Rebels knock off Homewood at Steel City

Mac Smith scored 25 points to lead Vestavia Hills past Homewood, 56-50, on Wednesday afternoon in a consolation matchup at the Steel City Invitational.

“It’s a good win,” said Vestavia head coach Patrick Davis. “For our third game in 24 hours and playing on some guts, I was really proud of the way we came out ready to go.”

Smith scored 17 of his points in the first half, as both teams were toe-to-toe for the majority of the opening two periods. The Rebels took a 30-27 edge into the locker room over Homewood, playing without forward Trey Jemison.

“We were sharp offensively. We did a good job of driving and kicking and finding the right guys,” Davis said.

The Rebels opened the lead to as many as seven during the third quarter and eight during the final quarter, but Homewood rallied. A Luke Touliatos 3-pointer with two minutes to play in the contest actually gave the Patriots their only lead of the contest, at 50-49.

Vestavia Hills came down on the next possession and matched the long ball, with Mitchell Langley hitting a 3 of his own to put the Rebels ahead for good.

“We were a little heavy-legged on defense and they did a good job of attacking us there. It came down to we were smart with the ball and we got enough defensive rebounds to get the job done,” Davis said.

C.D. Daniels paced Homewood with 12 points on 5 of 10 shooting and six rebounds. Logan Padgett hauled in seven rebounds. The Rebels made hay from deep, shooting 50% (8 of 16) from 3-point range, as opposed to just 27% (6 of 22) for Homewood.

Vestavia knocked off Lanett on Tuesday before falling to Mountain Brook later that day, moving the Rebels to 2-1 at the tournament. Homewood enjoyed a first-round bye before losing to Pelham on a last-second free throw in overtime on Tuesday.

Both teams will wrap up their run in the Steel City Invitational on Thursday, as Homewood takes on Parker at 9:30 a.m. Vestavia Hills plays Auburn at 11 a.m.