South Alabama Sports

          By JIMMY WIGFIELD BIRMINGHAM — Wenonah showed Wednesday night that a rattler can’t strike what it can’t catch and proved there may not be an antidote for its lethal transition game. The No. 2-ranked Dragons outscored LeFlore 41-21 off the fast break and routed the Rattlers 79-60 in the Class 5A state semifinals at Legacy Arena. “We stressed getting back on defense and stopping the fast-break points and I mean we just couldn’t get a…

        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 the verge of a long-lasting sunrise. Saraland led for only 35 seconds early, missed 20 of its last 22 shots from the floor and faded…

    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 set the national record for career three-pointers in January with 589 triples — scored 23 points in just 15 minutes, most of them the old-fashioned…

        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 consecutive state championships. But on Tuesday night, a victorious coach not named Anthony Hayes limped to the postgame podium while the No. 1-ranked Aggies staggered…

        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…

            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 foul shots as the last remaining sand in the hourglass trickled out and the Spartans shook off the trio of losses to the No. 5-ranked…

    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 were perilously close to falling down the stairs and missing the NCAA tournament, a minimum requirement for any Auburn coach, even if Steven Pearl hasn’t…

  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 removed the next day. Scar tissue from a serious heart attack nearly 40 years ago was also discovered and ablations were performed to form precise…

        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 a 767 at full throttle taking off. It’s just as well, since the airspace had been cleared for a three-pointer from a three-foot runway in…

    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 84-76 loss to No. 19 Vanderbilt at Neville Arena, the Commodores’ first win on the Plains in a decade. But Pearl said he won’t be…