By David Knox
TRUSSVILLE – In a back-and-forth battle, Huffman won out, defeating Clay-Chalkville 42-37 in the semifinals of the New Year’s Shootout girls basketball tournament at Bryant Bank Arena at Hewitt-Trussville.
The game was tied seven times and neither team led by more than six points – Clay-Chalkville led by that margin in the first quarter and Huffman by that margin in the fourth.
It was either an excellent defensive performance or a sloppy offensive effort.
“I think we were sloppy on offense,” Cougars coach Justin Haynie said. “We get impatient on offense and take quick shots. We want to make other teams guard us.
“The kids played hard and I thought we played well enough to win.”
Turnovers – both forced and unforced – hindered the Cougars’ effort. “That’s always a factor,” Haynie said. “They stretch out their defense and take away passing lanes with their length. But we’ve just got to get better at executing our stuff on offense.”
Clay-Chalkville (7-6) got off to a quick start, as Akeria Medlock scored all nine of her points in the first quarter to push the Cougars out to an 11-5 lead. But the Vikings’ Jayla Crawford hit a 3-pointer to tie the game at 13 at the end of the period. Crawford scored eight points in the period.
The Cougars scored the first five points in the second quarter on a basket by Raven Omar and a 3-pointer by Summer Pettway to take an 18-13 lead, but Huffman rallied with a 10-2 run to take a 23-20 lead at halftime.
Omar sparked the Cougars in the third period, hitting a pair of 3-pointers and handing out a couple of nifty assists to Alex Johnson and Jasmine Battle. Omar’s 3-pointer with a minute left in the quarter tied the game at 33.
But the Cougars couldn’t execute offensively in the final period. They were scoreless until Johnson made a free throw with 1:36 left in the game. Huffman had built a six-point lead by then. Clay-Chalkville’s first – and only – field goal of the period came on a Pettway 3-pointer with just 6.2 seconds left. That cut the margin to three points, but Crawford sank two free throws with 5.2 left to seal the five-point win.
Omar led the Cougars with 12 points. Shaforia Kines led Huffman with 12, followed by Crawford’s 11 and Catherine Hawkins’ 10.
Clay-Chalkville will face J.B. Pennington in the third-place game Tuesday at 4:30. Huffman will take on Scottsboro at 6 p.m. for the tournament championship.