James Clemens brings home Class 7A, Area 8 championship title
Trai James drives and scores on a layup for James Clemens in area tournament action (Record Photo/Lindsay Vaught)
HARVEST- It was a night to remember for James Clemens as the Jets won their first area championship Saturday night with a convincing 59-43 win over Sparkman. The Jets will now play in the Northwest Regional at Wallace State on Friday at 10:30 am against Hoover, the defending state 7A champions.
The seventh-ranked Jets have won 13 straight games dating back to a holiday tournament in December.
In the opening game of the area tournament James Clemens knocked out Hazel Green 54-48.
Head coach Danny Petty told the team “four more wins and we are state champions.”
The veteran coach last won a state championship in 2010 at Bob Jones and says this team is capable of going all the way to a state championship.
“We have players that can hit three’s, we have penetrators, and we have rebounders. We have to put a game plan together and play well and be a little lucky.”
The Jets came out flat against Sparkman and fell behind by three at the end of the first quarter and by seven at halftime. They could not stop Brandon Miller who hit for 17 in the first half for Sparkman.
But after halftime James Clemens went to a motion offense and blew past Sparkman with players driving to the basket rather that settling for jump shots. Brandon Belt’s driving layup put the Jets up 37-30 and started an 11-0 run for the Jets. Belt then found Zach Hancock with a no-look pass for an assist. Hancock then got a steal and hit Marquis Mitchell for a slam to make it 46-30.
“It was a team effort on defense,” Petty said. “We shut down Miller and got out on Fletcher, their spot up shooter. Belt came back from an off-night, played under control and did a great job. He is capable of putting up a lot of points. Zach on the boards played well. Trai had a solid game.”
Two nights after Sparkman scored 78 against Bob Jones they were held to 43.
The Jets were successful holding the ball for periods of time in the fourth quarter to run out the clock.
Belt finished with 15 points and Trai James led the team with 18.
Belt, James, Zach Hancock and Marquis Mitchell all made the all-tournament team.
“It would be great to get to Birmingham,” Petty said. “We’ve had great senior leadership all year. It would be a tribute to them to get there. We want to get there and finish it.”
