Area Sports

        By JIMMY WIGFIELD BIRMINGHAM — No. 1-ranked Oxford shoved Saraland’s offense into a black hole in the second half Wednesday and the sun set on the best season in school history. But with sophomores L.J. Williams and C.J. Williams returning along with most of their teammates, the Spartans might be on…

    By JIMMY WIGFIELD BIRMINGHAM — No. 1-ranked Plainview didn’t need much from the nation’s all-time three-point artist Tuesday night. Instead, the Bears shattered Jackson early with a full-court press that made the Aggies feel as if they were walking barefoot on broken glass and razor blades. Junior guard Sawyer Kate Hulgan — who…

        By JIMMY WIGFIELD BIRMINGHAM — The last two years, Jackson came to regard Legacy Arena as its second home, a place where it felt comfortable and enjoyed certain memories, from Micah Caster inundating the opposition with three-pointers to Isaiah Gladney banking a shot off the glass at the buzzer to win…

        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…

            By JIMMY WIGFIELD MONTGOMERY — L.J. Williams was too good, Larry Edwards was too composed and Saraland was too determined to not let three earlier losses to Murphy ruin its season. The 6-8 sophomore Williams had 25 points and 10 rebounds, Edwards poured cement on the outcome with two…

    AUBURN, Ala. — The basket seemed about as tiny as a shot glass to Auburn Saturday night against Kentucky but the rear exit of Neville Arena and a loathsome invitation to the NIT (The Nobodies Invitational Tournament) was about to be kicked wide open. The Tigers missed 14 three-pointers and 17 layups and…

  By JIMMY WIGFIELD Former UMS-Wright coach Terry Curtis is recuperating at home from open-heart surgery after an 11-day hospital stay, most of it in intensive care. Curtis, 75, experienced trouble with his defibrillator on Feb. 9 and was immediately seen by his doctor, who performed a cardiac catheterization that revealed a blockage which was…

        TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama’s Labaron Philon turned a lecture into rapture, a command to change his ways into a command performance. Nate Oats turned jeers into rhapsodical cheers reverberating off the hangar-style ceiling of Coleman Coliseum, where, at the end of Wednesday night’s double-overtime jousting with Arkansas, nobody could have heard…

    AUBURN, Ala. — In the aftermath of a third straight SEC loss Tuesday night, Auburn coach Steven Pearl repeatedly pressed his left index finger to his temple as he performed a painful self-examination. “People are going to be panicking right now,” he predicted after the Tigers led for only 20 seconds in an…