Dorchester basketball teams finish season with strong push

St. George – Dorchester Academy girls basketball head coach Callie McClure and boys head

man Nick Mcalhany really couldn’t be much happier with the way their respective teams are playing

heading into the SCISA AA state tournaments.

The DA girls started the season with a 4-5 record. The Raiders went on to win the Region 2 title

with a 6-0 record and are now 15-7 overall. The Dorchester boys lost five of their first six games. He

Raiders had improved to 9-11 with two games left before the state tournament started on February 14-15.

“I’m happy with the progress they’ve made,” said McClure, who guided the girls to the Class A

semifinals last year. “They are playing much better together defensively, and I would say that defense is

our strength.”

“We are definitely peaking at the right time of the year,” said Mcalhany, whose team had games

left against Andrew Jackson Academy and St. John’s Christian. “. I am still confident for (making the)

playoffs if we can get to double-digit wins.”

While it may not be such a factor this season, the Dorchester girls are a very young squad despite

returning three starters this year. The returning starters are sophomores Palmer Kizer and Rylee

Weathers and freshman Emery McClure. A fourth starter, Alyssa Grooms, is a sophomore. The fifth

starter is junior Lyla Owens.

Seeing time off the bench are seniors Reagan Burns and Lucy Varnadoe and eighth-grader

Madison Downey.

McClure said the Dorchester girls need to take a step at a time from here on out.

“We are taking it one game at a time,” she said. “We need to be mentally tough to make a run in

the playoffs.” 

Junior Abe Shuler has been the leader of the Dorchester boys’ offense. He is averaging right

around 24.0 points per game. Shuler has had six games where he has scored 30 or more points.

John Quattlebaum, another junior, missed the start of the season due to injuries suffered as the

quarterback of the football team. Mcalhany thought his absence hurt the Raiders, and his return to the

lineup coincided with the uptick in DA’s performance.

“He has started to find his rhythm,” Mcalhany said of Quattlebaum.

The Raiders faced an overly hectic schedule coming down the stretch to get in games previously

lost to weather or illness.

“We finished the season with a game every day except Saturdaya and Sundays at nine games in a

row,” Mcalhany said. “The wildest two weeks of my coaching career!”