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Photo by Erin Nelson
Spain Park’s Josh Harrington (1) drives the ball towards the goal in the second half of the AHSAA Class 7A boys state semifinal game at Legacy Arena at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center on Thursday, March 3, 2022. The Jags fell to Enterprise 73-58. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson
Spain Park’s Josh Harrington (1) shoots for 3-points guarded by Enterprise’s Tomar Hobdy (4) in the second half of the AHSAA Class 7A boys state semifinal game at Legacy Arena at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center on Thursday, March 3, 2022. The Jags fell to Enterprise 73-58. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson
Spain Park’s Zach Gray (22) shoots for 3-points guarded by Enterprise’s Kenneth Mitchell Jr. (5) in the second half of the AHSAA Class 7A boys state semifinal game at Legacy Arena at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center on Thursday, March 3, 2022. The Jags fell to Enterprise 73-58. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson
Spain Park’s Zach Gray (22) passes the ball guarded by Enterprise’s Trevon Kemmerlin (10) in the second half of the AHSAA Class 7A boys state semifinal game at Legacy Arena at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center on Thursday, March 3, 2022. The Jags fell to Enterprise 73-58. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson
Spain Park’s Josh Harrington (1) shoots a layup in the first half of the AHSAA Class 7A boys state semifinal game at Legacy Arena at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center on Thursday, March 3, 2022. The Jags fell to Enterprise 73-58. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson
Spain Park’s Josh Harrington (1) dribbles the ball as he moves past Enterprise’s Tomar Hobdy (4) in the first half of the AHSAA Class 7A boys state semifinal game at Legacy Arena at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center on Thursday, March 3, 2022. The Jags fell to Enterprise 73-58. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson
Spain Park’s Zach Gray (22) shoots for 3-points guarded by Enterprise’s Kenneth Mitchell Jr. (5) in the second half of the AHSAA Class 7A boys state semifinal game at Legacy Arena at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center on Thursday, March 3, 2022. The Jags fell to Enterprise 73-58. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson
Spain Park’s Chase James (24) dribbles the ball towards the goal guarded by Enterprise’s Kenneth Mitchell Jr. (5) in the first half of the AHSAA Class 7A boys state semifinal game at Legacy Arena at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center on Thursday, March 3, 2022. The Jags fell to Enterprise 73-58. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson
Spain Park’s Josh Harrington (1) shoots for 3-points in the second half of the AHSAA Class 7A boys state semifinal game at Legacy Arena at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center on Thursday, March 3, 2022. The Jags fell to Enterprise 73-58. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson
Spain Park’s Josh Harrington (1) guards Enterprise’s Trevon Kemmerlin (10) in the second half of the AHSAA Class 7A boys state semifinal game at Legacy Arena at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center on Thursday, March 3, 2022. The Jags fell to Enterprise 73-58. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson
Spain Park’s Colin Turner (25) shoots for 2-points guarded by Enterprise’s Tomar Hobdy (4) in the second half of the AHSAA Class 7A boys state semifinal game at Legacy Arena at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center on Thursday, March 3, 2022. The Jags fell to Enterprise 73-58. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson
Spain Park’s Josh Harrington (1) shoots a layup in the first half of the AHSAA Class 7A boys state semifinal game at Legacy Arena at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center on Thursday, March 3, 2022. The Jags fell to Enterprise 73-58. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson
Spain Park’s Chase James (24) moves towards the goal guarded by Enterprise’s Kenneth Mitchell Jr. (5) in the second half of the AHSAA Class 7A boys state semifinal game at Legacy Arena at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center on Thursday, March 3, 2022. The Jags fell to Enterprise 73-58. Photo by Erin Nelson.
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Photo by Erin Nelson
Spain Park’s Colin Turner (25) shoots a layup guarded by Enterprise’s Elijah Terry (3) in the second half of the AHSAA Class 7A boys state semifinal game at Legacy Arena at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Center on Thursday, March 3, 2022. The Jags fell to Enterprise 73-58. Photo by Erin Nelson.
BIRMINGHAM – The Spain Park High School boys basketball team’s postseason run came to an end in the same round for the second straight year.
On Thursday morning at the BJCC’s Legacy Arena, Spain Park suffered a 73-58 loss to Enterprise in the Class 7A state semifinals. The Wildcats have now knocked out the Jaguars out in the semis in back-to-back years.
Enterprise jumped out to a big lead early, opening the game on a 16-3 run, only broken up by a Chase James 3-pointer in the game’s first four minutes. Spain Park settled in, though, closing the opening frame on a 9-2 spurt to close the gap to 18-12.
“Since December, we’ve had really good starts to games and today we didn’t,” Spain Park head coach Chris Laatsch said. “To their credit, they came out and got after us. Our kids withstood it, but they came back and we just couldn’t quite get over the ump.”
Neither team did much offensively in the second quarter and Enterprise took a 26-21 lead into halftime.
Consecutive buckets from Colin Turner in the third quarter cut the Jags deficit to 32-27, but Enterprise closed the period with 11 straight points to take a commanding 43-27 lead heading into the fourth.
As Spain Park attempted to speed up the game in the fourth, Enterprise broke the full court press several times and got easy buckets to finish off the game. Spain Park turned the ball over 20 times in the contest.
“Their physicality and aggressiveness made it really hard for us to run things,” Laatsch said. “We’ve been playing in front most of the year and we were behind today.”
Josh Harrington led the Jaguars with 18 points and 8 rebounds. Turner went for 17 points on 8-of-12 shooting with a team-high 9 rebounds. James joined both of those guys in double figures with 10 points. Sam Wright had 8 points and 6 boards as well.
Elijah Terry led four Enterprise players in double figures with 19 points. Kenneth Mitchell had 16 points.
Spain Park had six seniors on this year’s team, with Harrington, Ben Corley, Chantz Pickett, Solomon Robinson, Pierson Cole and Turner finishing their careers with consecutive final four appearances.
Harrington recalled a conversation with a younger teammate over the summer about the possibility of Spain Park making a repeat run to the state tournament this year, despite losing eight seniors from last year’s squad. He assured the teammate that the talent was there, as long as the collective buy-in and development followed.
It did and the Jags played as one of the better teams in the state from mid-December on.
“I don’t know if many people thought this group could get there, but they did,” Laatsch said. “A lot of it goes to (Harrington and Turner). These two guys mean so much to me…They’ve surpassed a lot of people’s expectations.”
Enterprise advances to the state championship game against the winner between James Clemens and Baker, with the final set for Saturday at 5:45 p.m.
