TRENDON WATFORD POWERS SPARTANS BACK TO CLASS 7A FINAL

Hall of Fame Central-Phenix City coach Bobby Wright just smiled when asked what impressed him about Mountain Brook star junior Trendon Watford. “Honestly, everything,” Wright said. The 6-foot-9 standout fueled a 22-9 third-quarter run as the top-ranked Spartans pulled away for a convincing 70-42 victory over Wright’s Red Devils in the Class 7A state semifinals at the BJCC’s Legacy Arena on Thursday. Mountain Brook (33-4) will play for its fourth state title since 2013 at 5:45 p.m. Saturday. The Spartans will play No. 5 McGill-Toolen (25-6). Mountain Brook beat the Yellow Jackets 52-41 in the state semifinals in 2017. “I thought we played a really good team and played really well today,” Spartans’ coach Bucky McMillan said. “Sometimes you can look at the scoreboard and it doesn’t reflect the way the game was played. The score can get away. This was a six-point game at the half, but I thought our depth played a major role in the third quarter.” Mountain Brook led just 28-22 entering the third, but Watford scored nine points during the Spartans’ decisive run. His monster dunk with 5:25 left bumped the lead to 43-26. Central (21-5) couldn’t recover. “It wasn’t the best one I’ve ever had,” Watford said of his dunk. He scored 11 points in the quarter and finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds to lead his team. The Spartans led 54-40 heading to the fourth. The 28-point final was Mountain Brook’s largest margin of the game. “I think we just gave out of gas,” Wright said. “We weren’t playing as many guys as they were playing. We had about an eight-man rotation. Also, when you are behind, you exert more energy. We were playing extremely hard, but we all know basketball is a game of runs. They had two good ones, and we couldn’t recover.” Game ball: Watford scored 14 of his game-high 22 points in the second half. He was 8-of-12 from the field and 6-of-12 from the free throw line. He also had two blocks and two assists. Stat sheet: For Mountain Brook, Lior Berman had 13 points and six rebounds. Sean Elmore chipped in 11 and also had six rebounds. For Central, Clemson football signee Justyn Ross and De’Anthony Miles each had 11 points. Tremaine Porter had 10. By the numbers: 33 – rebounds for Mountain Brook compared to 22 for Central. 23 – points off the bench for the Spartans. CPC had just four. … 38 – points in the paint for Mountain Brook. … 54 – percent of shots Mountain Brook hit from the field on 26-of-48 shooting. The Red Devils shot just 18-of-45 (40 percent). … 2 – 3-pointers in 15 tries for Central. Coachspeak: “This is the fifth time in six years we’ve been in the state championship game. If someone had said that in Mountain Brook five or six years ago I don’t know that anyone would think that was possible. That’s a major credit to this team, but it’s also a credit to past teams that have made this environment feel like him. I’m elated for these guys and what they will have a chance to do on Saturday.” – McMillan. They said it ... : “We wanted to come out in the second half amped up. No one was in foul trouble. We thought we could be really aggressive.” – Watford on the team’s third-quarter run. “I think there is something special about this team. We seem more together than in past years. We’ve got good leadership, guys who have been here before, and we are close.” – Elmore. “We’ve all been here before. We’ve got a lot of returnees. I don’t think anyone on our team gets caught up being on the big stage. We’ve been playing on it all year.” – Watford. “I wanted to dunk it and get the crowd fired up but I missed it. But Trendon got it and dunked it so technically I dunked it.” – Berman after he missed a fourth-quarter dunk that was followed up by Watford. “We did a good job in the first half containing No. 2 (Watford) and trying to stay with 23 (Elmore) and 3 (Britton Johnson). We felt if we could limit the touches for those guys, we could have a decent game. We did fairly well in the first half, but it got away from us after that.” – Wright.

TRENDON WATFORD POWERS SPARTANS BACK TO CLASS 7A FINAL

Photo Credit: Mark Almond