By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Burlington Christian Academy took a big prize into this week’s North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association state playoffs for boys’ basketball.
The Royals hope to keep the momentum going.
BCA avenged two regular-season losses to The Burlington School by winning last Friday night’s Central Carolina Athletic Conference Tournament championship game by 57-44.
“Especially to do it for the conference championship,” BCA guard R.J. Robinson said. “Just beating them anytime, and to do it at their place. It was a different energy.”
BCA started this week’s Class 2-A state playoffs as the No. 8 seed. That began well with Tuesday night’s triumph against visiting Hickory Christian.
But the intra-city clash brought the Royals particular joy.
“I think we just wanted it enough,” said guard Karon Watlington, who missed the regular-season finale setback to the Spartans a week earlier because of illness. “We just played better defense.”
It was similar to last season when TBS won in the regular season, but BCA pulled a road upset in the state playoffs.
“We beat them when it matters,” Robinson said. “We want to carry that into the state tournament.”
In Friday’s game, BCA led 30-23 at halftime, but coach Nolan Myrick said holding TBS to six fourth-quarter points was critical. Part of that came from the Royals slowing down the pace.
“It was a good sign to build that defensive identity,” Myrick said.
Manny Vanhook’s 11 points and Larry Blount’s 10 points led the BCA scoring. For the Spartans, Kaden Hammond notched 14 points and Cam Flippen had 11 points.
Watlington said the team might be clicking at the right time.
“We’re starting to know our roles,” he said.
In defeating short-handed Hickory Christian (8-11) by 88-30, the Royals were in cruise control by building a 20-0 lead in less than four minutes. They posted the game’s first 24 points.
Robinson finished with 16 points, Ben Cockman had 14 points, Wes Carroll tallied 11 points, and Landon Bethea added 10 points. The game took less than an hour to complete.
BCA (19-9) faces Berean Baptist (23-11) of Fayetteville, a 62-29 winner against St. Thomas More, at 6:00 p.m. Thursday at home in the second round. The winner goes to top-seeded Caldwell Academy (23-9) in Greensboro at 2:00 p.m. Saturday.
TBS (17-11) gained the No. 2 seed and two byes into the quarterfinals. The Spartans face Fayetteville Academy or seventh-seeded Gaston Day School on Saturday at home.
- On the girls’ side, TBS is the fifth seed for the NCISAA Class 2-A state playoffs.
The Spartans (12-8) received a first-round bye and face St. Thomas Moore (14-12), which defeated University Christian 64-46 in the first round, on Thursday at home.
Regular-season champion TBS won the conference tournament by forfeit when the BCA team opted out of the title game because of the flu impacting team members.
