West Morgan boys, Priceville girls take home championship trophies

The West Morgan boys won their first championship since 2015 in a nail-bitter over Priceville, 46-44.

The Priceville girls won their second straight county tournament in blowout fashion. Priceville beat Falkville, 79-24.

The West Morgan win gives head coach Sam Brown his 11th Morgan County Tournament championship. He won eight at Brewer and now has three at West Morgan.

“None (of the previous 10) was any harder to win than this game,” Brown said. “We won two games in this tournament each by two points. Hopefully that should give us some confidence going forward.”

The Priceville girls came out on fire. The Bulldogs jumped on Falkville for a 23-3 lead in the first quarter. It was 51-16 at halftime. This is the program’s second county championship all-time.

“Winning that first one last year was special and this one is just as special,” Priceville coach Terrie Nelson said.

Priceville beat Danville, 65-27, in Thursday’s semifinals. The Bulldogs won their two tournament games by a combined margin of 93 points. That came after a home loss to area rival Good Hope on Jan. 13.

“We stepped up our game in a big way this week,” Nelson said. “Our intensity on defense improved. I saw a lot of good things on offense.”

West Morgan senior Carson Muse was named the boys MVP after scoring nine points and blocking a shot in the final seconds to help secure the victory.

“It took a lot of hard work to get to this night,” Muse said. “This is a great win that’s going to help us a lot the rest of the season.”

Priceville sophomore Leslie Hames was named the girls MVP after scoring 25 points in the championship game. She hit five 3-point field goals. Her sister, senior Lauren Hames, scored 19 points.

“I really thought she was going to be the MVP,” Leslie said. “It’s exciting to win this tournament and have our team playing like this.”

West Morgan boys 46, Priceville 44: The game was tied 44-44 with 2:24 to play. The final 144 seconds were frantic with missed scoring opportunities for both sides. West Morgan missed eight straight free throws.

The winning basket came on a Muse dunk with 1:59 to play.

Priceville had two possessions in the final 17 seconds left with the opportunity to tie the game or take the lead. Muse’s block forced the ball out of bounds with 02.8 seconds to play. A Priceville field goal at the buzzer missed.

Isaac Ward led West Morgan with 12 points. Jalen Fletcher scored 11.

Priceville had 16 points from Sammy Holmes, 10 from Cole Lindeman, 8 from Caleb Lawrence and 7 from Jake Langlois.

Priceville and West Morgan are Class 4A, Area 13 rivals. This was the third meeting this season. Priceville won at West Morgan, 63-45. West Morgan won at Priceville, 50-31.

West Morgan lost to Priceville in last year’s county tournament semifinals, 55-54.

Brown’s 11 championships have him knocking on the door of history. Former Brewer girls coach Ricky Allen has the most with 17. Former Austin coach Joe Jones has 16.

Priceville girls 79, Falkville 24: Playing in the finals has become old hat for the Priceville girls. This was their fourth time in the finals in the last five years. The Bulldogs beat Falkville last year, lost to Brewer in 2019 and Hartselle in 2020. There was no tournament in 2021 due to COVID.

It didn’t take long after Saturday’s win for the talk of three-peat to be heard among the players and fans.

“Since we have just two seniors on this team we hope to play in the finals again next year,” Nelson said. “We have a lot of girls with talent and experience returning.”

The seniors are Lauren Hames and Zoey Benson, who was last year’s tournament MVP. Benson scored 10 points. Freshman Abby Langlois scored 11 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Priceville hit eight 3s.

Falkville was led by junior Ellie Cate Hill with 11 points.

Friday’s results

Falkville girls 46, West Morgan 41: Hill led Falkville with 18 points, including three 3-point baskets. She also had eight rebounds. Ella Wallace had 10 points. Abby Grace Tomlin added seven.

Chasity Rikard’s 12 points led West Morgan. The Rebels got seven points each from Brooklyn Hunt, Brandy Hernandez and Shaylee Terry.

Priceville boys 72, Danville 29: The Bulldogs put on an amazing performance right from the start. They led 15-3 with 2:44 left in the first quarter. The lead was 62-23 after three quarters.

Holmes topped the Priceville scoring with 18 points. Right behind him was Lindeman with 17. Tyler Case scored 14 and Langolis had seven. Gage Taylor had 12 for Danville.