HOOPS ROUNDUP: Trinity’s Alligood hits 1K vs. CCA; EL girls score 84, Makaya makes miracle shot at JeffCo

Everybody who’d been tasked with secrecy managed to keep an upcoming milestone for Trinity’s Maddie Grace Alligood on the down-low, in accordance with a her team’s recent tradition of withholding news of players’ 1,000th career point as a surprise for the moment it happens. 

The all-region forward had, for some time, been closing in on the achievement, though delays tied to scheduling and an injury drug out the wait from mid-December until the Lady Crusaders’ return to the court for Monday’s game against Citizens Christian, which she entered in need of five. 

Alligood remained in the dark right up until moments before tipoff, when she was tipped off to the news by – of all people – a game official who didn’t realize he was supposed to keep the piece of info under his hat, and made casual mention of the fact during the crew’s customary pregame chat with players of both teams. 

“When we were in the captain’s speech, the ref actually said, ‘Isn’t somebody hitting 1,000 tonight?’ And I was like, I guess so. I don’t know,” Alligood said. “He was the one that spilled the beans, but I would’ve had no clue.” 

The reaction of the Clyde Evans Fieldhouse crowd, which exploded with cheers as an impressive number of handmade congratulatory posters popped up throughout the seats with her third basket of the night to take the total to 1,001, made evident that she would have been the only one in the building outside the loop. 

After sinking the point-blank jumper, Alligood stepped directly into the embrace of teammate Brinley Vinson, who’d reached this point herself earlier in the season, followed by the rest of Trinity’s starting five. 

She acknowledged the long ovation, and was presented the game ball as a keepsake of the moment, which highlighted another dominant performance for the Trinity girls on their way to a third-straight win, 74-48, in Monday’s split with the Patriots. 

The Crusaders’ shorthanded boys came up on the losing end, 82-46, in their re-start to the season marking a final tune-up before the start of region play Tuesday on the road. 

To the surprise of no one… 

This moment, and similar 1,000-point celebrations for Vinson along with classmate Maddy George that have come within the past year, seemed like only a matter of time when each of the three players first broke onto the scene as difference-making freshmen back in 2022. 

The development and maturation of that core, which also includes an equally instrumental fourth senior in Addie Kendrick,  has been the overarching theme of a four-year run for the Lady Crusaders (including more than 50 wins, two region titles, two Final Fours and one state championship game berth last year) as successful as any in the 15-year tenure of head coach Lacey Shepherd. 

The “dynamic” group’s accomplishments, individual and collective, now include an all-time first for the program, which has never had more than two in the same class of players to become 1,000-point scorers. 

“I think it just shows how outstanding they really are,” Shepherd said. “They’ve worked hard in the offseason, which has been able to get them where they are, and they continue to work hard. They, of course, are pushing for a state championship, and had a taste of it last year. I really think that they’re just an incredible group of girls on and off the court. So it’s so fun to watch them cheer on one another.” 

From their early playing days, the group has been marked by versatility, evident in box scores that never seem to have one player in the scoring lead of more than about two games in a row, as well as the distinct sense of chemistry underlying their fluid style of play on both ends of the court. 

“We’ve been playing together since fifth grade, and we’re all best friends on the outside,” Vinson said. “I think just playing with your friends something really special. We’re not selfish. We just want the best for each other, and I think that’s just special.” 

Shepherd attributes their success to not only complimentary personalities, but the experience that’s come as a product of the early baptism by fire into varsity competition they experienced in ninth grade. The lofty expectations that were placed on their shoulders way back in that first season, looking back, never turned out to be too big. 

“They have played so long together, and we haven’t had a lot of seniors ahead of them, so they’ve gotten a lot of playing time from an early age,” Shepherd said. “It’s been really neat to watch them develop over just the last four years. But they’re not just basketball players. They’re so special. Off the court, it’s really like having four extra daughters for (assistant coach Jay Shepherd) and I. It’s fun to be able to push them and make them better and then, you know, love them when you’re on the court and off the court.” 

George, who coincidentally hit quadruple digits this same time a year ago as the Lady Crusaders returned from their extended January break, was first to get there midway through her junior year. 

Vinson, finishing up last March in the high 900s, didn’t need long into a first game back this season to do the same. As a matter of fact, the big moment came in the very first minute of the new campaign with her’s and Trinity’s first points of opening night at FPD, where a great turnout of Trinity fans made it just as special an occasion. 

“It was awesome,” Vinson said. “I loved every moment of it. I love being a part of this team, too. They always celebrate us. So it was fun.” 

Monday night carried a special sense of emotion for Alligood, whose completion of that 1,000-point mission was no guarantee going into a senior season clouded by the uncertainty of a torn ACL she suffered during the summer. 

But the moderate severity of the injury allowed her to play through it, and fortunately so for the Trinity softball team, which probably wouldn’t have made it back to the state tournament without her pitching. 

“I tore it in June, so I didn’t really know if I was gonna be able to even play sports at all,” Alligood said. “But thankfully I have. I got through softball with no problem. It was just fine. Basketball is a little bit more of a gamble, you know, because you’ve got to pivot.” 

