Andrew Jackson beats Landrum 78-60 to capture AA girls basketball state title
Alexander returns from broken foot to join Watkins, Asbelle in leading Volunteers to crown
Florence – The Andrew Jackson High School girls basketball team had a surprise waiting for everyone at the AA girls basketball state championship game on Friday at Florence Center: Six-foot sophomore Ayona Alexander in uniform ready to play.
And play she did.
Alexander, who had missed the past 12 games with a broken bone in her right foot, scored 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds in her return. She joined with junior AA Player of the Year Tamia Watkins and fellow sophomore Ni’Yonna Asbelle to lead the Volunteers to a 78-60 victory over Landrum.
“We wanted to keep the cat in the bag and not let it out to the media,” said AJHS head coach Steven Fair of finding out on Tuesday that Alexander had been cleared to play. “We were like kids at Christmas when we got the news. She came out and did amazing.”
“It feels good to be back on the court,” said Alexander, who finished the season averaging 18.6 points and 12.3 rebounds per game. “It was like 12 games I was out. It felt great when they told me I could play. I prayed, I prayed every night. I trusted God that I would get to come back for this.”
Alexander’s return gave Andrew Jackson access to three strong 6-footers along with the 6-2 Watkins and the 6-0 Asbelle. Watkins, who returned to AJHS after playing at Legion Collegiate Academy last season, scored 26 points and grabbed 19 rebounds. She finished with a 26.4 scoring average.
Asbelle had 19 points, connecting on 7 of 10 free throws. She had a strong floor game with six rebounds, two assists, three steals and three blocked shots.
“Tamia Watkins was incredible, doing what she always does,” Fair said. “She stepped up big. Ni’yonna Asbelle really got going after a slow start.”
Landrum head coach Jared St. Charles said he and his team didn’t know prior to the game whether Alexander would be available.
“She didn’t play last Saturday (in the upper state title game, which was played at Florence Center along with the lower state title game last week),” St. Charles said. “I told the girls all week that she could play. We had heard she could be back, so we game-planned both ways.
“In all honesty, we weren’t going to do things a while lot different if she played or not. But when you add another big who can give you 20 points near the rim and score efficicently, that is big.”
“Alexander is great player,” Watkins said. “We were able to pull it through (to the title game), but we really needed her this game. She stepped up to the table. I’m glad she was able to come back. She helped a lot. “
Landrum, which finished with a 27-4 record like Andrew Jackson, jumped out a 12-5 lead in the early going. The Volunteers began to use man-to-man pressure defense to flip the momentum, pulling within 21-18 at the end of the first quarter.
AJHS continued to roll in the second quarter, scoring 19 more points while opening a 37-30 halftime lead. The Cardinals had 20 turnovers as Andrew Jackson finished with 15 steals, 10 of them coming in the first half.
“Coach Fair called a timeout, and he said calm down, it’s OK,” said Watkins, who had six of the 15 steals. “He said, ‘Go out there and do what AJ knows how to do.’ We went man, and coach told us that they didn’t have the best ball handlers. We knew we had to apply pressure, and once we applied pressure we got going.”
` “A deflection is a win for us,” said Fair, a 1990 graduate of AJHS. “Our pressure picked up a little bit and turned them into easy baskets on the other end. We had deflections, steal, turnovers.”
Landrum stayed in the hunt in the third quarter, pulling within 43-40 on a free throw by Kaylee Cortez with 4:52 remaining in the third quarter. However, AJHS got a jumper from Alexander and two free throws from Asbelle to make it 47-40.
A couple of baskets by LHS' Savannah Brown made it 49-44 with 1:28 left in the quarter. The Volunteers ran off six points by the end of the quarter on a layup by Trinity Delly, a jumper from Alexander and a layup from Asbelle on a nice assist from Watkins to make it 55-44 entering the fourth quarter.
Kylie Fortner hit a 3-point shot to open the fourth quarter, bringing HLS within 55-47 Watkins came up with a jumper, Emiley McCall drained a 3 and Asbelle hit a jumper to make it 62-47 with 5L32 left.
McCall finished with nine points, hitting on 3 of 6 3-pointers. She also had four rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Brown and Fortner both had 19 points to lead Landrum. Brown had seven rebounds, five assists and four steals, while Fortner had three rebounds and three assists.
Cortez had 12 ponts, while Emalynn Bright had seven rebounds and five points. Sydney Price had five points, four assists and two steals.
“We had a great season,” St. Charles said. “I thought we could do this from the start of the season. We did a lot of good things this year. We had a tremendous season. I’m proud of them, we just came up a little short.”
Fair thanked the Andrew Jackson fans for traveling to Florence from Kershaw to support the Volunteers. The fan base had he facility rocking from beginning to end.
“It’s a very small town, but we’ve got big hearts,” Fair said of the Lancaster County town. “Any time any athletic team plays, they show up in big numbers.”
“It means a lot to win this,” Watkins said. “Little kids look up to us. Everybody wanted to win, and we pulled it out. It means a lot.”
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