BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – After grinding out a 38-30 win over St. Michael Catholic in the Class 4A Semifinals on Tuesday, Good Hope was back on the court at Legacy Arena to defend its state title against Trinity Presbyterian in the finals Friday night. Unfortunately for the Raider crowd, the Wildcats got off to a fast start and led Good Hope wire to wire on their way to a 67-27 win and the 4A state title.
After the game, Raiders Head Coach Justin Aby had a lot of people to thank for helping guide Good Hope to another outstanding season. He knows his team didn’t play its best game on Friday but credits Trinity for generating a lot of that adversity.
“God is great, God is good. We won this thing by 30 last year and today we came up short and lost by 40 so he’s great in the good times and the bad. In the wins and losses. I want to give a shoutout to my assistant coaches. I think they’re some of the best in the state. Coach Maddox, Coach Moss and Coach Taylor do a great job with their program, and I better go ahead and mention my wife too. I think every coach’s spouse is the real MVP just knowing how much time coaches spend with their teams,” Aby said. “We played a great team. I think Trinity could compete in any classification here at the finals. They’re well-coached, senior heavy and have a great squad. I don’t think today was our best performance and we fell short but that’s part of basketball and part of life. I don’t think that takes anything away from us. We had an outstanding season, and we played some of the top teams in the state and other states, but Trinity was the better team today.”
Aby reflected on what this team has accomplished this season and the legacy that this year’s seniors are leaving behind.
“I’m so proud of these girls. These seniors were part of something special last year, bringing our school its first state championship ever in any sport and after we graduated so many young ladies, for them to be able to bring their teammates back to this spot,” Aby said. “To say I’m proud of them would be an understatement. You all see great basketball players and I see that as well, but I see even better people out of these girls so I’m extremely proud of them and I know they’re going to do great things in life.”
Baskets by Ava McSwain and Lexi Marshall held Trinity’s lead to 5-4 early in the first quarter and after the Wildcats used a 7-0 run to pull ahead 12-4, McSwain knocked down a three to trim the lead to 12-7. McSwain’s next basket made it a 15-9 game later in the period, but Trinity dominated the rest of the first, extending its lead to 28-9 by the start of the second.
The Wildcats continued to dominate on the defensive end in the second quarter, keeping the Raiders off the scoreboard for the duration of the period and taking a commanding, 46-9 lead into the locker room at halftime.
McSwain hit a pair of free throws early in the third quarter to make it a 49-11 game and Lucie Adams buried a three later in the period to make it 52-14. Baskets by Ella Gossett and Jolee McHan cut the lead down to 54-18 with less than two minutes remaining in the third and Adams banked in another three just before the buzzer to make it a 57-21 game going into the fourth.
McSwain scored six more points in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the early deficit and Good Hope’s season came to an end with a 67-27 loss in 4A State Championship Game.
McSwain (five rebounds) led the Lady Raiders with 15 points in the loss. Adams added six points and Marshall, Gossett and McHan (six rebounds) each posted 2.
Ava McSwain and Jolee McHan each earned All-State Tournament Team honors.
After losing four of their five starters to graduation in May, some doubted whether or not the Raiders would be able to put together another deep postseason run and seniors McSwain and McHan were proud to prove them wrong.
“I’m super proud of my team. Last year we lost so many key players, four out of five starters, and I’m just super proud. Nobody thought we would get back here and I just want to thank God for helping us get back here,” McSwain said. “At the end of the day, I’m not going to let this game beat us up because basketball doesn’t define me and we’re going to move on and trust God and it’s going to be ok.”
“At the beginning of the year I had several people come up to me and tell me that we would not ever make it back this year. That we would not be able to get here because of how many seniors we lost,” McHan said. “That drove us all together and we had one goal in mind and that was to make it back here. We might have come up short, but we still did really good this season and I’m super proud of everybody.”
Copyright 2025 Humble Roots, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Chinese (Simplified)
English
German
Japanese
Spanish
