Rogers coach Blake Prestage opened a Twitter account Thursday night and promised his players he would use it if they won a state title.
Get ready for the tweets to fly ... #statechamps.
Most Valuable Player Madie Krieger scored a game-high 23 points as the Pirates built an 11-point halftime lead and held on to beat Anniston 46-38 in the Class 4A championship game at Legacy Arena in Birmingham.
“I made a lot of promises to these girls,” Prestage said. “There is a lot of stuff I’ll have to do. But, yes, you will see me on Twitter.”
As of Friday night, Prestage’s account had 49 followers, five likes and no tweets ... yet.
But he did fulfill his promise and tweet early Saturday morning.
Rogers (32-3) had never won a regional game before this season. The sixth-ranked Pirates leave Birmingham as state champs.
“I have nothing but happiness and excitement for our team,” said Krieger, a freshman. “We’ve worked so hard for this. It’s awesome to see it paying off. I’m looking forward to the next few years.”
Rogers took the lead for good with a 21-5 run to end the first quarter. The Pirates led 21-10 going into the second quarter and 32-21 at the half. The pace slowed considerably in the second half with Rogers choosing to take the air out of the ball a little bit and both teams struggling from the field.
The Bulldogs and Pirates combined for just five third-quarter points.
“We had a plan and, as usual, the girls executed it to perfection,” Prestage said. “We held No. 3 (Anniston’s Allasha Dudley) to four points, which was huge. We had no turnovers in the first half. We hit a scoring drought in the third, but we are so good defensively it didn’t hurt us. This is one of the best games we’ve played defensively all year.”
Anniston (29-5) clawed back to within six, 44-38, in the final minute before time ran out. The Pirates won despite making just two shots in the second half.
Game ball: Krieger was just 6-of-17 from the field and 1-of-6 from 3-point range, but she hit 10-of-11 free throws. She scored 11 of her team’s 14 second-half points.
Game ball II: Gloria Pounders drew the defensive assignment on Dudley. She limited her to 2-of-12 shooting from the field and 0-of-6 from 3-point range.
“We just told her to stay up in her,” Prestage said. “She had a lot of help from other girls as well. We wanted to keep a hand up because she has a really good shot. Gloria guards the other team’s best player every night. She’s done it all year. I’d hate to play against her. I have played against her in practice, and it’s not fun.”
Key sequence: Rogers’ first-quarter spurt proved to be the difference.
Stat sheet: Rogers – Erin Brown finished with nine points. Gabrielle Davis had 10 rebounds. Anniston – Toniah Foster had 13 points and seven rebounds. Jordyn Johnson had 10 rebounds.
By the numbers: Anniston was just 16-of-60 from the field (26.7 percent) and 3-of-22 from 3-point range (13.6 percent). The Bulldogs shot just six free throws, making half of them. Rogers was 15-of-49 from the field (30.6 percent) and 5-of-20 from 3-point range (25 percent). The Pirates were 11-of-17 from the free throw line.
Coachspeak: “You can never count this team out. I told someone that today. I would not bet against this team. I don’t care who we are playing.” – Prestage
They said it:
“We couldn’t quite get into a rhythm. We knew they were a great 3-point shooting team, and we worked on that. We dug ourselves an early hole. We tried to do what we needed to do, but we couldn’t get over that hump.” – Anniston coach Eddie Bullock
“I feel like the big games we played throughout the year helped us today. Our schedule was stacked with some tough teams. It allowed us to keep our calm.” – Rogers junior Gabby Davis.
“In Class 4A, we were one of the last two teams standings. That in itself is a win.” – Bullock
“She denied me and, if I went around her, another person was there to help out. I tried to find a way, it just didn’t work out today.” – Dudley on Pounders’ defense