A brief setback in December, which thankfully cleared up with some time off to rest, has been the only issue she’s run into since shifting to hoops with the hope of finally reaching this moment. 

Though there were far too many signs to read in a single glance, one of the dozens visible in the stands as Alligood soaked in the achievement had to stand out with its especially poignant message: “You only need on ACL to spell miracle.” 

Keeping Alligood, and the remainder of starters (George, Kendrick and Vinson are joined in the lineup by a junior swing guard in Chloe Rozier who’s played with them so long, she might as well be a senior, too), together and healthy will be vital to the region and state title-contending hopes of the Lady Crusaders as they head into the stretch run, and a region schedule that has their work cut out for them. 

The 6-AA balance of power isn’t necessarily what it was a year ago. 

Though a Brentwood squad whose senior core has mirrored the development of Trinity’s in a tit-for-tat rivalry since 2024 remains the team to beat, defending state champion Central Fellowship has suffered some attrition. 

Transfer pickups, meanwhile have both Gatewood and Windsor on the rise. And the Gators were a tough matchup for the Lady Crusaders in their region opener Tuesday night that wound up getting away 53-47. 

But last season, as much as the one before that also reached the state semifinals, the Trinity girls overcame some bumpy spots late in the regular season to play their best basketball at the end of February – if not by the region tournament, then in the do-or-die state playoff games this set of seniors has a lot of experience finding a way to win. 

When they’re all locked in, they tend to be tough to beat. 

“We have a lot of good chemistry,” Vinson said. “We’ve been playing for forever. We know what each other want to do, and half the time we don’t even know what we want to do. But I love it. We have really good chemistry on and off the court together.” 

Getting back to work… 

The Trinity girls were, not surprisingly, a bit rusty  in the first few minutes of Monday’s re-start, on the heels of a 10-day layoff. 

The gap in the schedule – a fixture for the past handful of seasons – coincides with a schoolwide service and missions emphasis that dedicates students’ first week back from the holidays to various local projects and international trips. 

A hot-shooting CCA put the ball in the basket several possessions in a row to jump out to a quick lead as the Lady Crusaders tried to get back in their rhythm. But they’d rediscover that groove by early in the second quarter, at which point both Alligood and Vinson had more than carved out a foothold inside. 

“After service week, normally you would think you would come back and have to work out a few kinks, but tonight, I feel like we came back pretty strong and didn’t have much of a problem,” Alligood said. 

She had 22 points, and Vinson 19, to power an interior machine that CCA couldn’t defend, or rival with a 27-point night from its frontcourt leader Arabelle Roberts. 

The Lady Crusaders’ mixture of defenses, and full-court pressure picking on some younger guards tasked with getting her the ball, seemed to wear the Lady Patriots down as the night went on. 

Their 17-14 lead after the first quarter grew by eight in the second and nine in the third as George delivered an additional 15 points, and Chloe Rozier eight, to the balanced effort. 

George was responsible for half of the team’s six 3-pointers on a somewhat modest night from outside. 

The success rate, for a lot of teams, would be nothing to sneeze at. But it was still a bit off the pace Trinity has set in recent games, and for much of this season. 

“I think we struggled a little bit shooting tonight, coming off of that many days of no in-game practice,” Shepherd said, emphasizing that being just as tough to defend in both areas of the floor on a consistent basis is what will make the Lady Crusaders a team to be reckoned with when the postseason rolls around late next month.

“We’ve all got to be hitting on our best. We’ve got to have our post game, solid, strong, stay out of foul trouble, and then we’ve got to have our shooters,” she said. “We have, you know, those five that start, and all shoot 3s. And so, I think, on a night when they try to stop us inside and they can hit those 3s, they’re gonna be unstoppable.” 

The absence of center Jamarion Ricks down front put Trinity’s boys at a major disadvantage in the rematch with a well-rounded CCA team they lost to by 22 earlier in the season. 

That void inside, rather than the simple growing pains of a young lineup still gaining its confidence back in November, was the source of the Crusaders’ struggles on the offensive end, where 6-foot-5 center Blake Bryant (the Pats’ flamethrowing Clemson baseball commit) was once again a defensive obstacle that made attacking the middle impractical, and rebounds tough to get at around either basket. 

A tag team of Carter Lee and Alston Bryan did its best to keep him out of the paint, off the boards and to only five first-half points.

But cooling off the Patriots’ outside shooters was a much different story. 

CCA hit 13 as a team, and Landon Tanner three out of its six before the half, to put Trinity under some constant pressure to stay on the brisk pace. 

Nine points by Jagger George and two 3s in a rowby Hayden Bowles kept the Crusaders within three after the first eight minutes, but a dearth of answers in their five-point second period created a double-digit gap as the Patriots put up 14 on their way into the break. 

Trinity’s own long-range game, which produced more 3-point field goals (10) than 2s (only six) on the night, would be its only real offense as things picked back up in the second half… but for both teams. 

CCA’s Bryant, throwing down a second rafter-rattling dunk of the night while knocking down three triples in a 14-point third quarter, and Gray McLean, who hit a second and third 3-pointer on his way to eight in the fourth, kept the RPMs up to outscore the Crusaders by 12 in both stanzas. 

