Feb. 24—HANCEVILLE — It was a familiar, albeit unwelcome, feeling for the East Limestone boys basketball team on Monday.
A year after having their season end to Guntersville in the Sweet 16 of the Northwest Regional, the Indians again found themselves victims of a loss to the Wildcats — this time 68-60 in the Elite Eight.
"It hurts that we fell short of our goal, but I'm proud of what we accomplished this season," said East Limestone head coach Jake Moran.
The highest ranked team left in Class 5A at No. 3, East Limestone looked poised to reach its first Final Four since 1996. Instead, it's a loss the Indians admitted is going to be tough to swallow for a long time.
"I hate it for these guys that it ended because they worked their tails off to get here," Moran said. "We've talked since last March about getting to Birmingham (to the Final Four), and they've believed everything we've preached since then. I hate that they won't get that experience."
It looked early like East Limestone might run away with the game as the Indians jumped out to an 18-5 lead in the first quarter.
Guntersville responded, however, cutting the lead to 20-10 by the end of the quarter and tying the game 28-28 at halftime.
In the second half, the Wildcats turned up the pressure, allowing them to surge ahead of East Limestone as the Indians committed seven turnovers after just three in the first half. Six of those turnovers happened in the third quarter as Guntersville built a 48-41 lead going into the fourth period.
"They switched to their zone-press, and for whatever reason, it got us out of rhythm," Moran said. "We had some careless turnovers that led to easy layups for them, and we dug ourselves into a hole we couldn't climb out of.
"We started the game playing really great offensively, but slowed down in the second quarter. They took the lead in the third and it was even from there."
Coleby Davis and Kayne Meyers each scored 14 points to lead East Limestone. Charlie Eslick added 12 points, while Grayson Moon led Guntersville with 20.
East Limestone will say goodbye to four seniors in Eslick, Meyers, Chris Fitts and Lazavion Sales who played a crucial role in turning a program that was coming off back-to-back losing seasons when Moran took over in 2022 to one that won a combined 52 games the last two seasons.
"I think we have a great program, and I feel like we're leaving it in a great place," Eslick said. "It's going to be in great hands going forward."
The seniors said they believe the team will continue to improve and eventually reach that Final Four that has eluded the program for 30 years.
"He (Moran) is building something special here," Meyers said.
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