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Evangel's boys and girls basketball teams post with their ACSC State Championship trophies after each won the title on Saturday, Feb. 16. (Reporter photo/Keith McCoy)

By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

HOMEWOOD – A historic 2018-19 season for both the Evangel boys and girls basketball teams came to a fitting end on Saturday, Feb. 16, as both Lightning squads hoisted state championship trophies inside Samford’s Seibert Hall.

The girls capped off a 24-2 season by taking down Ezekiel Academy 35-24 in the ACSC State Championship game, while the boys took to the court directly after and followed with a 72-52 victory against Ezekiel as well.

For the boys, it marked an incredible victory against an Ezekiel team that had four all-conference players and was 20-2 overall with its two losses coming to an AISA Final Four team.

The Lightning weren’t able to play to their pace in the opening quarter of the game and fell behind 18-16 at the end of the first period.

“I just explained to them that we weren’t playing our pace,” head coach Hagan Joiner said. “I said ‘We can’t give up these easy second chance buckets on defense.’”

Then in the second quarter, a big time move paid off for Joiner and his team.

“I didn’t go man-to-man in either of our two regular-season matchups with Ezekiel, but I was taught to keep something in your back pocket for the tournament,” Joiner said. “We threw different stuff at them in the regular season, but I knew our man-to-man defense would cause them fits.”

And sure enough it did.

Evangel started grabbing rebounds, and their hounding man-to-man defense helped limit Ezekiel to six points in the second quarter, while the Lightning scored 19 points behind eight points from Peyton Lawrence.

Now leading 35-24 at the half, Joiner had a simple message for his team.

“I just told them, ‘I only coach winners, not losers,’ he said before finishing with, ‘Now let’s get back on the court and be waiting for them when they walk out of the locker room.’”

Joiner also told his team how important the first five minutes of the second half would be in determining the outcome.

Knowing Ezekiel would likely come out having to play man-to-man, something they didn’t have to do much in the regular season due to blowing teams out, Joiner said his team knew exactly what they wanted to do.

“We had worked on a play in practice featuring several screens that led to wide open layups consistently, and we wanted to try that out,” he said.

Sure enough the play worked two different times and led to easy baskets. It also helped open up outside shooters for two 3-pointers in the quarter, as the Lightning were able to withstand a run from Ezekiel by posting 11 more points to take their lead into the final quarter.

A team that has harped itself on making free throws all season long, was forced to the line 27 times in the final quarter as Ezekiel tried to play its way back in the game.

The Lightning, however, were too good from the stripe and drained 19 of those 27 free throws to pull away for the dominant win. In the final quarter, Hudson Hobs shot 10-12 from the free throw line, while Lawrence was 6-6 to help the team put up 26 points in the period.

Those two ended up leading the team in scoring with Hobbs posting 25 points and Lawrence right behind with eight points. Carson Hendon added double figures with 11 points as well.

“To lose to a team twice in the regular season and have no one give you much of a chance in the state championship, and to win by 20 is an amazing memory these kids will never forget,” Joiner said.

Joiner also credited the practice and work ethic leading up to the game as playing a part in the win.

“They understood they hadn’t worked hard enough during the season to derive to be champions yet,” Joiner said. “I worked these kids harder than they have ever worked. Our season changed in those practices.”

Joiner said the team spent an entire practice outside at night in the cold rain doing wheelbarrows to prepare not only for the physical battle of the final four, but the reliability of teammates.

“The boys pushed through it and you could see our demeanor change,” he said. “We did that to make them rely on one another to accomplish a goal.” 

Evangel girls

For the girls, it marked a tale of two halves. After trailing 14-6 at halftime thanks to offensive struggles in the first two quarters, Evangel flipped the script in the second half and posted 12 points in the third quarter and 17 points in the fourth quarter to pull off a 35-24 victory.

Defensively, the Lightning were sound throughout the game and allowed no more than eight points in any of the four quarters of play, but it was a struggle early offensively.

While Evangel’s defense came ready to play in the opening quarter allowing a total of six points, the offense lagged behind posting just two points.

Still though, the 6-2 deficit with the way the Lightning’s defense was playing wasn’t too much of a concern.

In the second quarter, however, the offense still struggled to find some success, posing just four more points. Ezekiel ended up posting eight more points in the frame, but luckily for Evangel, that was the most the Knights were able to put on the board in any quarter.

Down 14-6 with little to no offense, the halftime break couldn’t have come at a better time for Evangel.

Knowing how well the defense was playing, it was easy to make halftime adjustments, knowing that if they could see a shot or two fall, the game would take a different turn.

That’s exactly what happened in the second half.

The Lightning came out with a little more determination on the offensive end and let the defense spark the offense.

Evangel forced 20 turnovers in the game, a large chunk of which came in the second half to lead to success on offense.

With a growing confidence on the offensive end, the Lightning started playing their best basketball and outscored Ezekiel 12-4 in the third quarter to pull even at 18-18 heading to the final period.

With the score now tied, it was a new ball game heading to the final eight minutes of the contest.

Now playing with a ton of confidence on offense, and knowing the defense wasn’t going to give up any chunk of points, Evangel sat in a good spot, which led to the Lightning’s best quarter of the game at the best possible moment of the season.

Evangel closed out the state championship win by outscoring the Knights 17-6 in the final quarter to pull away for the 35-24 victory.

Photos available at Shelbycountyphotos.com.

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