By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director
SPRING GARDEN – For some time now, Spring Garden senior point guard Ace Austin has considered Class 6A seven-time defending state champion Hazel Green the ‘top dog’ when it comes to Alabama girls high school basketball.
Austin has never been one to shy away from the top dog.
“Ever since I was little, I was like ‘I want to play Hazel Green. I want to play Hazel Green,’” she said.
Eight days ago, shortly after Spring Garden had just defeated another Class 6A Titan at Gadsden City by 26 points, Ace and her father and head coach Ricky Austin were headed home.
Coach Austin was on the phone with Hazel Green coach Tim Miller.
“We had been talking a couple of days,” Coach Austin said. “We were back and forth on whether we were going to be able to play a game or not, and I said ‘Okay, it’s a done deal. We’ll get it in the books. I’ll call the officials.’”
Coach Austin recalled looking over at his daughter when he hung up the phone, and she was all smiles.
“I’m telling you, when he told me we were playing Hazel Green, it was like Christmas,” Ace said.
“She wanted to play that game right then,” Coach Austin said. “She said ‘Why do we have to wait? Let’s play this game tomorrow.’ She was so ready for this game.”
On Tuesday night at Dale Welsh Gymnasium in Spring Garden, the University of Alabama signee didn’t disappoint. She tossed in 43 points, grabbed eight rebounds, dished out a pair of assists and had a steal in the Class 1A, No. 1 Lady Panthers’ 63-46 victory over the 6A, No. 2 Lady Trojans (19-8).
As if defeating a big-school powerhouse wasn’t enough, Ace also surpassed Paige Anderson McDonald’s school career record in points. Anderson McDonald scored 3,667 points in her career from 2003-08. Ace is now at 3,671 points and counting.
After the game, father presented daughter with the game ball in front of a cheering standing-room-only crowd.
“Ace doesn’t show emotion very often, but she shed some tears tonight when I presented her with the ball,” Coach Austin said. “I won’t ever forget that moment.”
“She was a great player and it means more than a lot,” Ace said of surpassing Anderson McDonald. “It means a lot because everybody in this gym has supported me this whole way. Just the motivation they give me is what puts me another step ahead. I think that’s what helps me through every game, knowing I’ve got my town, my people, everybody in the student section, everybody here (behind me).”
Senior guard/forward Maggie Jarrett said the Lady Panthers (27-1) were just as proud of Ace’s accomplishment as she was.
“We love Ace so much and we love seeing her succeed,” said Jarrett, who finished with 11 points, six assists, two rebounds a blocked shot. “I think it was as good a feeling for us as it was for her to know she accomplished that.”
Ace brought her ‘A’ game against Hazel Green from the beginning. She scored 12 of her points in the first quarter, leading the Lady Panthers to a 15-6 advantage.
Five Spring Garden 3-pointers in the second quarter, including a pair from Kristen Lewis, kept the Lady Panthers in front at halftime 30-23.
Ace scored nine of the Lady Panthers’ 12 points in the third, in which Hazel Green attempted to make a comeback, down 42-37.
Five straight points by Jarrett to open the fourth pushed Spring Garden’s lead to 10 at 47-37, and Ace took over from there. She scored the Lady Panthers’ remaining 16 points to close out the game.
“I did not care how well I played as long as we came out with a win,” Ace said.
“Ace did Ace. She did what she needed to, especially in the fourth quarter,” Jarrett said. “She stepped it up into another gear that we all know she has. It was just a good feeling to see her do what she does best.”
“I think this was a game she had fun in,” Coach Austin said. “She told me when it was over ‘Dad, that was so much fun.’”
Kristen Johnson led the Lady Trojans with 19 points. Sloan Williams, Addison Cantrell and Madison Eddings each finished with eight points.
Lewis finished with six points on a pair of treys for Spring Garden.
“Two of my former players, Kandi and Kelly Lewis, spoke after the game. They talked about how they were bigger. They were flashier. They looked like the team that was going to dominate, but the one thing they were proud of that they witnessed tonight was you can’t measure heart. You can’t measure the will to win. You can’t measure refusing to lose. You can’t measure those kinds of things,” Coach Austin said.
“I thought our fitness level showed up in the fourth quarter. When they made a run at us, it wasn’t Ace always answering the run. It was Kristen. It was Maggie. I was concerned about their offensive boards. I thought they were going to be very selective on their shots. I wanted us to shoot a lot of shots, make them work hard and have to rebound a lot, and maybe they’ll get tired. I thought the harder they had to rebound, that would show up in the fourth quarter. I think it did.”
And then some.
“We knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” Ace said. “We knew we were going to have lots of people watching. We just had to come out here and show them who Spring Garden is. Shout out to Hazel Green for coming down here. Not many 6A schools are going to come down to a 1A school. I’m just glad he (Miller) finally came down here and played. It means a lot, not just to us, but to basketball. They’re nationally known. Maybe everyone will know where Spring Garden is now.”
