Neill Kirkpatrick
Special to HSSR
Greenville
– Both the
Christ Church Episcopal School
men's and lady's
basketball teams played their final regular-season games of the 2023-24 season on Thursday, but it was also a celebration as Cavalier Nation said goodbye and thank you to seven seniors from both the girls and boys teams.
The Lady Cavs' seniors are
Louise Martin and
Lenior-Rhyne signee
Alex Bennon
while
the boys seniors are
Thomas Nuckolls,
Mathew Covington,
D.J. Harvey,
Jack Fagan,
Charlie Creech and
Cooper Hronchek.
“Louise and Alex have been leaders all year and they are great teammates and young ladies,”
said Lady Cavs head coach
Jordan Fillatreau.
It was fitting that their final game was against rival Southside Christian School. In the girls’ game, Christ Church came up short after a furious fourth-quarter rally, falling to the Lady Sabres 46-42. In the boys’ game, the defending state champion Cavaliers pulled away in the second half for a 62-40 win.
The girl’s game was a tight affair early on as the first quarter ended with the Lady Sabres on top 8-6. That changed in a hurry as
the Lady Sabres went n a 12-2 run to open the second quarter and their lead was suddenly 20-8.
Keying the spurt for the Lady Sabres were Sarah Scott from the outside and Devyn Blackwell on the inside as they scored 11 of the Lady Sabres' 13 points in the quarter. The teams went to the half with Southside Christian up 21-13.
The third quarter was a lot like the first two with SCA steadily pulling away as Sophia Stein and Libby Anne Austin hit a couple of threes pushing the lead to 14 at 36-22 heading into the fourth quarter.
Bennon, named as a Top 5 senior in Class A by the
South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association, came a live in the third as she scored all nine of CCE’s points in the third quarter.
The fourth quarter started with the Lady Sabres extending the lead to 16 before the Lady Cavs started pressing to completely turn
the game around as they went on an 18-4 run to cut the lead
to two with 1:45 to go. Leading the charge on defense for the Lady Cavs were two freshmen,
Sophia Mahfood and
Ryan Hunt.
Mahfood made steals all over the court and her pressure on the ball is what started the comeback. Hunt had two key rebounds and put backs during the run.
Bennon continued her scoring pace as she scored eight of the team’s 20 fourth-quarter points. She finished as the game’s top
scorer with 19, 17 of which came in the second half.
SCA head coach Kate Vanderhoff called another timeout with 1:45 left in the game, trying to put an end to CCES' run. That is when Scott stepped up and hit the biggest shot of the game driving to the basket. She was fouled on the shot, and despite missing the free throw, she pushed the lead back to four at 44-40.
Scott finished the night with 11 points while Blackwell led the Lady Sabres with 15 points.
“We knew they (CCE) would make a run sometime during the game. We were finally able to catch a breath when Sarah made the
basket. We got rattled, but I was proud of the way we were able to finish the game,” said Vanderhoff.
CCES' Fillatreau was also pleased with the way his girls finished the game. "We played a great fourth quarter, but we have to learn
to start games that way,” he said.
The Lady Cavs finished the regular season 8-12 overall and 4-4 in Region 1-Class A for third. They will l be on the road in the first round of the playoffs.
SCA is 14-4 and 7-1. It will be back on the CCES campus on Saturday to take on St. Joseph's Catholic for the No. 1 seed in the region for the state playoffs.
The boys game saw the defending state champion Cavaliers pull away in the third and fourth quarters after the Sabres cut their
lead to three for the 62-40 win.
“Our guys have responded all year long. They understood the urgency of not letting Southside Christian hang around,” said CCES
head coach
John Butler. “Southside is a good team; they are well coached, so we know playing them will always be a challenge.”
The first half was like a boxing match as both teams were feeling each other out. They went to the with CCES leading 28-20.
The third quarter started with the Sabres scoring the first five points as
Zane Hagy hit a 3-point shot and
Josh Hennum scored inside and suddenly the Cavs' lead was down to three at 28-25.
Butler called a timeout and then turned to another Top 5 senior in Harvey, who proceeded
to knock down three 3-pointers to go along with a 3 from Fagan as the Cavs outscored the Sabres 34-15 the rest of the way for the win.
“It is good to have someone like DJ Harvey, who kind of took over in that moment and settled us
down,” Butler said.
Hagy led the Sabre’s with 12 points while Hennum finished the night with 10 points.
The Cavs were led by Harvey’s 18 while Jonathan Perry chipped in with 10 points. Harvey scored his 1,000th career point earlier in
the week against Ware Shoals and was honored with a ball at the end of the first quarter. He is already the career assist leader for the Cavs.
Both teams will head to the playoffs next week with SCA (10-10,2-6) going on the road to take on second-ranked North (23-3,13-1).
Christ Church (15-5,8-0) will play host, to Hunter Kinard-Tyler (13-9,8-5). “You always want to have playoff games at home, so we are excited to be home for the first two rounds. You never know what will happen when you go the road,” said Butler.
All Rights Reserved | The High School Sports Report 1986-2021