For the second day in a row Alabama Christian (15-6) won at the buzzer in dramatic fashion. The team’s two seniors closed out the home portion of the schedule in grand fashion as Tyree Saadiq hit the winner on Friday night and Darius Gardner scored at the basket to lift his team over Thomasville 48-46 on Saturday. The Eagles won the first meeting of the season in overtime and the second meeting was close throughout.
Neither team could make a shot until Connor Mark broke the seal with a three with 5:15 left in the first. Tyree Saadiq scored the team’s next four points and Sam Davidson connected on a bomb at the buzzer to tie the game 10-10 at the end of one. As the second period started, the Thomasville head coach, who coached all three Tiger teams on the day, had seen one perceived missed call too many. The sideline eruption resulted in a technical and a seat on the bench for the rest of the contest. Mac Moorer hit both freebies from the infraction for a 12-10 lead. Later in the quarter Moorer made a three for a 19-16 advantage, but the Tigers responded with a 7-0 run over the next two minutes to lead 23-19. Saadiq returned to the game and scored for ACA to cut the deficit to two at the half.
Thomasville stretched the lead to six on a couple of occasions in the third as Coach Mitchell turned to his bench and inserted Broderick Williams into the game. Williams’ effort ignited the team and the bench and helped the Eagles to erase the Tiger lead. With 1:33 left in the quarter, Connor Mark made two from the line to give ACA a 35-33 lead. The Eagles would never trail again. The home team led 37-34 after three. Tyree Saadiq scored to start the final period to give ACA a five point cushion. The lead stayed around there for the next few minutes until the visitors scored on back to back trips to tie the score, 44-44. Trailing 44-46, Mac Moorer drove through heavy contact for a reverse layup to knot the game back up. With 1:00 left Thomasville called time and drew up a plan that was stopped due to an errant pass which was picked off by Saadiq. ACA held it for the last shot, but was fouled on the floor with 3.3 seconds left. After a timeout, Moorer drove to the hole, but again was fouled on the floor with 1.0 second remaining. Coach Mitchell called a timeout and drew up a play, but decided to scrap it and called a second timeout to diagram another play. The move worked as Saadiq found Darius Gardner at the right block for a layup and the victory, 48-46. The celebration might have been smaller with no cheerleaders and no student section, but that didn’t stop the players from relishing the moment.
Mac Moorer scored 20 points with seven rebounds. Tyree Saadiq filled the stat sheet with ten points, five assists, four rebounds, and four steals. Connor Mark finished with nine points, four rebounds, and four assists. Darius Gardenr tied Moorer with a team high seven boards.
So far the flip of the calendar to 2024 has not been kind to the Lady Eagles (10-10). Although the team played much better in a loss Friday night, ACA looked to snap its five game January losing streak. The Eagles were missing four players in the first matchup with Thomasville and lost by 20 in their visit to Clarke County.
On Saturday, the Tigers were surprised as the home team jumped on them early. Thomasville made a free throw on their first possession for their only lead of the game. Jaide Newkirk made Alabama Christian’s first score and the team never looked back. Katelyn Sutton distributed the ball successfully on three consecutive possessions to build a 9-1 lead. The quarter ended with a 12-3 advantage for the home team. Izzy Warrick opened the second with five points to build the lead to 17-3. Although the offense managed just three more points in the half, ACA led 20-9 at the break.
Ninety seconds into the second half, Coach Cantrell was not happy with the production of her starting five which prompted putting the next five in off the bench. Despite questions of who would handle the ball and where would the scoring come from, the second unit gave the team a solid three minutes on the floor and only lost one point off the lead. Adalynn Newkirk hit a three for the team’s only points in the stretch. With the first five focused, they outscored Thomasville 9-4 for the rest of the period for a 33-17 lead headed to the fourth. The Tigers scored the first two baskets in the fourth, but a Jaide Newkirk three helped keep the momentum on ACA’s side. As Thomasville started to foul late to extend the game, Katelyn Sutton made 6 of 8 free throws over the final 2:31 to hold off the visitors 48-39.
Jaide Newkirk led all scorers with 18 points and added six rebounds and five steals. Izzy Warrick had 13 points and five rebounds while Katelyn Sutton had 12 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists.
Alabama Christian returns to Area play on Tuesday against Trinity.