BILOXI, MISS. — The Alabama Hawks have won the 2019 Youth Basketball of America (YBOA) national championship. 

“We went down to Biloxi, and we didn’t know what we were going to run into,” Alabama Hawks coach Alvin Jackson said. “It’s been difficult for the players to plan around all of the play dates that they have had with their high schools. We were able to just come down there, we believed and we got it done.”

The Hawks went 2-2 in pool play at the national tournament. In bracket play, the Hawks won, advanced and defeated the Lady Gladiators, one of the teams they lost to in pool play, to win the championship. LaFayette junior Feliah Greer scored the first 17 points for the Hawks in the final game, while Troup County senior Amber Gilbert and Lanett junior Alysse Madden both finished with double-digit rebounds in the contest as well.

Greer was named the national tournament MVP.

“Alysse Madden played big,” Jackson said. “Gilbert played big. It was a complete team effort. The Lady Gladiators only lost two games all season long.”

For the most part, the Hawks played up in the bracket that was for rising seniors because the team only has two rising seniors in Gilbert and Valley High School’s Arteria Florence. 

Greer was invited to participate in the Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA)’s Elite 100 Camp this past Saturday at Spain Park High School in Birmingham, but she passed up the opportunity to play in the national tournament.

The Hawks still have a couple of more tournaments to compete in during the summer, wrapping up the year at another national championship in Atlanta at the Georgia World Congress Center on July 25.