By Johnny Sanders, Sports Editor
SPRINGVILLE – If Gene Stallings were a basketball coach, Friday’s 5A Area 11 game would have been his type of game. Good defense, not a lot of scoring, chippy, aggressive. Just two rivalry teams battling it out for the right to call themselves the area champions. At the end of the night, battered and bruised, after 4 quarters and an overtime of beating and banging on one another, the Moody Blue Devils prevailed over the top-seeded tournament host, and heated rival, Springville Tigers, by a final of 35-30.
Starting the game with a bang, the Tigers came out and jumped on Moody 5-0 in the first quarter and the crowd was deafening early on, getting behind their boys. But Moody would answer with two quick scores, a three-pointer by Caden Helms and a monstrous dunk by Davion Dozier, tying the game at 5. Dozier would come back down the court and hit a jumper plus the and-one and put Moody up 8-5. Springville’s Ty Harrison would go right back up the court and nail a three-pointer of his own to tie it at 8 late in the first. Springville’s Collin Lockhart would add 2 points to put Springville up 10-8 after one quarter of play.
The second quarter did not offer much in the way of scoring, but that doesn’t mean it was not physical. Each time a player drove into the lane on either side of the court, they were punished by the big guys and the refs let them play on this night. Springville’s Zach Brown hit the only shot of the quarter from the field, a three-pointer early in the game to make it 13-8. Moody’s only points came with just a minute to go before the half when Dozier drove to the basket and was fouled and hit both shots from the charity stripe. Springville would take a 13-10 lead into the locker room. Yes folks, this is still basketball we are talking about.
In the third quarter, Moody looked to swing the momentum and they were successful, albeit not by much. On defense they held Springville to 3 points for the second frame in a row with Lockhart hitting the lone field goal and Brodie Frederick adding a free throw. For Moody, Seymour, Dozier and Helms all hit a shot from the field to get 2 points each and Seymour had a made free throw to win the quarter 7-3 and take the lead heading into the fourth quarter, 17-16.
Springville teleported back to the beginning of the game at the start of the fourth by going on a 4-0 run and by this time both student sections were in an absolute frenzy. Dozier would answer for Moody by hitting a layup and getting the and-one to close it to a one-point deficit. Helms would hit a three-pointer to put Moody up by 2 but Frederick would do some answering of his own, hitting a clutch shot to tie the game up at 22. The teams would go back and forth scoring and wind up needing an overtime period to close this one out. It was 28-28 at the end of regulation.
The fans were treated to bonus basketball in this championship rivalry game and it did not disappoint. Dozier opened the 4-minute period with a jumper to put Moody up 30-28. Lockhart would take it the other way and get fouled, hitting both free throws to tie it again, now 30-30. Carson Dillashaw would be fouled on the other end of the court and hit one of the two free throws, making it 31-30 Blue Devils. Dozier would do the same, getting fouled and hitting one of two free throws to extend the lead to 2. With 27 seconds left, Kolby Seymour would hit a layup to put Moody up 34-30. Springville’s sharp shooter Ty Harrison got the ball in his hands and got the open look from the arc, but the shot did not fall for him this time as he missed a three-pointer with 14 seconds to go in what would be the Tigers’ final chance to make a push. Dozier would add a free throw to make the final 35-30 with Moody winning their second area championship in a row over a well-deserving Springville team that left it all on the court, along with the Blue Devils themselves.
Collin Lockhart had a solid effort for Springville, scoring 14 points for his team, almost half of their total output. Brodie Frederick followed with 7 points and Ty Harrison added 6 for the Tigers.
Davion Dozier did score over half of his team’s points, tallying 17 for the night. His supporting case consisted of Caden Helms with 10 and Kolby Seymour with 5.
“We fought hard,” said Springville Coach Brandon Easterwood. “We just didn’t make enough shots. We got the shots, they just didn’t fall. We’ve got to take care of the ball better (to beat Southside). Do a better job boxing out and create opportunities to create better shots.”
Moody’s Head Coach Chad Bates had this to say about his teams performance, “It was a scrappy game. Neither team could shoot it. We couldn’t hit anything. We only had ten points at halftime. I felt like we were getting good looks. They did a good job and they are a tough team.”
“It’s big for the guys,” said Coach Bates about winning the area championship. “I don’t know if Moody has ever been back-to-back area champs, so that’s good. I’m just really proud of the guys and how they fought.”
Moody will host Alexandria on Tuesday night while Springville travels to Southside in the next round of the playoffs.