and ACA had seven chances over the final 1:44 of the game to tie or take the lead, but were unable to make the crucial score. Senior Mary Hall led the team with 16 points and 12 rebounds. Katie Chappell had a breakout performance with 12 points, 11 rebounds and three steals and Michaelyn Manning added ten points, six assists, four rebounds and three steals.

Both teams will play in the Thanksgiving tournament in Tallassee on Monday and Tuesday next week.

Eagles Split with BTW in Home Opener

Alabama Christian opened play on their home court Tuesday night as they hosted Booker T. Washington. BTW was designated the home team due to their lack of a gym to play their games in.

The Lady Eagles (2-3) beat BTW 39-20 in a slow paced game that was plagued with 33 total fouls called. ACA doubled up the Yellow Jackets in the first half and took a 20-10 lead into the locker room. ACA blanked BTW in the third quarter to stretch the lead to 31-10. Michaelyn Manning led all scorers with 14 points while Mary Reagan Hilyer added eight points. Mary Hall contributed seven points.

In the boys game, ACA started quickly and took a 15-8 lead at the end of the first quarter. BTW hit their stride in the second quarter and the Eagles defense had no answer for the Yellow Jackets. BTW outscored ACA 47-31 over the second and third quarters. The Eagles made a run late in the game and cut the score to 63-66, but in the end BTW made the plays they needed to secure the victory. Alabama Christian (1-1) lost by a score of 63-68. KJ Kendrick led the Eagles with 15 points and Caden Perry scored 12 points. A trio of Eagles, Braden Alford, Mason Kimbro and Avery Stuart each added eight points.

Both ACA teams travel to J F Shields Friday night for their next game.

ACA Opens Season at St James Tip Off Classic

The new look Lady Eagles opened the season with three games at the St. James Tip Off Classic, winning one of the three contests. ACA returns only one starter from last year’s squad and only three current players saw significant time last year. The Eagles defeated Prattville and lost to Pell City and Loachapoaka over the two day event.

ACA opened the season Friday afternoon with a 29-56 loss to Pell City. The Lady Eagles looked nervous to start the game and fell behind early as the Lady Panthers scored the first 18 points of the game. For the remainder of the game, Pell City only outscored ACA 38-29, but the Eagles had already dug too deep a hole for themselves. Rose Costanza scored the first bucket of the season midway through the first quarter to start the scoring for the Lady Eagles. Michaelyn Manning led the offense with ten points and four rebounds. Sarah Johnson added seven points with three rebounds while Rose Costanza had six points and four rebounds.

On Saturday morning, game two of the weekend against Prattville had an unusual start as ACA was assessed a technical foul for a scorebook violation. The Lady Lions hit one of the two free throws to start play with a 1-0 iead. With two minutes left to go in the first quarter, ACA turned up the heat on defense by pressing Prattville and scored the final nine points of the period. During the run, Katie Chappell scored a basket and made her free throw to complete a three point play that gave ACA an 11-10 lead. The Eagles would not trail for the rest of the contest and won by a sore of 53-42. Michaelyn Manning and Sarah Johnson led the offense as Manning scored 14 points and Johnson had 13 points with seven rebounds, six assists and six steals. Katie Chappell added nine points and six rebounds.

In the final game of the weekend, ACA opened the game with cold shooting, as they missed their first 14 shots of the game. Despite the struggle to score the ball, the Eagles only trailed Loachapoaka 2-7 at the end of the first quarter. Both offenses scuffled on the afternoon as each team shot less than 25% from the field and combined for just 44 points, as the Indians prevailed 30-14. Michaelyn Manning had four points to lead the Eagle offense while Rose Costanza and Mary Hall each had three points.