Spartans power past Grissom, advance to regional final

JACKSONVILLE — Mountain Brook High School forward Trendon Watford dominated in his team’s 54-37 win over Grissom on Thursday, but not in the way fans usually expect.

Faced with double- and even triple-team coverage every time he got the ball, Watford didn’t light up the scoreboard as much as normal. Instead, he took advantage of the coverage by feeding the ball to an open teammate, which was particularly important in the second half of the Class 7A Northeast Regional semifinal contest at Jacksonville State University.

Even so, the five-star prospect led all scorers with 18 points, grabbed nine rebounds, and added three blocked shots and four steals to the stat sheet. But Spartans coach Bucky McMillan was quick to point out that his team’s effort was balanced, and that their depth helped wear down the Tigers’ potent starters.

“He [Watford] played unbelievably, because they ran a triangle-and-two on him the whole game,” McMillan said. “A lot of players panic in that spot, especially when they see that first-half lead go down to five points. But he trusted his teammates to go through the process, and still went 7-for-9 [from the field.”

“We were in a good spot at halftime because we had a lot of guys who played, and played hard,” he added. “Some of the guys you wouldn’t notice on the stat sheet played a big part in this game. Our depth was a major factor.”

The Spartans led from almost the start, but Grissom was still close behind all the way to halftime, where they trailed by five points. But Mountain Brook got off to a strong start after intermission, and then employed excellent ball movement and control to eat up time while adding to their lead.

“We’ve worked since after Christmas at being better in playing with a lead,” McMillan said.

Watford echoed his coach’s thoughts on the balanced attack.

“It was a collective effort for us all,” he said. “We were making extra passes in the second half, just like we had practiced.”

In one possession early in the fourth quarter, Mountain Brook moved the ball around and around for 70 seconds, which enabled Britton Johnson to break to the basket for a wide-open score.

Johnson scored 10 points for the Spartans, and Paulie Stamaglia came off the bench to add eight points. In total, Mountain Brook reserves contributed 13 points to the team score, and their patience in getting the ball closer in led to 28 points in the paint.

Philip DeRosier led Grissom (15-14) with 11 points.

In Tuesday’s regional finals at 10:45 a.m., the Spartans will see an opponent that’s all too familiar — Huffman.

“It’s always anybody’s game versus them,” McMillan said. “We are very familiar with each other, so it won’t have much to do with them and will instead be about us focusing on the things that are important to this team…. That way we have control over the things we can control.”

Images from this game can be purchased here.