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Spain Park’s Camille Chase, above, tied for a game-high 14 points with Sarah Ashlee Barker to help lead the Jags to an area-opening win against Mountain Brook. (For the Reporter/Dawn Harrison)

By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor 

HOOVER – As has become common throughout the season, the Spain Park Jaguars girls basketball team saw three different players score in double figures on Tuesday, Jan. 8, to kick off area play with a dominant 23-point victory against the Mountain Brook Spartans.

The Lady Jags saw 11 points from Bailey Bowers and 14 apiece from Sarah Ashlee Barker and Camille Chase, who is getting her feet back under her after a difficult surgery.

Those three combined for 39 of Spain Park’s 60 points, while a total of six players had at least five points in the game to lead the Jaguars to a 60-37 victory to open area play 1-0.

Spain Park (18-4, 1-0), who has been a sharp 3-point shooting team thus far, didn’t hold back in the first quarter by hitting five shots from beyond the arc in the period to account for 15 of the Jags’ 17 opening-period points.

On the other end of the floor, they were able to lock in defensively and limit the Spartans to just three made field goals and two made free throws for just nine points, which gave Spain Park a 17-9 lead at the end of one.

While the start was impressive on both ends of the floor, the defense only got better in the second quarter.

The Jags didn’t give up a single field goal making Mountain Brook work for every shot, which led to just four points from the Spartans in the frame, all of which came at the free throw line.

While Spain Park’s offense wasn’t knocking down as many shots offensively, the Jags were able to hit two more 3-pointers for their sixth and seventh of the game, which helped them post 10 points in the quarter.

Thanks in large part to Chase having nine points, all from beyond the arc, and that strong defensive effort, Spain park took a 27-13 lead into the break.

In the third quarter, a different style of game broke out, as Barker and Mountain Brooks Ann Valverde went had-to-head offensively.

The Spartans were able to post their first double-digit quarter of the game thanks solely to Valverde who posted all 11 of the team’s points with a 3-4 mark at the free throw line, one jumper and two made 3-pointers.

Barker, however, was right there with answers throughout posting 10 points of her own, including three jumpers and one 3-pointer.

The difference in the period was the help Barker received from Bowers with five points and Parks with a 3-pointer. Those two adding eight points allowed the Jaguars to have their best offensive quarter of the game and extend their lead to 21 points at 45-24.

Mountain Brook answered with its best quarter of the game in the final frame posting 13 points behind five different scorers, but the Jags were there with an answer to every basket again.

Chase, Kamryn Corey and Caroline Keith all had one jumper and one 3-pointer made for five points in the quarter to give the Jags 15 total points and a run-away 60-37 victory.

Behind the top three scorers for the Jags, Keith had eight points, Corey had five points and Mackenzie Culpepper had three points.

The Spartans were led by 19 from Valverde.

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