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After trailing by as much as 22 in the first half, Montevallo is in the Elite Eight thanks to a comeback rally against Briarwood that encapsulated a city’s fighting spirit and refusal to quit. (Reporter Photos/Andrew Simonson)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

MONTGOMERY – With 30 seconds left and his brother Keiston at the line extending the Montevallo Bulldogs’ lead to 49-47, Buck Ross turned to a security guard on the baseline and said four words.

“This for the city.”

Those words came at the end of an effort fitting for a small college town and its high school that has always scrapped its way to relevance even when it was overlooked and down in the fight, which is exactly what its basketball team was earlier in the game.

The Briarwood Christian Lions were firing on all cylinders in their first Sweet 16 appearance since 2000, leading by as much as 22 points in the final minutes of the first half. However, with all the odds stacked against it, Montevallo didn’t back down.

The Bulldogs roared back in the second half, diminishing the Lions lead as the noise from Montevallo’s supporters grew and grew.

By the time Demeco Gibson made a layup while being fouled to take the 41-39 lead, that noise erupted into a deafening crescendo, capping the comeback and paving the way for a 50-48 win on Thursday, Feb. 13 at Alabama State’s Dunn-Oliver Acadome in the Class 5A Sweet 16.

And because of that, Montevallo will advance to its first Elite Eight since 2020, giving the city another incredible achievement to celebrate: a regional finals appearance in its first season in Class 5A.

“It means a lot to me, to the team, our community,” Montevallo coach Byron Gaskin said. “It’s been years since we’ve been (to the) Elite Eight and even longer since we’ve tried to make a run to the state championship, so we’re just trying to take it one possession at a time and keep playing.”

Briarwood stormed out of the gate in the first quarter, using baskets from Eli Stubbs and Sam Canale to score nine straight points to start the game and force a Bulldogs timeout.

After what became a 13-0 run, Montevallo started to find some offense and went on a 6-0 run thanks to Demeco Gibson, Dee Cutts and Keiston Ross’ first points of the morning. That slashed the deficit to seven, but Charlie Caldwell’s first triple of the game and a Drew Mears layup made the lead 18-6 at the end of the first quarter.

Brayden Robertson kicked off the second quarter with a basket before turning the scoring back over to Stubbs. He hit a turnaround fadeaway jumper in the low post to force a timeout and then hit a corner 3-pointer to increase the lead to 25-8 with 5:38 left in the half.

From there, Canale continued his strong half with a fast-break layup and a 3-pointer to get him into double figures for the first half. Eli Thompson then joined the scoring party to give Briarwood its biggest lead of the half at 32-10.

However, that’s when Montevallo started to shift the tide. The Bulldogs scored six of the next eight points, including back-to-back buckets from Jaylen Ray and Buck Ross to close the half and cut the deficit to 34-16.

At the break, the coaching staff preached the need to reset so the team could recapture its stellar form that led it to an area championship upset of Selma.

“We know we didn’t play our best game,” Gaskin said. “We’ve been playing good our last three, four games. and new place, neutral site. I think the guys were kind of deer in headlights a little bit, but couldn’t get shots to fall early and Briarwood was hitting everything.”

Montevallo continued building momentum during the third quarter led by a lockdown defense. The Bulldogs engaged in an up-and-down battle in the opening minutes of the third to draw within 13.

Mears scored his second basket in 31 seconds to extend the lead back to 15, but it would be the last Lions field goal for over a quarter.

Nahjear Russell made a driving layup to kick off a 21-1 run during the third and fourth quarters. Dee Cutts took command for Montevallo, scoring nine points down the stretch of the third including a late 3-pointer and a pair of free throws to make it a 39-37 at the end of the quarter.

Russell tied up the game at 39-39 just 50 seconds into the fourth quarter, and that led to a tense stretch of nearly two minutes where the county foes remained in a deadlock.

Then, with 5:22 remaining, Gibson drew contact at the rim for an and-1 to give the Bulldogs their first lead of the game at 42-39, sending the fans who traveled down Interstate 65 from “the city” into a frenzy.

Russell scored again 40 seconds later to trigger a Briarwood timeout with a 44-39 lead. A minute after the stoppage, Garrett Witherington ended the drought with a put-back with 3:43 remaining, the team’s first points since his free throw with 3:01 left in the third.

Stubbs made it a one-point game with 2:48 left, and the teams traded blows over the next minute-and-a-half. Robertson and Cutts exchanged points on either end of the floor, but Robertson had the last word of the exchange with two free throws to make it 48-47 Montevallo with 1:10 remaining.

Then, the Bulldogs nearly faced disaster as Eli Thompson stole the ball off the inbounds. He drove for the layup to give his team the lead, but Keiston Ross denied it at the rim to preserve Montevallo’s slim one-point advantage. He took the lead to three at the free throw line just a few seconds later.

Robertson then went to the free throw line with 6.5 seconds left and made his first shot to make it a 50-48 game. He missed the second intentionally to try and tie the game off a tip-in, but the Lions couldn’t convert and the Bulldogs sealed their historic Elite Eight trip.

Montevallo’s big offensive sparks came from Cutts and Keiston Ross as Cutts earned 16 points, six rebounds and three steals while Ross finished with 13 points and six rebounds.

Nahjear Russell stuffed the stat sheet with eight points, four steals and three rebounds, and Gibson scored six points, including the go-ahead three-point play.

As for Briarwood, its own historic 19-12 season ends in the Sweet 16 after its first trip to regionals in 25 years. Stubbs led the team with 11 points. Robertson finished with a double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds while Canale also scored 10 points to go with his four boards.

Crucially, one of the Lions’ most reliable spark plugs in Mears was held to just eight points off 4-for-13 shooting by the Bulldogs defense.

Defense was what Gaskin preached at the break to help spark Montevallo on.

“It started on the defensive end for us,” Gaskin said. “We gave up five points that third quarter and that just ignited our offense. Our defense is what we preach in practice, and that’s the catalyst to get us going on offense.”

More than X’s and O’s though, Gaskin said the team’s resilience is what got it this far.

“When it really gets hard, they play better,” Gaskin said. “They finally got to understand it throughout the year of what it takes to really win. At this level, there’s only good teams left, and you’ve got to play hard every possession. You can’t take anything for granted.”

The Bulldogs will aim to do just that against the winner of Selma and Sylacauga in the Class 5A Central Regional finals on Tuesday, Feb. 18 at the Dunn-Oliver Acadome as they look to make the city proud once again.

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