Meadowview girls, boys aim for state championships

Published 6:21 pm Wednesday, February 15, 2017

It’s already been a great year for the Meadowview Christian School basketball teams, but this weekend it could become a truly historic one.

Both Trojans’ basketball teams are playing in Oxford this week in the Alabama Christian Athletic Association state tournament. Meadowview’s boys will play Clay County at 4 p.m. in the state quarterfinals and the Trojans’ girls will take on Marshall at noon Friday in the semifinals.

“I do honestly feel if both teams put it together — teamwork, hard work, a little magic — you’re talking about two state championships that could come home,” said Meadowview Christian boys basketball coach John Robert Morton.

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Meadowview’s junior varsity girls’ basketball team has already won a state title this year.

Now, the school will look to win two more.

This is the third straight year the Meadowview boys have qualified for the ACAA state quarterfinals and this year the Trojans hope to head back to Selma with a state championship trophy. The Meadowview boys need three more wins, starting with a Clay County team that figures to provide a challenge with its athleticism. Clay may slow the game down to throw off the Trojans’ up-tempo pace.

“Every game is important,” Morton said. “You’ve got to be hustle maniacs the whole time and we’ve got to play our game. We can’t let the other team dictate the style of basketball that we play. We’ve got to do what Meadowview does well.”

Morton said one of the biggest changes in Oxford is a bigger gymnasium.

He said the Trojans’ will have to adjust their shooting to the larger area behind the goal, which could throw off depth perception.

“Open jump shots, [we have to shoot] 35 percent and above to win,” Morton said.

Neither team is nervous about the games ahead of them. In fact, both seem ready to get going.

“No butterflies, I’m just ready to get up there, get it done and move on to the next game,” said Meadowview senior Garrett Grantham.

On the girls’ side, Meadowview needs only two wins to claim the title. Head coach Lebo Jones said the team has focused on manufacturing more offense this week, after scoring just 23 points in a win over Tuscaloosa in the sub-state portion of the playoffs.

“We have been playing real good defense lately and of course we want to keep doing that, but we also want to put some more points on the board. We are going to work on shooting, work on layups and make sure we don’t miss shots we should make,” Jones said.

All of the tournament games will take place at the Oxford Civic Center. The championship games will be played Saturday.