It took a while, but eventually Aliceville wore down Sand Rock 73-63 on Monday night to move on to the finals of the AHSAA 2A state championship tournament.

Tyquan Simon poured in 18 points while Tyjarian Williams and Jatavius Colvin each added 17 for the Yellow Jackets (23-1) in a game that was tied at the end of the first quarter and at the start of the second half. It was neck-and-neck down the stretch until Sand Rock (22-11) went uncharacteristically quiet for the last 2:40 of the third quarter.

The stifling, physical Aliceville defense silenced Sand Rock’s reliable shooters and gave the Yellow Jackets enough room to eke out a victory.

“It wasn’t easy from our side,” said Aliceville head coach Christopher Walker. “We didn’t expect them to roll over. We had a kind of rough start, but we came together through adversity as we usually do and weathered the storm … for the most part, they (Sand Rock) did what they do, and we had a lot of mistakes early.”

The Yellow Jackets overcame a 33-point effort from the Wildcats’ Justin St. Clair, who was 10-for-27 from the field and went 11-for-14 from the charity stripe. Kaden Justice went 9-for-17 from the floor, and hit 5-of-10 from beyond the three-point arc for 24 points.

Aliceville hit 31-of-40 free throws en route to the victory.

“It’s hard to catch a team when they don’t miss free-throws,” said Sand Rock head coach John Blackwell, who announced his retirement from coaching following the loss. “I think we had watched seven or eight games of them on film, and we hadn’t seen them shoot free throws nor outside shots that good. We’ve got a good basketball team, too, but we just happened to run into a team that was hot tonight.”

For the Yellow Jackets, the stretch of time at the end of the third period, when Sand Rock went 2:40 without a point, and the middle of the fourth when the Wildcats fell quiet again for more than three minutes, made a huge difference.

“We had to lock in on defense in the second half,” said Aliceville’s Simon.

And lock in they did, limiting Sand Rock’s shooters for much of the third and fourth quarters.

For Justice, a senior at Sand Rock, this wasn’t how he wanted to go out in his last high school game.

“I just love this game,” Justice said. “It really hurts to see it come to an end.”

Star of the Game: Simon, who had four assists in addition to his 18 points.

Stat Sheet: St. Clair went 2-for-11 from three-point range, while Aliceville’s Simon was 8-for-10 from the free-throw line, and Colvin went 10-for-16 at the charity stripe.

By the Numbers: Aliceville was 19-of-44 from the floor and shot 5-for-14 from beyond the three-point line. The Yellow Jackets hit 73.2 percent of their free-throws, making 30-of-41. Sand Rock was 21-of-50 from the floor, shooting 7-for-22 from beyond the three-point line. They were 14-of-18 from the free-throw line.

Did You Know? Justice went 4-for-5 in the first period from 3-point range.

They said it: “I have coached my last game,” —Blackwell

Next up: Aliceville faces St. Luke’s at 10:45 a.m. on Friday in the 2A state championship game. The Wildcats held off Mars Hill in the first semifinal game Monday.