Cathedral Defeats Andrew Jackson Academy, 73-49, To Repeat As SCISA AA Boys’ Basketball Champions

By Billy G. Baker

Publisher

Sumter—The Cathedral Academy Generals (29-12) won their third SCISA boys state AA title in four seasons (second straight), under head coach Blake Ferguson, with a 73-49 dominating win over Andrew Jackson Academy (23-9) at the Sumter Civic Center on February, 22.

From the court, after the game, Coach Ferguson told the HSSR, “It feels great to see these guys win two in a row and three in the past four seasons,” said Coach Ferguson. “Bryce Ward) is a great player, but even a better person off the court, and God has blessed us with a group of players who play for each other.

“Kaden Whitledge is our senior captain and the heart and soul of the team,” said Coach Ferguson. “He is our glue guy and he is always going to defend their best player. He runs our offense and it is going to be sad to see him graduate.

“Our goal is to always score the majority of our points at the basket because the three is not always working for you,” said Coach Ferguson. “We work hard on making free throws and playing good defense also.”

In the locker room, prior to the game, Coach Ferguson said he told the team, “We have been here before so I challenged them not to be complacent, and I wanted them to play hungry,” said Coach Ferguson. “I reminded them of our lost two years ago in the finals on a buzzer beater. I reminded them about an earlier season loss against Pinewood Prep in a tournament finals game. I wanted them to play with grit and effort today and that is what we got.”

Ward, who led Cathedral with 25 points, was all smiles after the game. “We just need to keep going and growing over these next two seasons, and I am a little short, so I am looking forward to playing the point next season,” said Ward. “I have grown up playing very physical with my AAU teams and it has carried over to my high school team. We worked way-too-hard to come out and lose this game today.”

AJA head coach Josh Barnes has now completed his 15th season as the head coach of the Warriors varsity program. “We set out this season to jell as a team, and not necessarily compete for a title, but we felt like we had the talent to get here nonetheless,” said Coach Barnes. “We wanted to slow the pace of the game down and holding them to 28 first half points I felt like mission accomplished there.

“Cathedral plays a packed in man-to-man defense that forces you to shoot a lot from the outside,” said Coach Barnes. “You have to knock down those outside shots and while we made some to start the game,  we picked the wrong game to miss so many outside shots.

“After we took the 10-2 lead,  we then missed three shots in a row and they made three shots in a row and that point we changed our game to more tempo and it was just not our day,” said Coach Barnes.

“We will miss our two senior starters, Gage Dicks and Hayden McClung but we have a solid group of returners, plus we brought up two quality players from the jayvee for the playoffs so we feel really good about the future,” said Coach Barnes. 

In the early stages of the game, AJA actually led 10-2 with 4:27 left in the opening period as Hall Sease scored five-of- the -10 points on a lay-up and a three pointer from the corner. The other five points were produced by Hayden McClung on a three-pointer and Gage Dicks on a short-jumper.

However, the Generals went on an 11-0 run from that point, until the end of the quarter, to take a 13-10 lead as Kayden Whitledge scored 8 points, all on lay-ups, and sophomore Bryce Ward added four points on a lay-up and two free throws.

In the second period Cathedral outscored AJA 15-9 to take a 28-19 lead at the break. The big scoring play of the second period for the Generals was a four-point play turned in by senior Dominic Felix who was fouled while making a three- point shot with 37.4 left in the first half. His bonus free throw made it 28-17 at that point in the game.

Cathedral blew the game open in the third period as they out-scored AJA 24-14 to build a 52-31 lead entering the final period. Ward scored 8 points in the period to pace the Generals.

In the fourth period Cathedral out-scored AJA 21-18 to make the final score 73-49.

For the game Cathedral was led in scoring by Ward with 25 points, Whitledge added 17 points and AJ Gresham and Felix each contributed 9 points.

AJA placed three players in double figures led by Dicks with 14 points. Sease had a solid game with 13 points, 13 rebounds, and two steals and senior point guard Hayden McClung had 12 points, six rebounds and two steals.

The SCISA AA Boy’s all-tournament team consisted of Gresham, Whitledge and Ward of Cathedral and Dicks, Schofield, and McClung of AJA.