BELGREEN - Because Belgreen’s boys are capable of playing the kind of fluid, free-flowing basketball that most fans find pleasing to the eye, the Bulldogs often get labeled with another f-word that isn’t quite so flattering.
Finesse.
Undeniably, Belgreen’s superior skill and shot-making are key ingredients to the team’s success; they don’t just win, they win with style. Such was the case in Saturday’s Class 1A, Area 13 final against Tharptown, when the Bulldogs hit five threes and all ten of their free throw attempts in the game’s first seven minutes, a breathtaking offensive display that propelled them to a 37-point first quarter. It was part hoops, part performance art.
It was also a little too good to be true—or, at the very least, too good to be repeated any time soon. Heading into Tuesday night’s sub-regional matchup with Marion County, head coach Clint Isbell made sure his team knew as much.
“I told our guys before the game, ‘Don’t expect tonight to go like it did the other night against Tharptown.’ I wanted them to be prepared for that,” Isbell said. “It just wasn’t gonna go like it did for us the last time out.”
Isbell was right. For the vast majority of Tuesday’s game, there was nothing remotely fluid, free-flowing or fancy about Belgreen’s performance. The Bulldogs uncharacteristically struggled to put the ball in the basket, shooting just 5-for-21 in the first quarter. But they battled. They fought. They grinded. For the full 32 minutes, they were the antithesis of finesse. They were tough—all substance and no style.
And when it was over, when they were done muscling and manhandling Marion County, the Bulldogs found themselves right back where they were a year ago at this time—headed to Hanceville, courtesy of an 82-46 rout of the Red Raiders.
“This was a gritty win,” said Isbell, whose team out-rebounded the bigger Raiders 38-35 and hounded them relentlessly into 32 turnovers. “Our guys dug down deep. These seniors really wanted this. We talked before the game about not letting anybody take our jerseys from us. That’s our mentality right now. We’re not ready to be done.”
Next up for Belgreen (25-5) is a Northwest Regional semifinal showdown on Friday with R.A. Hubbard (25-6), another game in which finesse most assuredly won’t cut it. The Bulldogs will need another tough-minded effort like Tuesday’s, when floor burns and forgotten fouls were the order of the day.
“This is the playoffs,” said 6’6 junior Mason Bragwell. “They don’t call very many touch fouls. You might get hammered, and they might not call anything. You just have to keep playing.”
In the eyes of Belgreen's critics, Bragwell—with his advanced offensive skill set and affinity for taking perimeter shots—is the poster boy for the team's “finesse” approach. The big man may have shed that label once and for all on Tuesday night, dominating the interior on both ends of the floor and out-playing Marion County’s post tandem of 6’4 junior Braden Pyron and 6’5 junior Mason Ezekiel.
Of Bragwell’s season-high 30 points, 23 came either in the paint or from the foul line, and he also finished with seven rebounds and five blocked shots.
“He played outstanding,” Isbell said of Bragwell, who is now averaging 18.5 points per game on the season. “This was the toughest game I’ve seen him play all year. He did a great job posting up, he played good defense against their big guys, and he rebounded on both ends. I thought he was aggressive all night.”
Aggressive was undoubtedly Belgreen’s buzzword for the day. The Bulldogs took the fight right to the Raiders with their pressure defense, forcing 17 turnovers in the first half alone and finishing the game with 17 steals—including four by junior guard Brant Bragwell and three apiece by senior guards Jacob Mayberry, Eli Hiser and Seth Taylor.
“We wanted to put as much pressure on them as we could,” Mason Bragwell said. “We knew they couldn’t handle it.”
Isbell, as you might expect, was a little more diplomatic in his assessment.
“Our plan was to pressure them and try and force some turnovers,” he said, “but that’s usually how we play anyway. All we really had to do was settle into our identity and play our game.”
The Bulldogs had something of an identity crisis about a month ago, dropping back-to-back games to two county rivals with losing records and looking as vulnerable as they had looked at any point in the past two seasons.
“We struggled a little bit,” Bragwell said. “We lost to Phil Campbell and Tharptown back-to-back, and people started saying we were soft and stuff. They said we didn’t have teamwork. But we turned it around. We shut ‘em up.”
That loss to Tharptown came on January 13, exactly one month ago Tuesday. Since then, Belgreen has won 11 straight games while repeating as both county and area champions and booking a trip to Hanceville for the second straight year.
Turnaround, indeed.
The Bulldogs started slowly on Tuesday, but Bragwell steadied them with eight early points, and a basket by Hiser gave them a 12-10 lead at the end of one. Marion County (15-11) missed its chance to grab the momentum, shooting just 5-for-15 from the field and turning the ball over eight times in the first quarter.
Bragwell opened the second quarter with a three-point play off an offensive rebound and then another putback, sparking a 12-0 run that made it 24-10 at the 4:35 mark. A three by Hiser stretched the lead to 27-12, and Mayberry scored seven points over the final four minutes of the half to send Belgreen into the locker room with a 38-18 advantage.
The Bulldogs shot 11-for-21 from the field in the second quarter and out-scored Marion County 26-8 to take control.
“I was impressed with how our guys found a way to score,” Isbell said. “The shots weren’t falling early, but we just kept fighting. I really liked the way we got after it on the offensive boards and got some easy putbacks.”
Bragwell opened the second half with a straight-on three [the big guy can shoot, after all] and then added two free throws and a bucket off a nice feed from Mayberry, pushing the lead out to 27 at 45-18. Pyron, an athletically gifted forward and Marion County’s best player, scored 11 third-quarter points, but the Raiders still trailed 58-35 at the end of three.
Belgreen shot 10-for-16 from the field and 4-for-4 from the line in the fourth quarter, closing with a 24-11 run to finish off yet another blowout win. [During their current 11-game tear, the Bulldogs have won five games by at least 30 points—including all three in the postseason.]
Belgreen shot 42 percent (33-for-78) from the field on Tuesday, hitting three threes and going 13-for-17 from the foul line. The Bulldogs handed out 13 assists and committed only 13 turnovers. Marion County was a mess by comparison, shooting just 32 percent (18-for-57) from the field and 6-for-17 from the line while turning it over 32 times.
Bragwell shot 11-for-23 from the floor and 7-for-9 from the line on his way to scoring 30 points for the first time this season. Mayberry finished with 12 points, four rebounds, four assists and three steals, and senior forward Payton Scott scored 11 points on 4-for-7 shooting. Hiser had nine points, four boards and three steals.
Jake Taylor scored six points, and fellow senior Caleb Pinkard finished with four points and four rebounds. Brant Bragwell chipped in with two points, five rebounds, two assists and four steals, and Seth Taylor, Gaven Taylor, Ashlee Britton and Isaac Willingham also scored two points apiece.
Pyron led Marion County with 16 points and 10 rebounds, but he shot just 6-for-18 from the floor.
The Bulldogs now turn their attention to Friday’s showdown with R.A. Hubbard, the winner of which will almost certainly find reigning region champion South Lamar waiting in next Tuesday’s final. South Lamar ended Belgreen’s season in Hanceville a year ago, and Bragwell seemed to have only one thing on his mind as he left the locker room following Tuesday’s rout.
“Revenge.”
Isbell, yet again, was slightly more diplomatic.
“We’ll be ready to play on Friday,” he said. “If we come out with the same mentality we’ve had lately, I think we’ve got a chance against anybody.”