BIRMINGHAM – Patience and poise by Providence Christian’s defense were chief reasons why the Eagles from Dothan pulled our a very difficult 57-56 win over Decatur Heritage in the 105th AHSAA State Basketball Championships Class 2A boys’ semifinals Monday night at the BJCC Legacy Arena.
PCA (29-2), coached by Mark Wright, stopped the Eagles (21-9) from Decatur in the final 18 seconds – after Pearce Boone put his team ahead for good with a bucket in the paint.
Decatur Heritage, coached by Jason Marshall, went inside with three good shots in the paint – the final one being rejected by a block as the buzzer sounded.
Marshall’s team had 30 points in the paint for the night and cleared 11 offensive rebounds among their 38 for the game. Providence Christian had just 27 total rebounds but offset that deficit with 13 steals and forcing 15 turnovers.
“We knew it was going to be a battle”, a tremendous competitive basketball game, Just stayed the course (in regard to 3-point defense), said Wright. “We tried to run them off the 3-point line more in the second half.”
Decatur Heritage led 25-21 at the half, but Providence Christian turned things around in the third period outscoring DCA 20-9. Marshall’s Eagles, which had nine 3-point goals on the night, outscored PCA 22-16 in the fourth period but couldn’t get the final bucket to fall.
Logan Hagler had 15 points, eight rebounds and four assists for Providence. Pearce and Cas Boone had 13 points each with Pearce also pulling down eight rebounds and making four steals.
Haden Page drilled 6-of-10 shots from the 3-point arc and finished with 26 points to pace DCA. Karter Jeffries added nine points, Jordan Harris had eight, and Brady Wilson had six points, six assists and a team-high 10 rebounds.
Decatur Heritage’s Marshall said they knew Providence Christian was going to be a challenge.
“These guys prepared very hard, and our defense did a good job,” he said. “We just came up a little bit short. They have multiple different presses which got us out of our rhythm. Hayden shot it well to keep us in the game”
Providence Christian moves into Friday morning’s Class 2A state finals at Legacy Area at 10:45 a.m. The Eagles will meet the winner of the Tuscaloosa Academy-Section game set to be played in the final game Monday night.
