By Wil Crews
sportscrews@opelikaobserver.com
Southern Christian Academy returned to the court last week after a brief COVID-19-related hiatus and the rust showed, with slow starts and turnovers marring the Patriot’s difficult week.
“We are going to have to learn how to play together as a team,” said Southern Christian Head Coach Jason Scott. “We have a lot of individual effort and guys really getting after it, but until we decide to play as a team, we will continue to struggle.”
On Jan. 28 the Patriots traveled to Union Springs to face the Eagles of Conecuh Springs Christian School. The JV Boys team were led to victory by Josiah Frick, scoring 11 points in the matchup. Harris Adams added 8 points while Jagger Scott had another double-digit night with 11 rebounds. The performance of every Patriot was crucial as Southern Christian narrowly edged the Eagles 28-25.
In the Varsity Boys game, point guard Luke Humes led the Patriots in scoring with 8 points. Overall, the Patriots struggled to get their offense going and found themselves down 10 at the half.
“At half time I was sure we were going to be able to keep up with them,” Scott said.
In the third quarter, the Eagles caught fire. Outscoring the Patriots 41-6 in the second half of regulation, Conecuh Springs cruised to the victory. With 26 turnovers, the Patriots hand-fed the Eagles a 64-19 win. The high point for the Patriots was another great performance under the basket by Jagger Scott, pulling down 10 boards.
On Friday, SCA traveled to Trussville for what was always going to be a tough game against the East Central Patriots who have an undefeated JV and Varsity Girls team. East Central, the likely No. 1 seed in the ACSC State Playoffs.
The SCA JV Boys played first, falling 52-35. Jedd Scott led the SCA with 17 points and five steals. Harris Adams scored 9 while Jagger Scott and Josiah Frick had seven rebounds each.
The Southern Christian JV Girls played next and also lost to a veteran-laden and deep East Central Patriot team, 44-4. Aliyah Frick led SCA with seven rebounds and Callie Ridings added four rebounds.
Next, the main event of the night was the varsity boys game. Another slow start afflicted the Patriots as they fell behind 16-6 after the first quarter. SCA was never able to catch up. It wasn’t all bad, however. After Humes (SCA’s starting point guard) went out of the game in early foul trouble, the emphasis fell on 13-year-old Jedd Scott to get points on the board. He did so in spectacular fashion, putting on a show for the crowd on the way to 27 points. Additionally, Josiah Frick had great night, grabbing 11 boards and adding 9 points. With the loss, the varsity boys fall to 0-6. With four games left, Scott is hopeful the Patriots can pop the goose egg next week with their first home game.
“We have to take care of the ball,” Scott said. “We are getting better every day until we get our turnovers down, we will have a really hard time finding a win.”