By Lee Davis
Spain Park and Mountain Brook weren’t playing for a state, regional or even an area basketball championship last Friday night.
But a casual spectator would never have known it based on the intensity of the fans in the stands and the quality of the play on the court.
The home-standing Jaguars defeated the Spartans 77-65 in a Class 7A Area 6 battle that actually lived up to the hype that surrounded it.
Much of the pre-game conversation centered around Austin Wiley, Spain Park’s 6-foot-11-inch junior who already has committed to Auburn University, and Trendon Watford, Mountain Brook’s highly-touted freshman guard who had missed several games with an injury.
Both lived up to their billing. Wiley scored 28 points, grabbed 12 rebounds, blocked six shots and performed as many crowd-pleasing dunks as you’re likely to see in an NBA game. Watford, considered by some to be potentially the greatest high school basketball player to ever come out of Alabama, countered with 28 points.
The Spartans jumped to an early lead, but the Jaguars moved to a two-point advantage toward the end of the first half.
Mountain Brook played for the last shot in the final seconds before Spain Park’s Jamal Johnson, the son of former Alabama star Buck Johnson, stole a pass and raced to the basket to give his team a 32-28 halftime lead. Johnson’s heroics generated the momentum that carried the Jags through the third quarter and ultimately on to victory. He finished with 20 points.
Ben McCool added 15 points for the Spartans. Jack Kline, Mountain Brooks’ savvy senior leader, was held to only five.
Spain Park may have scored more points than Mountain Brook, but there were no losers at the Jaguars’ gymnasium that night. And there was one big winner – Over the Mountain basketball.
This area’s success in basketball in just the last three years has been nothing short of phenomenal, with Mountain Brook winning back-to-back state crowns before Hoover claimed the blue trophy last season.
Homewood’s girls also claimed the Class 6A title in 2015-16. The Patriot boys are perennial Final Four contenders. Longtime Vestavia Hills boys coach George Hatchett has two state titles under his belt. John Carroll Catholic was a dominant program a decade ago. The Hoover girls program has been one of the state’s best for years.
Despite the evidence, the image persists statewide that basketball plays second-fiddle to football and perhaps even soccer in this area.
Anyone who braved the cold weather and the crowd to attend the Spain Park-Mountain Brook game last Friday night knows that the notion of basketball as a stepchild is nonsense. You would be hard-pressed to find a better, more electric excitement for basketball at most college games. And there might not be many better teams in the state than the Jaguars and Spartans.
The players themselves seemed to appreciate the significance of the evening.
“It was crazy,” Spain Park’s Johnson said. “The atmosphere was great and the fans were great. Mountain Brook is great, too. It was a fantastic game.”
From the Spartans’ standpoint, the good news is that they will get a chance to fight again. The game ended with a to-be-continued feeling in the air, as Mountain Brook probably did not play its best game defensively and would normally expect to get more points out of Kline. The best news for players and fans alike is that they won’t have to wait long for the rematch; Spain Park will go to the Spartans’ gym on Jan. 19. You might want to get there early.
Of course, the second regular season game may not be the end of the story. It’s quite possible that the pair could meet a third time in the Class 7A Area 6 tournament and, with a break or two, even square off again at a neutral site in the Northeast Regionals.
Some basketball critics think that teams meeting multiple times during a year can diminish the meaning of the regular season. There is a case to be made for that view, but when it comes to Spain Park versus Mountain Brook, the fans can’t get enough of a good thing. And that’s good news for everybody – and for Over the Mountain basketball in particular.
