The Pickens County boys basketball team is two weeks away from looking at the big picture. The problem for the Tornadoes is they’ll be looking from a distance.
Pickens County, the Alabama High School Activities Association Class 2A champion last year, dropped to Class 1A after 2009 reclassification. Coach Russ Wallace said his squad will get probably its stiffest competition of the season Dec. 16-17 when it will go to Sylacauga, Ala., for the Marble City Classic to take on the defending Class 5A champions.
Win or lose the first game, Pickens County will meet defending Class 6A champion Homewood or defending Class 4A champion Butler.
All this comes after a four-game weekend starting Friday and ending Tuesday. “We should be fine in all of them,” Wallace said.
The Tornadoes, however, followed the Sylacauga event with a couple of heavyweights.
“We rest Sunday, then we’ve got Holt of Tuscaloosa on Monday, followed by Hillcrest on Tuesday,” Wallace said.
Wallace said he wanted to schedule so many challenges for his team so it could gauge where it stands.
“We need that kind of challenge to see what we need to do to get better,” Wallace said. “Our schedule with the area we’re in, we can’t get any big schools close to us to play us.”
As a result, the Tornadoes will go on the road.
“We want to find tournaments like this that will show us what we need to do,” Wallace said.
Other area teams are starting to give the Tornadoes trouble as the season progresses, Wallace said referring to a recent 69-59 victory against Aliceville.
“We got the big head in second half and thought we wouldn’t have to work at it,” Wallace said.
Returning junior starter Nick Stewart, who was named to the Class 2A state tournament team, has played well early in the season, Wallace said. The Tornadoes also return Class 2A Player of the Year Deion Curry, a senior, and junior Lajuan Doss, another all-state tournament selection.
Wallace said he will continue to substitute five players at a time, and that he sees a great deal of potential in his team, not just at the local level.
“I told them they have the opportunity to show you’re one of the best teams in the state, not just the region,” he said. “We have to challenge ourselves to play our best.”
Pickens Academy
Things are coming into focus for boys basketball coach Justin Thompson.
They figure to get even clearer now that one of the team’s top shooters has returned.
Senior point guard Jacob Acker played in the Alabama Independent Schools Association All-Star Football Game last week and rejoined the team Friday.
“He’s right on track with what I thought he would be doing,” Thompson said. “His first game back, he had 28 against Marengo Academy, then 26 against Patrician Academy and 18 Tuesday night.”
Playing against district opponent will have its good and bad points, Thompson said.
“We’ll play both of those teams twice before the end of the year,” he said. “And I don’t think we played our best games, so they may not be expecting much from us. … But it gets us a baseline against our district opponents.”
The Pirates have a big weekend ahead, starting today with a trip to York, Ala., to play Sumter Academy. On Friday, Pickens Academy plays Morgan Academy in the Tuscaloosa Academy Christmas Tournament. On Saturday, the Pirates will meet Tuscaloosa Academy or Tuscaloosa Christian.
Thompson feels good about his team’s progress.
“I think we’ve turned the corner and seen what we need to do,” Thompson said. “The guys understand what I’ve been saying about causing more chaos. The more ugliness we cause, the better it is for us.”
Aliceville
The Yellow Jackets have been their worst enemy on the court this early in the season.
“We are still turning the ball over too much,” said boys basketball coach Joe Hurst, whose team fell to Pickens County 69-59 on Friday. “We had 34 turnovers (against Pickens County). We are beating ourselves. … Every time we took care of the ball, we made the points.”
Hurst said he was looking for a shooter to spread out opposing defenses.
“We’re shooting more, but we haven’t found a shooter,” Hurst said. “We’ve been going inside to our big men lately and they’ve been coming through for us.”
Six-foot-four Gerald Sterling has been averaging about 10 points a game, Hurst said.
Sumter County defeated Aliceville 75-52 Tuesday in Aliceville.
South Lamar
The Stallions are girding up for tough times Friday against defending Class 2A state champion Pickens County and Monday against Sulligent.
To find a scoring solution, boys basketball coach Tony Seals has gone to his big man — 6-3 Ryan James — inside.
“He’s good enough to play inside and outside,” Seals said. “We try to get the ball to him every time we come down the court. But the other teams know that so we’re not hard to defend.”
Seals said offense has been a problem. He said the team is playing hard but not seeing enough reward for its efforts.
The Lady Stallions, who are still winless this season, continue to improve, Seals said.
“They’re better than they have been in the past,” Seals said, adding, “Everybody knows what we’ve got on offense.”
The Lady Stallions’ frontcourt is made up of ninth-grader Nasheema Cunnningham and Angel Cunningham, a 10th-grader with junior eligibility.
“Nasheema scores between 15 and 18 points a game, and both are about 5-foot-3,” Seals said. “Because of those two girls, we can break the press.”
Seals said his team should have won its first game and that he is looking forward to his team earning its first victory.
“They realize what they are capable of doing what it takes to win,” Seals said.
Sulligent
Boys basketball coach Tommy Chism said his Blue Devils earned a big AHSAA Class 2A, Area 12 victory Tuesday with a 72-47 decision against Red Bay.
“Our kids are really playing hard,” said Chism, whose boys team will play host to New Hope on Saturday. “We’ve just got a lot of work we still need to do.”
Sulligent has been shifting gears the past two weeks, moving from football to basketball.
“We’re moving in the right direction,” Chism said. “If we can get our guys playing together by mid-January, I think we’ll be about right. The mistakes we are making now are ones that are correctable.”
The Lady Blue Devils are suffering through “a tough, tough region” without a point guard, coach Ronnie Hubbert said.
Paige Dean, a senior point guard, has been wearing a brace since injuring her back during summer ball. Laura Ashley Dean, a sophomore point guard, has been dealing with torn ligaments.
Hubbert said his girls have been working hard without the key element.
“I’ve got 14 girls out there, a few eighth-graders have moved up,” he said. “All of them play as hard as they can. You can’t ask for more than that.”
Lamar County
The Bulldogs are regrouping after going 18-8 and advancing to the regionals last season.
Coach Keith Smith has returned to coaching after three years, and said the Bulldogs are dealing with a mixed bag of players.
“We are still trying to figure everybody out,” he said. “We’ve got an eighth-grader on varsity, a junior who just moved back into Vernon and hasn’t played organized ball since the seventh grade, and a 10th-grader who has had to get his eligibility up since he moved in in the ninth grade.”
Smith said his varsity squad has one true senior, two senior eligibilities, three juniors, a couple of 10th-graders, and a couple of eight-graders, so getting to know each other is the first priority. He believes familiarity on his team will breed victories.
“We’re trying to get the rotation,” he said. “It’s a game of transition and we want to be full court. We’re still trying to get used to each other. I feel we’ll be better later in the season.”
Senior Eric Hudson, who also played quarterback on the football team, is the only starter returning from last season.
“He’s not a true point guard and he’s having to play it,” Smith said. “He’s an athlete.”
Smith said Sulligent is the t
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 32 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.