Brewer Girls Season Preview

By Chris Megginson For the Enquirer

A.P. Brewer girls’ basketball might have a new coach and new classification, but their eyes will remain fixed on Birmingham.
Last season, the Patriots’ 29-5 run, including a 14-game win streak, came to an end in the Class 6A Northeast Region semifinals, as they lost to Homewood in double overtime by one point, 63- 62.

This year Brewer, which won its area the past two seasons, makes its return to Class 5A, where it made five trips to the Final Four from 2009-2014. It’s a move first-year Brewer head coach Jeff Andrews said he feels provides the best road back to Birmingham’s Legacy Arena.
The Patriots will join Class 5A, Area 15, with Arab, Guntersville and Scottsboro.

“Our region probably has the best route to make it to Birmingham,” said Andrews, who coached with Ron Smith the past two years at Brewer. “Scottsboro will be one of our toughest teams, but I think we have a good chance of making it to Birmingham.”
Andrews, a 22-year coaching veteran who came to Brewer two years ago after a 13-year stint as Falkville’s head coach, took Falkville to the state semifinals in 2014.

“We had a good summer. It doesn’t feel like it’s my first year,” Andrews said. “We should be pretty fast paced. We’re going to try to press and push and try to play a little up-tempo.
“I don’t have a true post player … We’re going to try to stretch the floor and run five people.” Brewer will look to replace its leading scorer, Shyan Flack, who averaged 15 points per game last season and is now a freshman at the University of Montevallo. The Patriots return roughly 30-40 points of offense per game, though, with five rising juniors and three seniors.

Senior forward McCarley Northway, a Montevallo commitment, will look to pick up where she left off last year, averaging 10.8 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. She also helped lead the team with 1.17 assist turnover ratio. Northway, one of five athletes coming off Brewer’s successful volleyball run, will start at any position between a two and five, depending on the night.

“She’s probably as well-rounded a player as I’ve coached,” Andrews said.
Madisen Adams, Evaiah Burrows, Leisha Steger and Chloe Danylo also recently began practice following volleyball’s regional run.
Steger, who averaged eight points per game last year, will look to increase her scoring this season, while junior point guard Jaycee Andrews, who has committed to Faulkner University, will look to continue her rise in scoring from late in the season last year. She averaged seven points per game and dished out 102 assists as a sophomore.
Burrows, the team’s leading returning offensive rebounder and blocks leader, will look to play the role of a lockdown defender. However, Burrows can also shoot, scoring 7.4 points per game on 54 percent shooting last year.
Andrews said Brewer will rely on its defense to help set up its fast offense as a mostly guards team.
“I think that’s one of our keys: We put a lot of emphasis on defense, and that’s something that started with Coach Smith. Last year we had the ability to score, but we also had the ability to get out and guard and play different defenses,” Andrews said.
In addition to the upperclassmen, Brewer will dress an eighth-grader from Union Hill for the first time to start a season. Hope West, a forward who moved up to the team for region play last year

and played in 14 games, will look to build on her successful summer of AAU play. “She’s going to play a big role,” Andrews said.
Brewer will open its area competition on the road Nov. 27 at Scottsboro and will host Arab and Guntersville before Christmas.