Brewer on to Final 48

Brewer's girls basketball team runs out to midcourt to accept the Class 5A Northwest Regional Championship trophy from Morgan County School Superintendent Bill Hopkins. | Brent Maze

HANCEVILLE – Before the area tournament, no one expected the Brewer girls basketball team to have a shot at a state championship.

Now, the Lady Patriots are one of the last four teams remaining in Class 5A.  They withstood a late run by J.O. Johnson and then pulled away to win 58-42 in the Northwest Regional Finals Friday morning.

“Three weeks ago, no one believed that we could do this,” said Brewer coach Ricky Allen. “The girls didn’t even believe we that we could be here right now.”

At that time, Brewer was at its lowest point of the season. The Lady Patriots had just blown an 18-point lead to Danville in the Morgan County Tournament final and scored just 35 against Grissom at home.

After that home loss, Allen was looking for something inspirational to say but couldn’t. Instead he just said he wanted to see them that Saturday morning at 9 a.m.

“I didn’t know if they’d show up, but they were all there bright and early at 9 o’clock,” Allen said. “Our team didn’t quit and we just kept fighting.”

Tournament MVP Riley Northway, who finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds in more than 30 minutes of action, said the team was just disappointed with where they were.

“We were disappointed when we lost to Danville, but we didn’t want to let that determine our season,” Northway said. “We just had to lean on each other and on God.”

Brewer got off to a good start and took a 12-5 lead at the end of the first quarter.

The Lady Patriots then went on a 10-2 run in the middle of the second quarter to take a 24-13 lead. In that stretch, Courtney Oldacre hit back-to-back 3-pointers, both of which banked off the glass.

Oldacre, who finished with 18 points including 10-for-10 at the foul line, wanted to make sure that this trip to Wallace State was much better than her last.

“Last year, I was intimidated when I played here,” Oldacre said. “I didn’t want a repeat of last season. I just told myself that Wallace was just another gym and I was going to play much better.”

That helped Brewer lead J.O. Johnson 26-15 at halftime.

However, the Lady Jaguars turned up the pressure. They forced consecutive turnovers and cut the lead to 26-20 just moments into the third quarter, forcing a Brewer timeout.

Brewer pushed that lead back to nine late in the third quarter at 37-28. Shuntell Williams hit a jumper and Christy Harris made a free throw to end the quarter, cutting the lead to 37-31.

The Lady Patriots then committed four turnovers to start the fourth quarter. Fortunately, the Lady Jaguars only turned that into two points.

Brewer had 20 turnovers for the game, but J.O. Johnson had just converted them into 13 points.

At that point, Allen said he wasn’t thinking about a possible repeat of the Danville collapse.

“I was too upset with our team falling apart to think about anything else,” Allen said. “I knew if we could just had one tough possession where we got a basket, we’d be back in synch.”

Those tough points came via Hannah Crawford. She drove the lane, got fouled and made the two shots. That play sparked a 10-0 run, all but a Northway lay-up was scored by Crawford.

That performance gave her a spot on the all-tournament team and gave Brewer an insurmountable 47-33 lead.

Then, Brewer took care of business at the charity stripe to put the game away. For the game, the Lady Patriots hit 19-of-22 free throws for 86 percent.

Chris Sims, head coach for the Lady Jaguars, said that just didn’t give his team a chance to comeback.

“They got to the free throw lines and made their shots,” Sims said. “When they’re doing that, you can’t foul them.”

The other Brewer player to make the all-tournament team was Rheagan Harvel. She finished with 6 points in the win.

Harvel, who missed most of the last half of the season with an injury, said she had to get back and help her team.

“I just had to get myself rehabbed so I could get back and help my team,” Harvel said.

Other contributors for Brewer included Danielle Dunn with 3, Hannah Landers with 3 and Savana Flack with 1.

Demetries McNealey and Harris both had 12 points in the loss for the Jaguars.

Brewer will play next Friday at 9 a.m. against Fairfield in the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex Arena.