By Billy G. Baker
Publisher
Ehrhardt — The Andrew Jackson Academy boys’ basketball team lost hard-fought games against St. Johns Christian (74-65) and Dorchester Academy (62-61) on consecutive nights in late January and now the team hopes to regroup as they host region leading Cathedral Academy on January, 30.
AJA (12-13, 3-3) overcame a 17-point deficit at the half against St. Johns Christiaan and only trailed 66-63 with 1:22 left in the game.
After the St. Johns Christian game head coach Josh Barnes told the HSSR, “We need to play more as a team and in crunch time we need to the simple things right,” he said. “We need to play better on defense and quit letting players slip inside our defense and make what I call crab buckets.
“We had several baskets scored on us at the end of the game that were inexcusable due to a lack of focus by our defense,” said Coach Barnes. “We have enough time to work on our issues we need to correct. You hope that things are going better and then you get in a close game like we were in tonight and we let the game slip away by not playing better defense, and not being as fundamentally sound as we should be.
“Our players are working hard, don’t get me wrong,” said Coach Barnes. “We are a much better team than we showed tonight against St. Johns Christian.”
Currently junior shooting guard Gage Dicks is leading the Warriors in scoring at 18.3 points a game including 8.1 rebounds. Junior guard/forward Carter Brown is averaging 8.9 points an outing. Hayden McClung is averaging 15.8 points, 6.4 rebounds, 4.1 assists, and 3.1 steals a game.
Ollie Barnes, an excellent three-point shooter, is averaging 11.2 points a game. Sophomore guard Hall Sease is averaging 8.2 points and 6.3 rebounds a game.
The team consists of seven players with freshman Elijah Davis and junior forward Jacobe Best key reserves.
“If we play sound team basketball like we did both times against Calhoun Academy we have our best chance to win,” said Coach Barnes. “If we are playing better and winning games at the end of the season that will signal, we have reached our potential.
“I still think we can finish strong, and make a good run in the play-offs but we have to start playing team basketball, and play under more control,” said Coach Barnes. “There isn’t any dominant SCISA AA team this year. It all comes down to who has their team playing the best at the end of the season.”
After the game with Cathedral the Warriors will play seven games to conclude the regular season. Teams remaining to play are Clarendon Hall twice, John Paul II, Faith Christian, Dorchester Academy and HTTC.
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