Barbour County beats Opelika in Holiday Prep action

OZARK — Barbour County hit only four 3-pointers against Opelika in Friday’s first-round game of the Dothan Progress/Dothan Eagle/Southern Star Holiday Prep Classic sponsored by The Cochran Firm.

But the treys sparked an early Jaguar run and Barbour County maintained the lead the rest of the way in a 71-50 win over the Bulldogs at the Ozark Civic Center.

Barbour County, the Class 2A state runner-ups the last two years, improved to 9-2 and advanced to Monday’s second round.

Opelika, which fell to 11-2, was eliminated in the tournament’s first round for the second straight year.

Barbour County hit all four of its 3-pointers in the first six minutes, including three in the first two and half minutes.

The hot outside shooting helped the Jaguars to an 9-2 lead with 5:39 left and to a 23-10 advantage with 2:06 left in the first quarter.

Opelika got as close as five early in the second quarter, but Barbour County built the lead back to double figure less than a minute later and stayed comfortable ahead the rest of the way.

“They rocked us back early with those 3-pointers and we never recovered,” Opelika head coach John Wadsworth said.

“They are a dang good team. I don’t care if they are 1A, 2A or 10A, that is a good team.”

Opelika’s Ladecker Johnson opened the game’s scoring with a fastbreak layup after Jacoby Payne batted a Barbour County pass away that Tay Calloway picked up.

Then the Jaguars went wild from outside.

On three trips down the floor, Courtavius Dorsey hit two 3-pointers and J.J. Richardson added another to put the Jaguars up 9-2.

Baskets in the lane by Robert Lampley and Devondrick Richardson, Barbour County’s all-state inside force, finished off a string of 13 straight points as Barbour County seized a 13-2 lead.

J.J. Richardson added another 3-pointer late in the period to build the lead to 23-10 as the Jaguars hit eight of their first 12 shots, including 4-of-5 on 3-pointers.

“When they (Dorsey and J.J. Richardson) start hitting, it opens up our inside game,” Barbour County head coach Raymond White said. “We want to play inside-outside. It (outside shooting) has been coming around lately and that will help us.

“As they go, the whole team will go. We won’t have to count on Devondrick all the time.”

Opelika cooled off the Jaguar offense and finished the quarter with five straight points to make it 23-18.

Jamarius Blunt hit two free throws and Morris Lockhart added one free throw and a putback.

Opelika’s Calloway hit a 3-pointer to open the second quarter, closing the margin to five, but J.J. Richardson hit a layup and free throw and Devondrick Richardson hit two free throws to pop the lead back to 10.

The Jaguars gradually increased the margin to 17 late in the quarter before settling for a 43-31 halftime lead.

Both teams struggled offensively in the second half and Barbour County led by 13 with 5:30 to go.

The Jaguars then put the game away with a 10-3 run when Opelika began misfiring on threes to get back into it.

Though happy with the win, White wasn’t satisfied with his team’s performance in the second half. Particularly irritating was sloppy offense as the Jaguars made only 10-of-25 shots, missing including a couple of dunks and layups. They also had nine turnovers.

“If we want to be a great team, we have to capitalize on opportunities (to put people away),” White said. “If we play great defense, we have to capitalize.”

Devondrick Richardson, playing on his 19th birthday, led Barbour County with 22 points despite missing a lot of inside shots. Robert Lampley had a consistent night, scoring 17 points, while J.J. Richardson had 13 points and Dorsey 12 points and 10 rebounds.

Calloway led Opelika with 11 points, David Thomas had 10 points and seven rebounds. Johnson and Lockhart added eight points each.