By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor 

Boys 

Spain Park 43, Mountain Brook 61 

The Spain Park Jaguars held with No. 1 Mountain Brook for three quarters on Tuesday night, but in the end Trendon Watford’s 10 fourth-quarter points were too much as the Spartans pulled off a 61-43 win.

Spain Park fell behind 18-11 after one period of play, but bounced back in the second period with 14 points from five different players, which cut the deficit to two points at the halftime break.

The Jags then got 10 points from Cam Crawford in the third quarter to keep pace with the Spartans and go to the final quarter down 42-38.

In the final quarter, however, Watford got hot with his five made field goals, while the Jags went cold and made just two 3-pointers to drop the game 61-43.

Crawford led the way for Spain Park with 15 points, while Austin Laatsch added 10 points.

Thompson 47, Tuscaloosa County 21

The Thompson Warriors picked up their 15th win of the season on the road Tuesday night by taking down the Wildcats of Tuscaloosa County 47-21.

With the 26-point win, the Warriors used strong defense throughout to improve to 15-5 overall and 1-0 in area play. 

Briarwood 59, Ramsay 70

The Briarwood Lions basketball team has been on a roll early in the season, but have hit a difficult stretch of their schedule and on Tuesday night, they ran into a scrappy Ramsay squad.

While BCS put together a strong effort, the Rams ended up pulling off an 11-point 70-59 victory.

Briarwood is now 9-8 overall and 0-1 in area play, but Ramsay should be the toughest area team they play throughout the next few weeks. Hayden Lamey led the Lions with 18 points, while Cal Reebals posted 11. 

Shelby County 53, Pell City 58

Last time the Shelby County Wildcats hit the floor, Nathan Bates dropped a career-high 36 points in a 70-59 victory against St. Clair County to improve to 7-6 overall.

On Tuesday night, the Wildcats squared off against 6A Pell City and dropped a difficult 58-53 game to the Panthers on the road, but continue to show promise and improvement.

Now 7-7 overall, Shelby County is more importantly already 2-0 in area play. They’ll likely compete with Marbury for the area championship having already beaten the other two opponents in the area once, and with Bates ready to go off on any given night and role players like Tae Whetstone and other young guys growing, the Wildcats can only improve. 

Montevallo 47, Leeds 54

The Montevallo Bulldogs hit the road on Tuesday to take on area foe Leeds, but were unable to remain perfect in area play with a tough seven-point 54-47 loss.

Montevallo was 2-0 in area play heading into the game, but was unable to pull off that third area win on the road.

There is still plenty of season left for the Bulldogs, however, as they sit in a five-team area and have already beaten two of those teams in Oak Grove and Indian Springs. How they fare against Childersburg and Leeds the rest of the season, will be the key factor to their postseason chances.

Girls

Thompson 35, Tuscaloosa County 57

The Thompson Warriors fell to 0-1 in area play and 7-11 overall after dropping a difficult road contest to the Wildcats by a final score of 57-35.

Competing in an area against Oak Mountain and No. 1 Hoover, the Warriors will look to take the learning experience and use it to fuel strong performances in the future.

Briarwood 20, Ramsay 59

Like the boys, the Briarwood girls took on Ramsay to open area play and dropped a 59-20 game.

For the Lions, it was a matchup against the No. 2 ranked Rams who are a favorite to make it to Birmingham to compete for a state championship this year.

With games against John Carroll and Woodlawn in area play, they’ll still have a solid chance at the postseason this year.

Briarwood is now 7-4 overall and 0-1 in area play.

Shelby County 45, Pell City 42

The Shelby County girls basketball team continues to not only be one of the county’s best teams but the state’s as well after a tightly-contested 45-42 road victory against Pell City.

While it was a close game throughout, the Wildcats picked up yet another win against a team in a higher classification and against a good Pell City team that had won six of its last eight games.

Shelby County is now 16-1 overall and still remains at 2-0 in area play as they’ll get back to area contests in the next few games.

Montevallo 37, Leeds 42

The Leeds Greenwave were able to pull off the sweep of Montevallo on Tuesday night, taking down the girls by a final score of 42-37 to hand the Bulldogs their first area loss of the season.

Montevallo was 2-0 in area play heading into the game, but dropped a closely-contested game and fell to 2-1 in the area and 5-8 overall.

The Bulldogs’ overall record isn’t as good as they want it to be but is due to a very difficult non-area schedule this season. Despite the area loss to Leeds, this is a battle-tested team that should still compete for an area championship moving forward this season.

Vincent 40, Altamont 42 

The Vincent Yellow Jackets dropped their area opener in heartbreaking fashion on Tuesday night by two points to Altamont at home. 

Westminster-Oak Mountain

A difficult schedule so far this season has led to Westminster at Oak Mountain trading win for loss throughout the season, but on Tuesday, Jan. 8, there was a little extra effort from the Knights to open area play.

Still a threat to make the Final Four in Class 1A, the Knights were able to pick up a dominant 50-17 victory against Heritage Christian Academy on the same day girls soccer head coach Ken Headley passed away.

A few of the school’s soccer players actually compete on the basketball team as well, and that along with extra motivation from the entire school to make Headley proud, led to a valiant effort from the Knights in the win.