Stingy defense lifts Spartans to final
BIRMINGHAM – Offense garners headlines. Defense wins championships.
On a day when the Mountain Brook High School boys basketball team shot just 1-of-11 from 3-point range, the Spartans held McGill-Toolen to 22% shooting from the field, as the Spartans pulled away late for a 52-41 victory in the Class 7A State Semifinals on Thursday at the BJCC’s Legacy Arena.
“I’m glad we found a way late,” Mountain Brook head coach Bucky McMillan said. “I thought McGill-Toolen outplayed us in the game. They played really hard and did a good job of pressuring us.”
Carlton Martial’s 3-pointer with five minutes remaining in the contest gave McGill a 36-35 lead, but Mountain Brook responded with a 10-3 run to take a six-point lead that the Yellow Jackets would not be able to overcome.
Sean Elmore – who scored eight points to go along with six rebounds in the contest -- sank a pair of free throws to give Mountain Brook the lead back with 4:28 to go, and found himself all alone on the other end for a layup less than a minute later to put the Spartans up five.
Mountain Brook (30-5) hit its free throws down the stretch to win the ball game.
The Spartans held a 25-18 lead at halftime, but squandered nearly all of that edge in the third quarter, as they committed nine of their 21 turnovers in the period.
“We were begging our guards to stop over-dribbling and get our big guys the basketball. Once we started to breathe a little bit, we did a great job,” McMillan said.
Even though the game got tight, Mountain Brook’s stingy defense remained constant throughout.
“The fact that we were able to continue to guard (was important), because a lot of times when you’re playing like that, throwing the ball away, you lose those games,” McMillan said. “I can’t underestimate the effort we gave there, for all of our players to commit defensively.”
McGill-Toolen coach Phillip Murphy chalked up much of the final outcome to Watford, who finished the game with a monster stat line of 22 points, 19 rebounds and five blocks.
“Trendon is everything he is advertised to be,” Murphy said.
Watford added, “I was just determined to win the game.”
None of the current Spartan roster had played in a Final Four game prior to Thursday’s contest, no small factor considering the matchup against the defending state champions. Mountain Brook won state titles in 2013 and 2014 before falling in the state championship game in 2015. The Spartans were eliminated in the regional round in 2016.
“It took some getting used to, but once we got into the flow of the game, I felt like we played pretty good,” said Ben McCool, who finished with nine points and four rebounds.
Martial led the Yellow Jackets with 13 points in the game, on 4-of-8 shooting from 3-point range. Manny Patrick added 11.
With the win, Mountain Brook sets up a matchup with Auburn in the 7A state final, set for Saturday at 5:45 p.m. Auburn defeated Vestavia Hills earlier Thursday.