James Clemens Beats No. 1 Ranked Huffman
MADISON- The James Clemens boys’ basketball team picked up the biggest regular season win in school history by defeating No. 1 ranked Huffman 78-67 as part of the annual Marvin Stone Classic played in Spraigins Hall at UAH on Martin Luther King Day.
The visiting Vikings (21-2) were unbeaten against teams from Alabama and had just one blemish against a team from the Peach State of Georgia.
“We hung in late after Huffman took a small lead in the fourth quarter as our guys responded well and kept fighting,” said Danny Petty fourth year head coach of James Clemens. “It was definitely the biggest win since I’ve been here.”
The Jets (13-8) were cool under pressure, but one player in particular was the coolest of them all. Junior guard Garrett Hicks had a game-high 39 points including a perfect 19 of 19 at the free throw line with 11 coming in the fourth quarter. Many of those points for the Jets were in the final minutes to nail the coffin on the Vikings.
“In practice we take free throw shooting seriously as we have competitions against one another and that led to our game performance,” said Hicks. “For me, I just keep going through the same routine and have muscle memory from practices. Plus, I’m just a cool guy on the floor.”
“Going into the game we tried to plan a strategy and hope for the best as I knew we could compete against Huffman,” said Petty.
Heading into the Area Tournament, the Jets are on a roll with their last loss at the hands of No. 3 Sparkman by one point. James Clemens also beat crosstown rival Bob Jones 58-48 to give them a split among the two Madison schools. With a win this Friday versus Buckhorn, the Jets will be in third place in Area 8. A loss puts the Jets in a tie with Bob Jones with a coin toss to determine where the two schools will stand going into the Area Tournament at Sparkman High.
“We knew we’d struggle early in the season with only two players returning that had any varsity experience,” said Petty. “Our guys are hanging in there and our team chemistry is good.”
“It was a big win on a big stage and a lot of emotion,” added Hicks. “We thought we had a chance going into the game against Huffman. After taking the lead and actually having a 14-point lead at one time, we knew we had more than just a chance to win.”
