By Wil Crews
sportscrews@opelikaobserver.com

 Southern Christian Academy has not had a home basketball game all season. That goes for the boys varsity, girls varsity, junior varsity and middle school teams. However, that hasn’t stopped them from competing, and they gave it their all in the final games of their campaign last week.

 The week began with the Patriots traveling to Columbus, Georgia to take on the Grace Christian Crusaders. The matchup was only between the varsity boys squads due to a lower than normal turnout for Grace’s basketball this year.

In a low scoring, tight affair, the Patriots just didn’t have enough steam down the stretch, falling flat in the game’s closing minutes, losing 34-27. Jedd Scott led the Patriots with 13 points from his shooting guard position, junior point guard Luke Humes had a career night, pulling down 10 rebounds and senior center Silas Frick added 8 points in the loss.

Next, Southern Christian took all of their teams for the season finale against coach Ricky Phaturos and the Ezekiel Knights from Montgomery. Coach Jason Scott knew ahead of time how difficult the matchup could be.

“My older boys played baseball for Ezekiel; they played for Ricky,” he said. “He’s a great coach and they really have a top-notch athletic program there at Ezekiel. I knew we were going to have to bring our best just to keep up with them.”

First up were the middle school girls. The Lady Patriots fell 25-18 in the first game of what would be a long night for Southern Christain. Point guard Kaylee Walton led the way, scoring 13 of the 18 points for the Lady Patriots.

In the next game, the middle school boys were led by twin brothers Jagger and Jedd Scott. Jedd was an energizer bunny on the court, exciting the bench every time he scored one of his 12 points. Jagger had a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds. In the end, however, it wasn’t enough, as the Patriots fell 45-31.

In the third game of the night, the JV Girls had the toughest time. Scoring only 5 points in four quarters, the Lady Patriots lost, 27-5. Rhema Creel had four of the five points, and Aliyah Frick pulled down a team-high 11 rebounds.

The fourth game of the night was the closest. The JV boys squad took the much deeper and much more experienced Knights to the wire, losing a 37-32 nail-biter. Levi Marchio had 10 points and an impressive seven steals. The Scott twins had another nice game with Jedd scoring 12 and Jagger one-upping his performance from the previous game with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

The final game of the night was anything but merciful. The Patriots began to show their fatigue as some players were warming up for their third game of the night. The Patriots kept it close early, but faded down the stretch, falling to Ezekiel 62-29. Jedd Scott had a team-high 9 points. Humes and Marchio both added 7 points and double-digit rebounds. And senior Silas Frick went out on a high note, finishing with 10 boards.

“We had a tough first year but all the kids learned a lot and never lost hope,” Scott said. “They fought the good fight; they finished their race. The one thing this was for us was a great learning opportunity for these kids who are new to the game. I feel like we will have an incredible foundation to build off of after this season.”