C.A. Johnson girls fall to defending champ Christ Church
Four years ago, the C.A. Johnson girls basketball team was more worried about competing night in and night out instead of playing for a state championship game.
They went from winning five games that season to 20 this year, but their bid to play in its first-ever state title game came up a game short as defending state champion Christ Church defeated the Green Hornets 64-41 in the Class A Upper State finals at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena Saturday.
“I will remember when I first started these girls were freshman, we were 5-13,” C.A. Johnson coach Marlon Smith said. “We finished this year 20-5, so they did what they set out to do. We came out and competed every night and we won 20 games. I’m proud of them and I look forward to next year.”
Shayla Bennett scored 30 points, Lawren Cook added 13 points and 12 rebounds and Bailey Breazeale chipped in 11 points for Christ Church (24-3). But it was the Cavalier defense that proved to be the difference.
C.A. Johnson made a habit of forcing turnovers this season, but they finished with 35 against Christ Church’s ever-changing defenses. The Green Hornets had 18 at the half and that allowed the Cavaliers to get easy baskets on the offensive end.
“I thought we played pretty well at first but we had too many turnovers and too many careless mistakes,” Smith said. “We weren’t fundamentally sound. We got tired early in the game, which was surprising. You could tell the length of the court got to us early and we got out of rhythm a little bit.”
Bennett and Breazeale had 10 points each in the first half to give Christ Church a 30-22 halftime lead. The Cavaliers opened the second half on a 14-2 run and pushed the lead to 44-24 with more than five minutes remaining in the quarter.
The Green Hornets had only forced 10 turnovers at that point. Christ Church coach Toni Leopard said she had been watching C.A. Johnson for most of the season and knew they had to find a way to protect the ball if they were going to get a chance to defend their title.
Not being able to create turnovers was a problem, Smith said.
“We had trouble finding out where the ball was,” he said. “They did a great job moving the ball from point to point. They’re a great team, very fundamentally sound.”
All-state performer Kaitlin Pickens finished her career with a team-high 18 points. Fellow seniors Keymero Dash and Demeatrius Bryant each added 9 points.
“It’s been a great year for our seniors,” Smith said. “I know they’re probably in there hurting right now, so we have to go in there and pick them up.”
Christ Church will play Timmonsville for the state championship next Saturday at the Colonial Life Arena at 11 am.
CC: Shayla Bennett 30, Lawren Cook 13, Bailey Breazeale 11, Posta 3, Kipper 3, Pieper 2, Patterson 1, Ferguson 1. CAJ: Kaitlin Pickens 18, Dash 9, Bryant 9, Melton 4, Walston 1.