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Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine
Hoover High School girls basketball plays against Bob Jones on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville. Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
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Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine
Hoover High School girls basketball plays against Bob Jones on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville. Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
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Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine
Hoover High School girls basketball plays against Bob Jones on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville. Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
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Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine
Hoover High School girls basketball plays against Bob Jones on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville. Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
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Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine
Hoover High School girls basketball plays against Bob Jones on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville. Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
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Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine
Hoover High School girls basketball plays against Bob Jones on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville. Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
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Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine
Hoover High School girls basketball plays against Bob Jones on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville. Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
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Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine
Hoover High School girls basketball plays against Bob Jones on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville. Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
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Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine
Hoover High School girls basketball plays against Bob Jones on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville. Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
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Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine
Hoover High School girls basketball plays against Bob Jones on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville. Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
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Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine
Hoover High School girls basketball plays against Bob Jones on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville. Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
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Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
Hoover High School boys basketball plays against Thompson in the Northwest Regional final on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville. Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
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Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
Hoover High School boys basketball following the Northwest Regional final against Thompson on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville. Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
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Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
Hoover High School boys basketball plays against Thompson in the Northwest Regional final on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville. Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
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Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
Hoover High School boys basketball plays against Thompson in the Northwest Regional final on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville. Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
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Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
Hoover High School boys basketball plays against Thompson in the Northwest Regional final on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville. Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
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Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
Hoover High School boys basketball plays against Thompson in the Northwest Regional final on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville. Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
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Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
Hoover High School boys basketball plays against Thompson in the Northwest Regional final on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville. Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
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Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
Hoover High School boys basketball plays against Thompson in the Northwest Regional final on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville. Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
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Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
Hoover High School boys basketball plays against Thompson in the Northwest Regional final on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville. Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
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Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
Hoover High School boys basketball plays against Thompson in the Northwest Regional final on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2024, at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville. Photo courtesy of Zach Irvine.
HANCEVILLE – Color Tom Drake Coliseum on the campus of Wallace State orange after Hoover High School captured a pair of Class 7A Northwest Regional titles on Tuesday. Both games had different scripts, but Hoover’s boys and girls basketball teams are heading to the state final four once again.
Hoover’s boys and girls will play in the state semifinals next Thursday at Legacy Arena. The girls will face Auburn at 9 a.m. and the boys will play Central-Phenix City at 10:30 a.m.
Lady Bucs storm back for win over top-ranked Bob Jones
The tears shed by Hoover head coach Krystle Johnson came because she was happy. They could have been much different.
Not a whole bunch went right for the Bucs over the first three periods against the No. 1 ranked team in Class 7A. But Hoover did what championship teams do. The Bucs found a way to win.
Hoover outscored Bob Jones by 16 points in the fourth quarter, making huge plays on both ends of the court, and the three-time defending state champions eventually emerged with 58-55 victory. Another ticket was punched to the final four for the Bucs.
“I don’t think anybody believed in us but us,” Johnson said through the tears of joy. “All we’ve been hearing all year was about who we lost and how many people we lost. I’ve been saying it all year. You might not know their names, individually, but our program stands on hard work. To me, that’s what this win is, it’s just hard work.”
Bob Jones carried a 51-38 lead into the final quarter. Nothing that happened up to that point suggested that the Patriots wouldn’t cruise toward a spot in Birmingham. Hoover, a battle-tested group because of the schedule that Johnson put her team through, had other ideas.
The comeback began with a 3-pointer by 6-foot-3 sophomore Khloe Ford, who, until that point, had spent her afternoon working in the paint.
“I knew that once I hit that 3, the switch turned on for our team,” Ford said. “Normally, I don’t shoot 3s. I felt like everybody had hope when I hit that 3.”
Jillian Clark-Williamson drew a charge on the other end, to continue creating momentum, and Ariana Peagler hit a pair of free throws to trim the deficit to single digits. The comeback had begun.
“We knew that they were a good team, they weren’t going to be in a rush,” Johnson said. “We had to somehow create some turnovers, create some bad decisions. I think that’s what we did.”
