While it certainly was not the way anyone wished to see the season come to an end, especially not us here at WEIS, Spring Garden’s boys did not go down without a fight in their Monday afternoon 1A Boys State Semifinal matchup at BJCC Legacy Arena in Birmingham.

The #3 ranked Panthers (25-7) were as cool, calm, and collected as they possibly could have been in their matchup against the St. Luke’s Episcopal Wildcats (17-10), but a string of issues circling around a 7.1% 3 point percentage plus the feverish effort of St. Luke’s many aggressive and determined scorers led the Wildcats to a 51-45 win and a spot in the 1A Boys State Championship game.

Statistically, Spring Garden was led once again off the play of their 6-man Isaiah Sanchez, who finished the game with 17 points off 8-19 shooting (0-5 from 3, 1-2 on free throws), 6 rebounds (4 offensive, 2 defensive), and 1 steal; Weston Kirk also played a factor with 14 points (5-10 shooting, 4-4 FTs), 7 rebounds (5 offensive, 2 defensive), 1 assist, and 1 steal. St. Luke’s win came off the play of their impressive trio of Jermaine Brown (17 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 3 steals), JaCorey Jacobs (14 points, 1 rebound, 2 assists, 4 steals), and Michael Winston (13 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal).

With the win, St. Luke’s advances as previously mentioned to the 1A Boys State Championship game against #1 ranked Decatur Heritage on Thursday, February 28th at 5:45 PM, right back at BJCC Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Spring Garden’s season comes to an end, but on a season that is worth remembering especially for the benchmark of bringing an SG boys team back to the Magic City playing surface for the first time since 2005. A season filled with accomplishments that included wins in the Area Tournament and Regional Tournament as well tie a nice bow on what was a good year for the Panther faithful.

While this is the end of the basketball season, the future is continuously bright for our hoops teams in Cherokee County, and WEIS is looking forward to continuing to cover our awesome local teams into next year. So until next year…we bid you adieu.

SPRING GARDEN POST GAME AUDIO

ST. LUKE’S POST GAME AUDIO