Trinity Presbyterian’s fourth-quarter comeback to knock off Clements 52-48 in the Class 3A girls AHSAA state championship game on Friday at Birmingham’s BJCC Legacy Arena was an emotional experience for head coach Blake Smith. And for his three daughters the squad and the rest of the “family” on the team.

After the top-ranked Wildcats rallied from a 37-29 deficit with their best offensive quarter of the game – a 23-11 game-deciding eight minutes – Smith was in an exuberant, yet reflective mood when he met the media.

“I just want to say one thing,” he said after his squad finished 32-2 with the school’s first girls’ title and second overall. “We believe God placed us on this world to create beauty, and it’s hard to create beauty in a broken world. These girls are working hard to create beauty. They love each other. They fought and they don’t care who gets the limelight. They have created beauty in this world relationally and with how they fight.”

Trinity played lockdown defense and light’s out offense in the deciding quarter. Clements went nearly six minutes without a bucket in the final period.

The Wildcats hit 7-of-10 shots, with 3-of-4 3-pointers, in the fourth while holding Clements to 4-of-11 from the floor. The Colts did connect on 3-of-5 from behind the 3-point arc in the fourth quarter. Clements led for 25:08 of the game to 5:31 for the eventual champions.

Emma Kate Smith, the coach’s daughter and a 5-foot-8 senior, narrowed Clements’ lead to three with a 3-pointer with 6:35 left in the game. Lilly Smith, Emma Kate’s seventh-grade sister, hit a jumper to cut the margin to 37-36 at 6:01. Then, Emma Kate stole the ball and knocked down another shot from deep to put the Wildcats up by a pair.

Trinity didn’t trail again.

“We missed a lot of shots we normally hit, which allowed them to keep that lead,” Smith – the coach – said. “Then, Emma Kate knocks one down – a girl who’s busted her tail all her life. She got hot and that’s some beautiful stuff. That three she hit from about 10 feet behind that line was beautiful.”

The senior shooter said, “I didn’t shoot as much in the first half. Dad always says even when I get discouraged and I’m not making shots: ‘Shooters going to shoot and it’s going to fall eventually.’ So, that’s what I was thinking – and it fell.”

Clements coach Shane Childress said Trinity’s late surge was unstoppable.

“Once they got the momentum there wasn’t much we could do,” he said. “Very rarely do I use all our timeouts, but I kept using them. I’ll tell you they did a great job. Usually, we get a lot of assists, and we get transition points. We didn’t get as many transition points as normal.”

Star of the game: Emma Kate Smith was named to the all-tournament team and finished her career with a state championship. She had a game-high 14 points with four rebounds, three steals and one assist.

Stat sheet: Trinity – Mya Moskowitz, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, scored 13 points, pulled down four rebounds and recorded one block in the win. Maddie Smith, the coach’s sophomore daughter, scored seven points. Clements – Sophomore Leah Childress and junior Taylor Farrar, both all-tourney picks, scored 15 and 12 points, respectively. Farrar also had seven rebounds and two assists. Farrar had five rebounds and a pair of assists.

By the numbers: Trinity shot 31.3 percent from behind the 3-point arc and 72.2 percent from the free-throw line for the game. In the fourth quarter, the Wildcats made 85.7 percent from the line.

They said it: “We didn’t show up $60,000 SUVs and get out. We scrounged around. You should’ve seen the money that was raised for these girls to get here, and it’s coming from people that don’t have anything. They raised and got donations from people that it hurts them to give 20 dollars, so these girls could dream, and that’s what we tried to teach them this year – to dream. Because they didn’t have a dream until this year.” – Childress on the community’s support during the Colts’ 28-7 season.