Vigor’s Devan Whitsett drives into the lane against LeFlore during the Wolves’ 57-50 win in the Class 5A South Regional finals Tuesday at Garrett Coliseum in Montgomery. Whitsett scored 13 points and was named the regional MVP. (Helen Joyce/Call News)
Vigor’s Aslan Jones slams to cap a closing 17-2 run in the Wolves’ win over LeFlore Tuesday in Montgomery. (Helen Joyce/Call News)
By JIMMY WIGFIELD
MONTGOMERY — When Lee Riley first met with his players after he took the job as Vigor’s coach last summer, his players belabored last year’s loss in the state championship game.
“When I first got the job, that was the first thing they were talking about,” he said. “How they felt last year, how they don’t want to feel that feeling again. And it showed tonight on the court they don’t want to feel that way again.”
After losing to No. 6-ranked LeFlore twice earlier in the season, the Wolves wore down the Rattlers with their overwhelming bench strength and pressure defense in a 57-50 victory in the Class 5A South Regional finals Tuesday at Garrett Coliseum.
The victory sent Vigor (18-9) back to Birmingham’s Legacy Arena to play No. 8 Guntersville (23-9) in the state tournament semifinals on Feb. 26 at 4:30 p.m.
Regional MVP Devan Whitsett had 13 points and 9 rebounds, Ke’Viasz Malone and Jamarion Osborne came off the bench to score 11 and 10 points, respectively, and Jermaine Tate added 10 points for the Wolves, who in winning their ninth straight game outscored LeFlore’s bench 23-2 and made 17 of 23 free throws to subdue the Rattlers (21-10).
“We had to stick to playing our game,” Riley said. “The first two times, I think we played their game, trying to do what we could to stop them instead of just doing what we do, which is pressure the ball and continuously attack. That’s what changed it for us. If you look at the stats, we barely took threes tonight (making 2 of 9). My focus for my guys was to get inside, get out on transition, make them run. We have more subs than they do, so make them run. (The bench) is what we rely on. We’re one of the only teams that can probably go 10 deep and those are the guys I trust as well. They’re gonna get in and do what they need to do.”
Vigor led for all but 4½ minutes before LeFlore rallied from an 11-point deficit in the third period to take a 39-37 lead with 6:37 to go. But the Wolves spread the floor and got four layups and Aslan Jones’ dunk in a closing 17-2 run.
“When the two-minute mark hit, it’s like it clicked in their head that, hey, we’ve got to stall the ball and they did another great job of that,” Riley said. “Their confidence when they’re stalling the ball is through the roof now. It was a little shaky at first. They know they can hold the ball and get what they want, so I think that’s a big help for us.”
Whitsett said Vigor is determined to win the Blue Map after losing to No. 1-ranked Fairfield 69-65 in last year’s state championship game.
“We had to put in the work,” he said. “Hard work pays off. Practice, grind, dedicate. We had to come in there and scratch. We want to come out with a win this time. It’s state. We’ve got to take care of business.”
Riley said he likes his team’s attitude.
“This is not last year,” he said. “We’ve got to live in the present. We’ve got to do what it takes this year to win.”
Ethan Foster scored 18 points and De’antonio Lesueur, who got into foul trouble, added 10 points for the Rattlers but coach Johnny Mayhane said he wanted to see a better effort from his team.
“Just effort, man, energy and effort,” he said. “That’s all it was. Vigor was playing like they wanted it more and we were playing like we wanted to play ourselves into the game. But we’re going to live and learn from this one and we’re just going to regroup and get back to work.”
Riley said his team did a better job of playing more disciplined defense against LeFlore than in the Wolves’ two losses to the Rattlers.
“What helped us most was guys understanding their defensive assignment, giving them one shot on that end,” Riley said. “If you guys noticed when LeFlore came back and took the lead, they were getting multiple shots at the rim. They were getting all the 50-50 balls. In the beginning, we were doing that, so the tables turned a little bit.”
Despite the loss, Mayhane said he was proud of his team, which hasn’t been able to practice in its renovated gym for two years.
“We’ll be back in it, I want to say, this summer,” he said. “We’ve just got to go back to the drawing board and we’ll get ready. All my starters were seniors and that’s fine. We need to rebuild anyway.”
