Sumter – The St. John’s Christian Academy girls basketball team may have entered the SCISA AA state tournament as a No. 6 seed, but it is moving on to the quarterfinals.
SJCA rode the 25-point performance of sophomore Kylie Finley to a 45-40 victory over No. 3 see Lee Academy on Friday at Wilson Hall’s Nash Student Center.
St. John’s will take on upper bracket No. 2 seed Patrick Henry on Monday at a site and time to be determined. SJCA will take a 9-13 record into the contest and is on a 3-game winning streak.
“We prepared really hard the past couple of days,” said St. John’s head coach Tyler Davis. “We’ve played really good basketball the past couple of weeks. I believed in my team coming down here. We’re playing really good basketball. It was a team effort for sure.”
It was a nip-and-tuck game from beginning to end with several ties and lead changes. The final tie came when Lee’s Julee Saverance drained a 3-point basket with 2:08 remaining in the game to make it 39-39. Finley gave SJCA the lead for good on a driving jump shot from the right corner with 1:48 left to make it 41-39.
Lee eighth-grader Jameson Collins hit one of two free throws with 1:36 to go to cut the lead to one. No one scored again until sophomore Chandler Cumbie hit two free throws with 21 seconds remaining to make it 43-40. She put the game away with two more free throws with nine seconds left.
Finley scored 17 of her 25 points in the second half. Cumbie finished with 10 points, while senior Taylor Douet had six.
“Kylie has had to be a leader of this team, and she is beginning to understand the leadership role,” Davis said. “We had a lot of people contributing tonight. Reagan Ashby played great defense, Chandler Cumbie hit the big free throws. It took all 11 players for this win tonight.”
Sophomore Mazie Tomlinson led Lee with 12 points. Senior Alleigh Brown had 11, while fellow senior Saverance had seven. Eighth-grader Karagan Melton had five.
“From where we started to where we are now, we're a completely different team,” said Lee head coach Kim Langston, whose squad finished with a 9-9 record. “I'm not disappointed in my kids at all. They played hard from one end to the other for 32 solid minutes. They gave it everything they had.
“We only had two back from last year (Brown and Saverance), so they all had to learn to gel together and play together. A Lot of things happened throughout the season from Covid to concussions. From where we started and everything, I can't be any prouder of my girls.”
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