The Phil Campbell High School varsity girls’ and boys’ basketball teams fell at home to Mars Hill Bible School on Friday night. The games marked Class 3A Area 15 openers for both PCHS squads.
The Lady Bobcats tipped off the evening with a 57-24 loss to the Lady Panthers, dropping Phil Campbell to 5-6 overall. Senior Siddalee Rogers led Phil Campbell with eight points in the defeat.
Mars Hill, newbies to Class 3A, mostly dominated the game: The Lady Bobcats were unable to sink their shots, even on some breakaway, gimme lay-ups, while the visitors took away second-chance opportunities by owning the boards throughout the game.
“We’re shooting very poorly right now,” PCHS girls’ basketball coach Craig Thomas said postgame. “We’re shooting like in the low 20s. If we don’t pick it up, start shooting a better percentage, it’s going to be a rough, rough go for us.”
Thomas feels his team has the potential to build on its defense and its effort, but the Lady Bobcats will need to be more effective offensively if they hope to reach the postseason.
“Defensively, we play with a lot of people. We hustle, we’re scrappy, we get after it. Defensively we’re okay,” Thomas said. “Offensively, we’ve gotta put more points up.
“We’ve gotta get higher percentage shots, and we’re just not converting right now. We’re shooting less than 30 percent in the paint right now, and it’s just not happening. We’ve gotta fix that,” he added.
The PCHS boys’ basketball team had a little more success against Mars Hill Friday night, despite the fact that the Bobcats lost in the end, 61-47.
Phil Campbell initiated the game with a 6-0 run before Mars Hill went on a run of its own to take the lead at the end of the first period. From there, the Panthers maintained their advantage, but the Bobcats, who trailed by double digits at various points in the game, created some turnovers and hit a few three-pointers to pull within three points midway through the fourth quarter.
Ultimately, Phil Campbell couldn’t complete the coup, but sophomore Austin Elliott, who finished with a team-high 17 points, and senior Hayden Wingo, scoring 14 points, helped push the hosts within striking distance of an upset.
Phil Campbell head coach Shannon Benford felt his team could have done a better job rebounding in the game, but after suffering two previous blowout defeats against Haleyville and Deshler earlier in the week, the first-year head coach believes his team’s testing of the defending Class 2A champions and current area favorites may prove to be a confidence-booster heading into back-to-back area contests.
“I don’t think anybody gave us a chance tonight,” Benford told the Franklin Free Press after the game. “We fought so I’m proud of that.”
“This is big because this was the first area game. The last two games, Deshler and Haleyville, we got smoked, so this game, hopefully, gives us a little confidence going in—we got two area games next week against Colbert Heights and Sheffield,” he added. “You play teams like Deshler and Haleyville like we have and then to have this game against Mars Hill, who’s the defending 2A state champions with a lot of people back, it’s big going into next week, especially.”
The PCHS boys’ basketball team, sitting at 6-5 overall after the Mars Hill game, will host Colbert Heights on Tuesday, December 10th before traveling to Sheffield the following Thursday.
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