Sparkman wins Area 8 Tournament
HARVEST- Sparkman is back in their familiar place as area champions. The Senators won a tough game over Bob Jones 52-38 Saturday night. They had beaten James Clemens 52-34 on Thursday to end the Jets season.
The Senators struggled in the first half and trailed by six at one point. They trailed 16-14 at the half.
“They made us play really quick in the first half and we weren’t running our offense,” said Sparkman head coach Patrick Delay. “They did a good job of getting back on defense and then they extended their zone and it gave us some problems.”
Sparkman came out in the second half a different team and blew past Bob Jones in the third quarter with fast break points and sharing the basketball. Sparkman scored 19 points in both the third and fourth quarter to punch their ticket to the Northwest Regional at Wallace State and a number one seed.
Sparkman will face Tuscaloosa County and Bob Jones will face Hoover.
“We play Tuscaloosa County (23-7) at noon on Thursday and they are a really good team. They go toe to toe with Hoover and it will be a good challenge.”
Delay knows his team is trying to buck the recent trend. No #1 ranked team in 7A has gone on to win the state championship in the last 5 years. More importantly he told his team they cannot afford to fall behind like they did against Bob Jones.
“We may not have an opportunity to come back in the second half like we did tonight. It being the playoffs you have one bad quarter or one bad half and you’re done. We have traveled all over the southeast with these kids so playing at Wallace won’t bother them at all. We just have to refocus and go do what we have been doing. We play a lot of people and it wears on teams and eventually they start making mistakes.”
The pain of losing in the state championship game four years ago still resonates through the program at Sparkman.
This team spreads the scoring among four or five players. Darian Black and Jayla Walker had 11 each against Bob Jones. Deserea Walker and Darian Leak had 10 each.
Winning the area tournament is a good sign for Sparkman.
“We won’t overlook any opponent,” Delay said.
