High School Sports

JACKSONVILLE — Clay-Chalkville may not have walked out of Jacksonville State’s Pete Mathews Coliseum with a sparkling shooting percentage. However, when you shoot the ball as many times as they do, the law of averages is bound to put you ahead.

Friday, it did as Clay-Chalkville defeated Mountain Brook 75-57 in the Class 6A Northeast Regional finals. The win puts Clay-Chalkville in the Final Four against Selma on Friday morning at 9 a.m.

The Lady Cougars attempted nearly as many 3-pointers (35) as Mountain Brook did shots from the field (45). Clay-Chalkville knocked down a dozen of those treys and 19 free throws to come within two points of the Lady Spartans’ grand total. Clay-Chalkville took 58 shots for the game.

Clay-Chalkville shot 34 percent from 3-point land and 38 percent from the field.

Alex Strickland was the biggest factor in the Lady Cougars’ barrage of 3s. She was 5-for-11 and finished with a game-high 25 points. Six players attempted 3-pointers for Clay-Chalkville. Lauren Baxter hit the second-most treys, three, and finished with nine points.

Brantli Nichols added 15 points and Cece Kennon 14.

For Mountain Brook (22-6), Alexandra Morgan had 18 points and Jackie Higgenbotham 13.

Clay-Chalkville took a 10-point lead into halftime and stretched that lead to as many as 21 points before the third quarter was done with their 25-point, eight-minute explosion.

Mountain Brook had one surge left in it, but it couldn’t sustain that surge nearly long enough.

With 4:33 remaining, a 3-pointer by Mountain Brook’s Higgenbotham cut the deficit to 10, but then the Lady Spartans went more than three minutes without another basket. It wasn’t until 1:15 remaining that Mountain Brook (22-6) got another basket — a layup by Higgenbothem. That bucket made it 71-57, but it turned out to be the final bucket by the Lady Spartans.