Calhoun Academy, Dorchester Academy, Trinity Collegiate, and Ben Lippen Advance To Round Two Of SCISA Boy’s Play-offs With Impressive Wins At Cathedral Saturday
By Billy G. Baker
Publisher
North Charleston — In the first of two SCISA Class AA boys’ basketball play-off games held at Cathedral Academy on February, 17, Calhoun Academy defeated Thomas Heyward 67-52, and in the second game Dorchester Academy won a come-from-behind thriller over St. Johns Christian (67-65) in the final seconds of the game.
Calhoun Academy was led by three players in double figures. Connor Hayes had 16 points, while Chase Strickland and Hunter Thornburg each had 12 points in the win over the Rebels. Calhoun Academy advances to play Bethesda Academy at Wilson Hall starting at 4:30 on Tuesday.
Thomas Heyward was led by sophomore point guard Tony O’Banner who poured in 30 points during the game. O’Banner (6-1, 215) considered by the HSSR as the top rising junior football player in South Carolina, recently picked up a football offer from South Carolina to go with a previous offer from Liberty.
“I am proud of the boys so far this season,” said Calhoun head coach Gressette Felder. “We graduated seven seniors from last year on a veteran team and this season we are young and have a lot of kids who have moved from the junior varsity.
“We are fortunate to have four guys averaging in double figures opposed to just one who averaged double figures last season,” said Coach Felder. “By having four players in double figures it is hard for our opponents to focus on any one player.”
Coach Felder called Bethesda “athletic and really quick.” “We have to be the more disciplined team when we play them and we need to control the pace,” said Coach Felder. “If we let them run their fast-paced offense it will be a long game for us for sure.”
In Dorchester Academy’s win over St. Johns Christian, the Raiders trailed the entire game until 2.9 seconds in the game. At that point the Raiders converted a steal and scored on a basket by John Quattlebaum to claim a 67-65 win.
The Raiders were led in scoring by Waylon Gruber with 25 points and Quattlebaum who had 21 points. DA advances to play Dillon Christian at 8 pm at Wilson Hall on Tuesday.
“We played some half-court defense in the second half and got several steals off it and Waylon Gruber and John Quattlebaum did a great job once again in leading us on offense,” said DA head coach Nick McAlhaney. “This game is a good momentum builder. One of our senior leaders is Connor Hartzog and while he might not have huge stats numbers, he is our floor leader and he does a lot of the little things right.”
St. Johns Christian was led by Thomas Hester with 24 points and Tradd Law contributed 9 points in the season ending game.
In the first boy’s SCISA AAAA game of the afternoon Trinity Collegiate defeated Pinewood Prep 53-47 after trailing by five points with just over two minutes left in the game.
Trinity was led in scoring by James Herbert (16) Evan Williams (14), along with Jae Thomas (12). Pinewood Prep weas led on the scoring index by senior Michael Jones (19) and Jayden Alexander (11 points) along with freshman Tripp Eidson with seven points.
Trinity head coach Marcus Sikes told the HSSR, “I just told our guys that time was running against us and that we had to play resilient and find ways to score,” said Coach Sikes. “This is a confidence builder for our upcoming game with Cardinal Newman and it is always great to get that first playoff win.”
Veteran Pinewood Prep head coach Pat Eidson completed his 35th season as a head coach and he concludes the 2023 -24 season with 935 career wins. The state record is 941 wins and the veteran head coach said he hopes to end in his career in a few years with more than 1,000 wins.
“We finished 22-11 and played a really tough schedule and we were 5-1 against 5-A public schools,” he said. “Losing our sophomore point guard (Jonathan Slawson) in the middle of the season to a broke foot made us adjust strategy and our line-up to figure out ways to win.
“We never got into the curve we like to play in today,” said Coach Eidson. “Not sure if it was nerves of the playoffs, or what it was. We didn’t play as relaxed as I would like and to give up a five- point lead in the final two minutes of the game was very disappointing.”
Pinewood’s top rebounder Ricardo Heath was sick and played sparingly at the start of the game before retiring to the bench. Next season Pinewood will have Slawson back along with 6-6 talented freshman Tripp Eidson who had 9 points in the game with several blocked shots.
Trinity advances to play Cardinal Newman at 5 p.m. on Monday at Wilson Hall in Sumter.
In the final SCISA AAAA playoff game of the day Ben Lippen defeated First Baptist 86-79. Ben Lippen was led in scoring by Stephen Nichols with 24 and Braysen Stockman with 23 points respectively. B-L advances to play Hammond in the Sumter Civic Center at 3:30 on Monday.
First Baptist was led by Cooper Kowalski (33) and Taye Robinson (25).
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