Ford hit another 3-pointer to trim the deficit to 51-46 with 5:25 left in the game. The Bucs continued to get stop after stop on the defensive end and eventually took a 52-51 lead on a 3-pointer by Aaliyah Blanchard (14 points) with 2:41 left. It was Hoover’s first lead since early in the game.
Bob Jones’ first points in the fourth quarter came on a bucket with 2:15 left. The one-point lead lasted until Ford, who finished with 16 points and nine rebounds, hit a free throw with 1:56 left to tie the game. Blanchard forced a traveling call with good defense on the next possession and Hoover took the lead for good on a huge 3-pointer from the top of the key by Clark-Williamson with 1:08 left.
Fittingly, though, there was still plenty of drama left. Bob Jones narrowed the gap to one on a short jumper by Alana Obianozie, who finished with 21 points and nine rebounds. The Patriots then forced a turnover by Hoover’s Kaitlyn Gipson and headed quickly toward the basket. But, Gipson hustled back and drew a charging foul that ultimately saved the game.
“I was really just thinking, we can’t just go home after all that fight,” Gipson said. “Khloe hit those 3s, everybody was shooting well. I was like, ‘I’m just going to have to step up and take (the charge).’ I already knew she was going to go hard the basket, no matter what. So, I just took it.”
Moments later, Peagler hit a pair of free throws and Hoover held on for the win.
“It kind of started in the locker room, we just told them they needed to fight,” said Johnson, whose team outscored the Patriots 20-4 in the final quarter. “We knew we were prepared for this moment. Our schedule was hard. We played teams that had a lot of talent. We’ve been down before and had to fight back. We just told them to fight for each other. To me, that was the theme of the second half. Fight for each other. Don’t stop fighting. We got some people who are just fearless.”
Brown leads way in dominating win for Bucs
DeWayne Brown was the best player on the court – by a wide margin – but the 6-foot-9 junior center got plenty of help from his Hoover teammates in the 77-53 win over Thompson that sends the defending state champions back to the final four.
Brown dominated early and often on his way to a box score-stuffing performance against the Warriors. He finished with 22 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, four blocked shots and three steals. He was 9-of-11 from the field and opened things up for his teammates when the Warriors chose to double and triple team him.
“DeWayne, to be honest with you, he’s a matchup nightmare at the high school level,” said Thompson head coach DJ Black, whose team finished 1-3 against Hoover, with all four meetings coming within a month. “He’s just a very talented player. That’s where it goes back to playing them four times. You can only make so many adjustments to kind of see how you’re going to guard him. But, when they shoot the ball from the outside like they shot tonight, it makes it very challenging to try to guard him on the inside.”
When Thompson chose to surround Brown, then Salim London, Jarett Fairley, Austin Dudley and the other Hoover players took turns hurting the Warriors. London scored inside and outside, finishing with 19 points, and dished out four assists. As a team, the Bucs were 8-of-17 from outside the 3-point stripe.
Thompson didn’t have a chance.
“I thought it was a team effort,” said Hoover coach Scott Ware. “Obviously, these three guys [Brown, Fairley and London] were incredible. They kind of carried us most nights with stats and things. But, I thought this was a total team effort. I thought everybody who hit the floor was locked in to what we tried to accomplish. We talked about just sitting down, winning your one-on-one, challenging every shot and attacking rebounds. For the most part, I thought we pretty much did that for the entire basketball game.”
Ultimately, though, it all came down to playing through Brown.
“He hasn’t had many games where he had to play straight up,” said Ware, whose team never trailed and enjoyed a lead that stretched to 28 points. “Everybody is going to double him from the get-go. They’re going to try to front him, back him, double him as soon as he catches it. They tried to play him straight up. To the rest of the team’s credit, they’re willing to throw the basketball to him, you don’t always see that. Big guys are like a dinosaur in today’s game. You got to give the other guys credit that he’s a mismatch when somebody is trying to play him straight up.”
A few other Starnes Media teams were in action Tuesday in regional finals:
Mountain Brook defeated Homewood in Class 6A.
Hewitt-Trussville's girls beat Chelsea for the fourth time this year.
