Mobile Christian’s Hadley Kelly (23) makes Glencoe’s Katy Talbot shoot over her during Tuesday’s Class 3A state semifinals at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Kelly had 19 points, 18 rebounds and 6 blocked shots to lead the Leopards to a 55-42 win and into Friday’s finals against No. 1-ranked Saint James. (David Holtsford/AHSAA)
Glencoe players surround Mobile Christian’s Hadley Kelly during Tuesday’s Class 3A state semifinals in Birmingham. Kelly still made 6 of 13 shots for 19 points, including a pair of three-pointers. (David Holtsford/AHSAA)
Mobile Christian’s Trenity Jenkins-Gaines floats a shot in the lane against Glencoe Tuesday in the Class 3A state semifinals. Jenkins-Gaines scored 13 points. (David Holtsford/AHSAA)
By JIMMY WIGFIELD
BIRMINGHAM — Mobile Christian’s Hadley Kelly may not be able to sweep chimneys from the ground or knock cobwebs off the ceiling fan or replace light bulbs on streetlights without a ladder. If she is an intimidator, the spindly 6-foot-1 forward said it’s more with her words than her play.
“If somebody wants to talk a little smack to me, I’ll talk it back,” she said. “I have a big mouth.”
But she also has a big presence. A week after matching her jersey number with a state-record 23 blocked shots against Thomasville, Kelly continued to cast her shadow over the court from her commanding parapet on Tuesday and saw a path all the way to the Class 3A state championship game.
Kelly had 19 points, 18 rebounds and 6 blocks to lead the No. 8-ranked Leopards to a 55-42 win over Glencoe at Legacy Arena and send Mobile Christian (22-10) into its first Class 3A state championship game.
After ending the Yellow Jackets’ 11-game winning streak, the Leopards will face a more formidable task Friday at 12:30 p.m. in the finals against No. 1-ranked Saint James (31-4) but Kelly — who has won two state volleyball championships at Mobile Christian — said she and her teammates won’t back down.
“Anything can happen,” Kelly said. “We know Saint James is a great team but we also know that whenever you get out on that state court, I’ve watched it happen. I’ve played in three other state championships in volleyball. You watch teams fall apart and you also watch teams do something you never thought they could do before. We’re going into that state game with the underdog mentality but knowing we still have a shot at this.”
On Tuesday, with Kelly stationed in the lane to deter drives to the basket, much shorter Glencoe had no shot unless it was a three-point shot — and the Yellow Jackets missed 21 of those, including 12 straight at one point. Leading scorer Kinlee Montgomery was clamped scoreless in the second period after scoring 10 points in the first period and finished with 17.
“(Montgomery) is a high-level player,” Mobile Christian coach Kenny Wright said. “We just wanted to make it hard for her, send bodies, have high hands and just funneling everything to our shot blocker.”
Wright’s guards, Trenity Jenkins-Gaines in particular, aggressively guarded Glencoe’s perimeter players, knowing Kelly was lurking to reject anything if any of the Yellow Jackets buzzed at her down low. But after Kelly blocked their first two shots, they became more reluctant to challenge her.
“We call it guarding your yard,” Wright said. “Our guards do an excellent job of pressuring the ball and we can afford to do that because we understand that Hadley is our strength. She does a good job keeping her hands high, keeping her body from the other girls when they’re attacking. She goes up high and blocks those shots. For the most part, she keeps them in play. But today, she made some statements and was knocking them out of bounds.”
Kelly said that’s the plan.
“Thomasville kept coming to the basket and they didn’t stop,” she said, referring to the South Region final. “That’s how I got 23 blocks. It just depends on the team, if they get scared or if they want to keep pushing.”
Kelly was proud of her disciplined play Tuesday.
“It’s easy after having those 23 blocks to go out there and want to just go after everything but that’s how you get foul calls, so finishing the game with zero fouls and just kind of staying disciplined — that’s what I do,” she said.
But Kelly said she doesn’t think of herself as an intimidator.
“I don’t know if I have that mindset,” she said. “I just see ball, get ball. I think it’s pretty simple down there.”
Kelly has made it simple — her teammates have latched onto her long, blonde ponytail trailing to her waist and have gone for a ride. The only thing she didn’t do Tuesday was unjam a ball that got stuck between the rim and the glass.
Kelly hasn’t stayed stuck where she was, as a shot blocker who didn’t score much. She is averaging 15 points per game in the playoffs after averaging only 9 in the regular season.
“We try to teach confidence and how we teach that is putting in work, over and over, hours of just hard work and intensity,” Wright said. “And Hadley takes it on. She says, ‘Coach, we have a will to win. I am just gonna play. I am going to give you all I’ve got. If I am open, I am going to shoot it.’”
And talk about it afterward.
“She’s starting to make some threes,” Wright said. “She made a few today, maybe one or two.”
“Two,” Kelly corrected him.
Wright can be forgiven for losing track because he’s even more enamored with her defensive presence. He remembered seeing her for the first time as an eighth grader who came directly from volleyball to basketball practice.
“Who is that?” Wright asked.
He soon found out.
“A lot of coaches teach walling up,” Wright said. “I say, ‘Hey, if you can block them, block them’ because that’s intimidating, especially in girls basketball. … She’s so nice and so humble but she’s definitely an enforcer down there.”
The Leopards led for 25 minutes Tuesday, using a 16-3 run in the second period to lead 31-19 at halftime. Their lead grew to as much as 20 points in the third period before Glencoe (23-9) made four three-pointers in the fourth period to cut the lead to 45-38 but that is as close as it got. The Yellow Jackets attempted more three-pointers (28) than twos (27).
Mobile Christian also got 13 points from Jenkins-Gaines and 10 from freshman Kai Wright, who added six steals. The Leopards outrebounded Glencoe 48-31 and made 6 of 19 three-pointers, two each from Kelly and Emma Bacon.
And now the Leopards must beat the state’s top-ranked team to win their first Blue Map.
“Never in a million years would I think I would make it to a state championship in basketball,” Kelly said. “After my seventh-grade season, we were getting blown out by a hundred, then coach Kenny steps in, we win area, we make it to the Sweet 16, we win the Elite Eight. He is constantly pushing us to be better.”
They have to be better just one more time.
“Our confidence is continuing to grow,” Wright said. “I hope it’s huge and ready to show the state of Alabama on Friday.”
