Cathedral Academy takes control in second quarter to win SCISA AA boys basketball state title

Sumter – Cathedral Academy lost the 2023 SCISA AA boys basketball state championship game to St. John's Christian Academy on a buzzer-beating 3-point basket. In a return trip to the title game on Saturday, the Generals made sure there was no chance of that happening again.

After a close first quarter, CA broke open the game in the second quarter and never let up as it rolled to a 74-43 victory over Bethesda Academy at Sumter Civic Center.

“It means a lot winning a state title after losing on a buzzer beater last year,” said Cathedral head coach Blake Ferguson. “There’s no worse feeling than that. I'd rather get beat by 20 than lose one like that.

“We had that taste in our mouth all year long. Last year, we were young and coming along. This year we were hungry and out for blood.”

The Generals finished the year with a 26-9 record. Their victory meant a sweep of AA basketball for Cathedral. The girls beat Clarendon Hall earlier in the day to defend their state championship.

        The Generals led just 13-10 after one quarter. The Blazers’ Ashton Wright followed up a miss 17 seconds into the second quarter to cut the lead to one. After that, all bets were off.

Freshman Bryce Ward converted a 3-play to start the scoring for CA. It would go on to outscore Bethesda 21-5 the rest of the way for a 34-17 halftime lead. Ward had 15 of those points, canning two 3-pointers to go with three 2-point baskets.

“We just went out there, poured our hearts out and kept our foot on the pedal,” said Ward, who finished with 26 points. “I was just in the moment, enjoying the moment.”

“He's a special player,” Ferguson said of Ward. “He has that extra twitch, extra hop, some players don't have. When we’re on the break, he runs his lane really, really well, getting out in transition.”

While the offense was certainly good, Ferguson credits Cathedral’s success to its defense.

“I think we had some early-game jitters when it came to offense, but our defense has been traveling,” he said. “Once they settled in, we got to rolling. The defense didn't change, but the offense picked up.”

And it continued to roll. The Generals led 53-29 after three quarters. Their biggest lead of the game was 35 points, 73-38, on a layup by Danny Tolbert with 3:11 remaining in the game.

Blazers head coach Clyde Wormley believes his team got caught up in the moment.

“It was the first time here for this group of players, and I think the guys let it get to them,” said Wormley, whose team finished with a 22-6 record. “We never really settled down. We didn't take our time and run our offense. We were taking quick shots. We just didn’t play our best.”

Along with Ward’s 26 points, AJ Gresham had 16 points and Kaden Whitledge had 12 points to finish in double figures. Dom Felix had nine and Amare Jeter had six.

Israel Wright and Ashton Wright both had 11 points to lead Bethesda. Jacari McKay had 10 and Damian Dobson had five.

“It means a lot for our program to get here,” Wormley said. “The younger guys they got a chance to experience all of this. So next year our goal is to be here again. We can look at the mistakes we made, what went wrong, how we lost the game and learn off of that.”

Ward, Gresham and Whitledge were named to the all-tournament team from Cathedral, while Ashton Wright and McKay were the selections from Bethesda. Dillon Christian School’s Thompson Stone was the other all-tournament selection.

The Generals don’t have a senior on their roster so expectations will no doubt be high for next season. First though, they will enjoy this championship.

“It feels great because we worked hard for it,” Ward said.