JASPER, Ala.- The Cullman Bearcats traveled to rival Jasper’s Carl Cannon Coliseum on Tuesday night for the 6A, Area 13 championship game, with intensity in the air from the tip. The Bearcats looked to avenge the losses and take their fifth straight area championship, the Vikings aimed to add to their sweep of the ‘Cats and clinch their first area title since 2020 and the fans rode the energy of a deep cutting rivalry, all making for an incredible atmosphere. The game itself didn’t disappoint, either.
Every single bucket was a grind, with both teams excelling on all levels of defense. The Vikings, with long and rangy forwards Jarrell and Braylen Johnson made driving into the paint like dribbling through turnstiles, stripping the ball almost every time it reached them. On the other end, the presence of Brooks Loftin and Sam Dorough’s verticality in the paint matched it, with both slamming balls off the backboard or sending shots into the sidelines.
After a tight back and forth first half, the teams took turns stringing together mistakes leading to opposing scoring streaks, with Cullman finding themselves down seven points with under five minutes to go in the fourth quarter. They’d find a glimmer of momentum on a Colt Fletcher corner three, however, and ride it on both ends to storm back and win the area title 47-43.
“It feels amazing, we were here three weeks ago without two starters and we went on a huge run and came back down thirteen to tie it up, then we gave up an and-one and lost. We just didn’t finish it, but we finished it tonight and I’m really proud of that. I’m really proud of our seniors’ growth from that point to now and the team’s growth as a whole really to get to where we are now,” head coach Stu Stuedeman said after the win.
A visible area of growth in the matchup was the handling of Jarrell and Braylen Johnson on defense for Cullman. Their slashing ability was a killer in the two previous matchups, but that was absent due to stellar on-ball defense from Dorough and Emory Bonds, who stayed square with the two all night. The two also contributed to the scoreboard early, with Dorough’s ball movement fueling the offense and Bonds’ capitalizing off of it with three first half buckets, two of which came in the final seconds of the first half to give Cullman a 22-16 lead.
The start of the second half was shaky for the Bearcats, with Jasper coming out and snatching the momentum back for a 12-2 run to put them up 28-24. The lone bucket in the run came from Dorough, whose matchup on both ends with Braylen Johnson got testy at times, spurring from a moment in the second quarter where the two were fighting for a loose ball. Dorough stayed focused, however, hitting a short jumper and driving through contact for an and-one make to give Cullman the lead back at 32-30 after a Gray Hopper corner three.
“We harp on them to keep that Nick Saban mentality, we focus on doing our job every second of the game. We don’t get high or low, we stay the course, chop the leg and we’ll eventually break it. That’s what we did and I’m pretty proud of our senior class for steadying the ship there, because it did get a little iffy,” Stuedeman said on keeping emotions level during a physical rivalry matchup.
After a 9-0 run opened the fourth for Jasper, Cullman got a jolt from Fletcher on a corner three. They slowed down, fought their way to the basket, missed more often than not but drew contact and made their free throws to go on to seal the area championship with a 15-4 run where they went 10-12 from the line.
Dorough hit six from the line in the closing moments, finishing off a game-high 14 point game for the senior. Next, Hopper finished with 12, Loftin scored eight, Bonds had seven and Fletcher ended the night with six.
Leading Jasper was Caden Steiner with 13 points, followed by Keegan Keeton with 12 points and Jarrell Johnson with 11.
The Bearcats will move on to host a sub-regional game on Saturday, with the matchup to be announced in the coming days.
