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The Montevallo Bulldogs showed fight throughout their Elite Eight matchup with the Sylacauga Aggies but saw their remarkable first season in Class 5A come to an end. (For the Reporter/Dawn Harrison)

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

MONTGOMERY – The Montevallo Bulldogs’ incredible run to the Elite Eight is now over after they fell to the Sylacauga Aggies 68-47 in the Central Regional Finals at Alabama State’s Dunn-Oliver Acadome on Tuesday, Feb. 18.

“It’s tough,” Montevallo coach Byron Gaskin said. “We overcame a lot of obstacles through our season. I don’t think anybody thought we’d be the area champions, make it to the Elite Eight. We’re real proud of these guys and just the fight that they show.”

Montevallo took a physical approach out of the gate as Buck Ross and Demeco Gibson hit a pair of difficult shots to take an early 4-2 lead. However, Sylacauga scored six straight points to grab an 8-4 lead as it began to find its groove on offense.

Nahjear Russell responded with a pair of baskets, including a reverse layup off the fast break to tie the game up at 8-8 with 1:49 left. That led to another back-and-forth stretch where the Aggies took a 10-8 lead but went into the second tied at 10-10 off a pair of Buck Ross free throws.

The two teams continued to fight as Buck Ross answered a Sylacauga 3-pointer with an old-fashioned three-point play to tie it back up at 13-13.

However, the Aggies hit their second of four second-quarter 3-pointers shortly after, and that kicked off a 21-4 run that put Sylacauga up 34-17 and triggered a Bulldogs timeout.

Montevallo scored just four times in the second as the Aggies sped up the game on both ends of the floor and consistently made shots. Keiston Ross ended a three-minute scoring drought with 35 seconds left until halftime, but Sylacauga scored at the other end to take a 38-19 lead into halftime.

Montevallo responded well in the opening minutes of the half and kept pace with the Aggies thanks to big baskets from Buck Ross, Russell and Cutts. The Bulldogs could only get as close as 15 points away from the lead during the third as they couldn’t stop much on the defensive end.

The closest Montevallo got was off another and-1 by Buck Ross followed by a tough fadeaway shot from him to make the score 47-32 with 3:27 left in the third.

However, Sylacauga shut the Bulldogs offense down and took its second 20-point lead of the third quarter. Cutts hit a late free throw to send the Aggies to the fourth with a 55-36 lead.

From there, Montevallo made some emphatic plays down the stretch but couldn’t close the gap as Sylacauga maintained its commanding lead and sealed the 21-point win.

Buck Ross led his team with 14 points. Russell scored 13 points and Dee Cutts earned eight points. Demarious Gentry scored five points in the fourth quarter and Gibson rounded out the offense with four first-quarter points.

The Bulldogs finished their inaugural campaign in Class 5A and first year under Gaskin with a 21-13 record capped off by an area championship and trip to the regional finals, the latter for the first time since 2020.

Gaskin was proud of the effort that the seniors gave throughout the year and believes it bodes for a strong future.

“I think the future is bright,” Gaskin said. “I said to the seniors, ‘You set a foundation that the guys behind you can see a blueprint to follow, and it takes a lot of work.’”

With everything that could have worked against the Bulldogs, including a short offseason with a new coaching staff, a new, larger classification, a road matchup with Selma in the area title game and a 22-point deficit to Briarwood in the Sweet 16, they never gave up and continued to put in the work to be the best team they could be.

Now, the goal is to build off of that foundation and reach even higher heights in the future.

“I came to Montevallo late,” Gaskin said. “We didn’t have a summer. We will have a summer going forward, and we’ll come back and we’ll be better and we’ll be stronger for it.”

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