Bowles canned four 3s in the last to finish with seven, good for all of his team-leading 21. George added two from deep, and all but one of Trinity’s 2s (Bryan was credited with the lone other on a third-quarter putback) to finish with 17. 

Bryant (with 25) Tanner (sinking four 3s to reach 18), McLean (15) and Miller Hutchinson (a fourth in double figures with 12) combined to lead the Patriots. 

East Laurens girls 84, Jefferson Co. 7

Deanna Lowther (16 points, 12 rebounds, six steals and three blocks), Garyunna Mitchell (15 points, 13 boards and seven steals), Amari Kellam (13 points) and Zahmaria Robinson (11 points, five steals) accumulated some impressive numbers, though there were plenty of stats left in all columns to account for some other strong performances on the part of D’Nya Rozier, Jameria Bing, Layla Tanner, Quean Washington and Miyah Smith, who each offered an additional 4-7 points to a scoring total that appears to be the Lady Falcons’ highest in a game since Nov. 20, 2018 (when they dropped 85 on Harlem in a first of that season’s three 80-plus point efforts). 

East Laurens (11-3, 5-1) gave up Jefferson County’s lone field goal of the first half in between its early runs of 16 and 14 unanswered points, before scattering another 17 around a couple of isolated free throws over the remainder of the 47-4 first half. 

East Laurens boys 62, Jefferson Co. 60

A desperate 3-pointer that Braylon Makaya released – off of one foot from over 26 feet out – with no more than half a second remaining on the clock swished at the horn to force overtime, and the Falcons made the most of the miracle finish by outscoring Jefferson County 10-8 from there to pull off their sixth-straight win Tuesday night in Louisville. 

East trailed by six with 1:43 to go in regulation of the back-and-forth game, and was still down to its last hopes as the deficit lingered at four with about 13 remaining. But Jeremiah Rozier saved one from out of bounds for a Bryson Hazley basket that made it a two-point game, and the Warriors broke their streak of seven-straight missed free throws with the second of a pair to lead by three as the Falcons set up a final possession. 

Hazley got the inbound, and narrowly avoided a mishap as he double-clutched a pass and gave up control of his dribble. Rozier had to come to his rescue in the backcourt, but got the ball to Makaya deep on the right wing with just enough time left for the catch-and-shoot that found bullseye. 

Jefferson County, after a stop denied Keyshaun Lee’s go-ahead attempt and Rozier stretched the Falcons’ lead to the final two at the foul line, was called for a backbreaking double dribble as it tried to advance the ball for one more opportunity as East ran out the clock at the end of OT. 

Zion Dixon and Major Floyd had 10 each for the Eastside scoring lead. Makaya finished with eight. 

West Laurens girls 71, Westside Augusta 46

Brooklyn Jackson (26 points) and Maddie Ridgway (23) stayed hot, and Ja’Halee Snead put up an additional 12, as the Lady Raiders pulled away late to claim their second-straight victory. 

Westside, amazingly, managed to tie the score back up at 17s early in the second quarter after West Laurens raced out to a 13-1 lead from the tip. The cycle repeated as the Lady Raiders rattled off 12 unanswered, for a 30-22 lead at the half, but hit another lull midway through the third quarter. 

They’d finally put the Patriots away as the lead swelled back to double digits (13) by the end of the period, scoring 24 against their 11 in the fourth to ride off into the sunset. 

Westside 79, West Laurens boys 74

The Raiders (3-14, 1-9 region 4-AAA) were well within striking distance of a second region win as they made their move, after playing from an average of 2-4 points back since halftime, to tie and take the lead at the end of the third quarter. 

Westside, though, would surge back in front with a run to start the fourth, and led by too big a number as West Laurens made a few late stabs – narrowing the gap to five on a Brandon Stephens 3-pointer with 2:40 to go, and to four later at the foul line – but could never get back within a single possession.

Dublin girls 64, Toombs Co. 59

A 17-9 third quarter gave the Lady Irish (6-7, 2-3 region 2-High A) an upper hand late, and Khalil Maddox scored the final six points (with a 3, a 2 and a free throw) to preserve their four-point lead. 

Toombs Co. 56, Dublin boys 47

A combined 10-point shortfall for the Irish (3-9, 0-5 region 2-High A) in quarters 2 and 3 was their undoing as the Bulldogs stayed just out of reach, and hung on to split Tuesday’s non-region set in Lyons. 

Jaydon McRae went off for 22 points, and Jakarian Jones had seven rebounds and three steals. But Toombs, led by Parker Stanley’s 19 points, eight rebounds and four blocked shots, relied on a narrow defensive edge to overcome its negative disparity in turnovers, field goal and free throw percentage.

Next…

Another packed weekend of hoops action will have three local teams defending home court Friday night as Dublin hosts Washington County, East Laurens welcomes Dodge County and West Laurens entertains Howard. Trinity, a lone outlier, will head to Sandersville for the first of its two regular-season showdowns with rival Brentwood. 

It’ll be non-region rematches Saturday for both the Falcons, at Treutlen, and Irish, at Johnson County.