Snead State Community College Men’s Basketball Claims ACCC Division II Championship

The dominance of the Snead State men's basketball program continued Saturday when the Parsons beat Coastal Alabama-North 87-71 to clinch its third straight Alabama Community College Conference championship and fourth in eight seasons.

Snead will now travel to Tallahassee, Fla., Saturday to face Florida State College at Jacksonville in the NJCAA Gulf South District Championship. The winner of that game will advance to the NJCAA Division II National Championship Tournament March 17-22 in Danville, Ill.

Snead finished second in the standings and earned a bye in the ACCC tournament. The Parsons defeated Marion Military Institute 84-63 in the semifinals Friday to advance to the finals.

This current championship season didn't start well as Snead lost its first three games but rebounded to finish 22-8 overall and 13-3 in ACCC Division II play. The Parsons never lost two straight after losing those first three.

Two of the three conference losses were to Coastal Alabama-North, 63-62 in Boaz in January and 77-68 in Monroeville in February. Snead enacted revenge on the Coyotes Saturday, jumping out to an 11-point lead at halftime only to see Coastal tie the game early in the second half. From there Snead took back command and won going away.

In the Gulf South District championship game Saturday, the Parsons will face a familiar foe. Snead lost to Florida State College at Jacksonville last season 72-69 in the district championship game. Snead also played FSCJ in November, losing to the Manta Rays 92-71 in the FSCJ Classic.

To pick up its first win over FSCJ and advance to the national, Snead will need big games from their All-ACCC picks. 

Men's Division II Player of the Year Davyon Butler led the state in scoring with over 20 points per game. Butler tossed in 24 in the championship game, including 10-10 from the free throw line. In addition to Butler, Josiah Harding was named to the All Conference First Team. During the Division II Tournament, he scored 11. Tournament most valuable player Ray Rolley added 22 while Jaedren O'Neal had 14. Butler, Rolley, and Xavier Price were named to the All Tournament Team. Price scored 10 points against Marion in the semifinal and added 8 in the championship game against Coastal North.

Butler leads the team in scoring, averaging over 20 points per game. Harding is second, scoring over 16 per game.

Head coach Jeremiah Patterson said before the season he looked at the schedule and wondered where they would find a win. But after that initial three game losing streak, Patterson said they began to see improvement.

 "We got it together. I worked them real hard to try to get them where we needed to be," said Patterson. "It took a while, but we got it (record) to 6-6. Right now we're 22-8 and 16-2 over our last 18 games."

Snead State Athletic Director Casey Underwood said, "What this team has accomplished is truly unprecedented. Winning one championship is tough, but securing a three-peat speaks volumes about the dedication, hard work, and heart of our student-athletes and coaching staff. I couldn't be prouder of these young men for the way they've represented Snead State on and off the court. They've set a standard of excellence for our program, our college, and our community."

Patterson said of the state tournament going into the weekend the two teams they could play had only lost one game since Christmas and the scores of the wins wasn't indicative of how tough they were.

"Marion had only lost one game since January and that was to us, and we beat them by 21 Friday night, and we played one of the best games we played all year," Patterson said of the semifinal win.

Patterson said against Coastal North, the Parsons "played just a great game, probably better than Friday night because their defense is better."

He added, "We came together as a team over the weekend. We had been playing well but not as good as this weekend."