CARROLLTON, Ala. — The Pickens Academy girls basketball team has impeccable timing.
The only thing Wade Goodman could have wished for was a few more made free throws to make the final minutes of the 2016-17 season a little easier to handle. But Pickens Academy used a 16-point, 12-rebound effort from junior Olivia Lewis to beat South Choctaw Academy 39-36 on Saturday in the championship game of the Alabama Independent School Association Class AA State tournament in Montgomery, Alabama.
“We played our best basketball of the year at the state tournament,” Goodman said. “You want them to peak at the end of the year, but I wish we didn’t wait to the very end. I would have preferred for it to have been a week before, not the very end.”
For its accomplishment, the Pickens Academy girls basketball team is The Dispatch’s Prep Player of the Week.
Pickens Academy (19-4) led by as many as 12 points in the second half before it had to hang on for its fourth state championship (2003, 2010, 2013). The Lady Pirates also have finished second three times (1988, 2005, 2014).
Pickens Academy defeated South Choctaw Academy thanks to contributions from Kacy Noland, who had nine points and 10 rebounds, and Allison Latham, who had nine points and six rebounds. Lewis was named the tournament’s MVP, while Noland and Taylor Hickman were named to the all-tournament team.
On Friday, Pickens Academy beat Macon East 64-37 in the semifinals. Noland had 18 points and 14 rebounds, while Lewis had 17 points and six rebounds. Goodman called that game the best his team played all season.
In the Elite Eight, Pickens Academy beat Autauga 56-41. Noland had 17 points and 12 rebounds, Hickman had 15 points and 12 rebounds, and Lewis had 12 points and 10 rebounds.
South Choctaw Academy beat Wilcox Academy in the semifinals. Wilcox Academy beat South Choctaw Academy three times earlier in the season.
Goodman, who has guided Pickens Academy to the last three championships, said the team developed the mental toughness he had been looking for all season. He pointed to a 45-43 loss to Wilcox Academy in the region championship game as a turning point in that it proved to his players they were capable of competing for a state title.
“We could win the state championship,” said Goodman, who also coaches the football team and the fast-pitch softball teams at the school. “The team was good enough to win a state championship, but I don’t think they really believed that. I was trying to get them to believe and to be positive. Wilcox was 22-1, I think, coming into the game. We realized we could play with the best. I definitely think they needed that game to see we could play with them.”
Noland said Goodman repeatedly told the players they had what it takes to be state champions, but she didn’t think everyone believed it. She felt the loss to Wilcox Academy was an “eye-opener” and helped show them what they had to do to realize that goal. She said it was satisfying to play the best basketball of the season to achieve that dream.
“It felt great,” Noland said. “We all clicked that game (against South Choctaw Academy). It was a team effort. It was the best feeling.
“We worked so hard for it. This team is a dream team. The sky was the limit for this team, and I am so glad to be a part of it.”
Hickman said the team drew motivation from the fact everyone doubted it could win a state championship. She said the nickname “dream team” was forged from a bond many of his players have shared since starting out together in the sixth grade and winning a championship in the ninth grade. She said it was a different feeling winning a state championship as a senior.
“Defense is our main key to winning, and I think we played some pretty solid defense,” Hickman said.
Senior Abigail Colvin said the Lady Pirates were together “all of the time” for much of the season, which helped foster the team bonds a championship contender needs to complete that run. She said everyone knew their teammates had their backs, so the players never doubted each other. Colvin feels that support helped erase any doubts the players had they could win a state title.
“We had some doubts but never in each other,” Colvin said. “Everyone was always encouraging and always there.”
Goodman said Lewis, the team’s point guard, mirrored the maturation of the team in becoming a more assertive floor general. He said she helped set the tone in run to the championship by playing with confidence.
“I had talked myself into it about being more determined and confident individually and trying to get everyone on the same page,” Lewis said. “That was mostly it for me, not doubting because if you doubt and second guess it, it is not going to work.
“I just had a really good feeling about the team. We were all on the same page and ready to roll.”
Goodman said Noland, who moved from guard to the post, led the team early in the season before the Lady Pirates started to get bigger contributions from Hickman, one of the leading rebounders; Latham, the “best shooter I have ever had,” Goodman said; and Lewis.
Seniors Catherine Gay and Katie Jones, junior Lauren Duckworth, sophomore Anna Kate Dykes, and freshmen Carleigh Cameron, Caroline Lewis, Shelby Lowe, and Jessi Latham rounded out a squad Allison Latham said deserves the nickname “dream team.”
“It is like playing with your best friends every day,” Latham said. “It is really just so much fun, and I think the dream team is a perfect way to describe it.
“Basketball is such a role game, so you have to trust each girl is going to do their role. We have been together for so long and we are so close that we have that trust in each and other and we know that together we can get what we want done.”
Follow Dispatch sports editor Adam Minichino on Twitter @ctsportseditor
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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