Bulldogs rebound, finish third

After dropping Friday’s Division II-A District 3 Tournament semifinal matchup, Columbia Academy’s Bulldogs got their groove back, edging Battle Ground Academy 72-63 in Saturday’s consolation game at the Anderson Fieldhouse.

“It was a tough start for us,” CA coach Marty DeJarnette said after his team improved to 21-7 and set up a Middle Region quarterfinal game Wednesday against Goodpasture, the District 4 tourney runner-up.

“Whereas (Friday, against Christ Presbyterian Academy) we started quick, (Saturday) it took us a while to get that energy going. And I worried about that. Just coming off of a tough night, you always worry about how your team’s gonna respond, and they jumped on us right there in the first quarter, got us down ten. And then from there, our guys just took off. They battled and showed some guts, and showed some toughness, and I was real proud of the way they came out.”

Trailing 7-0 early in the first quarter, the Bulldogs got on the board with a bucket from Paxton Powell at the 6:26 mark. They trailed by as many as ten (14-4 with 4:26 left in the quarter) before they started to climb back into the ballgame.

The Bulldogs cut their deficit to 14-12 after two treys, one from Tanner Ham and one from Chase Duncan, helped guide them to a 20-19 lead after the first quarter.

At the 5:01 mark of the second quarter, a bucket from BGA’s Briston Bennett gave the Wildcats a 23-22 lead. The Bulldogs then went on a 12-0 run to make the score 34-23 with 2:24 left to play in the first half.

The Wildcats (13-15) cut the deficit to seven, 53-46, at the end of the third quarter, but never regained the lead.

“In tournament play, it’s all about learning from that game, and then moving on to the next one,” said BGA coach Justin Street. “You can’t be emotionally attached to the game, be it a win or a loss. You’ve just got to kind of take it, and then move on and figure out how to get the next one. And so, really for us, I don’t know if we played our best the last two games. And that’s OK, because we’ve got two practices to improve to get ready for Wednesday.

“What I take from our team is that we’ve got a lot of fight left in us. We’ve got a lot of ‘compete’ left in us. The second half, we finally kind of guarded a little bit better. I was proud of how our guys fought and competed, I really am proud of that,” said Street.

Ham and Gary Smith Jr. led CA in scoring with 15 points apiece, while Riley Weller added 12 and Duncan 10. Garnett Hollis Jr. scored a game-high 27 points to lead the visiting Wildcats, while Sean Williams finished with 14.

Both Columbia Academy and BGA will play on the road Wednesday, with BGA traveling to District 4 tourney champion Davidson Academy, a 55-48 winner over Goodpasture.

“We’re happy to be playing, not everybody’s playing those games,” DeJarnette said, in reference to this week’s region tournament. “We played Davidson twice, and haven’t played well either time and they’re a really good team. They’ve put it on us a couple of times.

“We haven’t seen Goodpasture this year. But, we’re going to go in, we know we have a good basketball team. We’re playing in this district which is full of good teams and good players and good coaches, and we’re just excited about the opportunity. We’re gonna go give ‘em everything we have.”

Webb, the District 3 regular-season champion, defeated Christ Presbyterian Academy 79-67 in Saturday’s tourney finals. In girls play, CPA defeated Franklin Road Academy 52-46 in the finals with Providence Christian defeating Middle Tennessee Christian 47-31 in the consolation game.

◆◆◆

Girls consolation

Providence Chr. 47, Middle Tenn. Chr. 31

M 3 10 7 11 — 31

P 7 11 14 15 — 47

Middle Tenn. Chr. (31) — Kiersten Hudson 5, Reagan Atkinson 5, Mia Goins 1, Sarah Wisniowski 13, Amaria Gillispie 6, Caylee Jackson 1

Providence Chr. (47) — A.C. Markham 10, Mariah Edmonds 13, Alia Callum 9, Sydney Gibson 6, Abby McFarland 5, Gracie Duke 2, Isabella Hardison 2

3-pointers — Providence Chr. 2 (Edmonds, McFarland), Middle Tenn. Chr. 1 (Atkinson)

Boys consolation

Columbia Acad. 72, Battle Ground Acad. 63

B 19 9 18 17 — 63

C 20 17 16 19 — 72

Battle Ground Acad. (63) — Sean Williams 19, Jo Cantrell 9, Briston Bennett 13, Kaleb Seay 14, Nick Semptimphelter 4, Garnett Hollis Jr. 4

Columbia Acad. (72) — Tanner Ham 15, Drew Butt 3, Riley Weller 12, Chase Duncan 10, Will Jackson 9, Gary Smith Jr. 15, Paxton Powell 8

3-pointers — Columbia Acad. 9 (Ham 3, Butt, Weller, Duncan 2, Jackson 2), Battle Ground Acad. 4 (Williams, Seay 2, Semptimphelter)

Girls championship

Christ Presbyterian Acad. 52, Franklin Road Acad. 46

F 13 16 13 4 — 46

C 5 22 19 6 — 52

Franklin Road Acad. (46) — Ryan Pierce 7, Macie Medes 6, Iris Heldman 7, Zharia Hutchinson 26

Christ Presbyterian Acad. (52) — Susannah Matthews 2, Addie Reese Zapp 11, Carrington Washburn 8, Ava Maddux 9, Carley Smith 7, Emmaline Bartlett 5, Virginia Glisson 10

3-pointers — Franklin Road Acad. 3 (Pierce, Hutchinson 2), Christ Presbyterian Acad. 10 (Zapp 2, Washburn, Maddux 3, Smith, Bartlett, Glisson 2)

Boys championship

Webb (Bell Buckle) 79, Christ Presbyterian Acad. 67

C 9 13 27 18 — 67

W 21 23 9 26 — 79

Christ Presbyterian Acad. (67) — Jordan Dewalt 6, Jake Dykstra 3, Braden Zapp 15, Evan Shiflet 14, Drew Cox 6, Braedon Moore 23

Webb (79) — Weston Coop 3, J.J. Platt 28, Khi Harris 4, Junior Chambers 2, Jordan Jenkins 28, Alex Garrett 12, Amos Howard 2

3-pointers — Christ Presbyterian Acad. 9 (Dykstra, Zapp 3, Shiflet 2, Moore 3), Webb 5 (Coop, Jenkins 3, Garrett)

All-Tournament

Girls — Kiersten Hudson, Middle Tenn. Chr.; Ava Maddux, Christ Presbyterian Acad.; Carley Smith, Christ Presbyterian Acad.; Carrington Washburn, Christ Presbyterian Acad. (MVP); Zharia Hutchinson, Franklin Road Acad.; Mariah Edmonds, Providence Chr.

Boys — Braden Zapp, Christ Presbyterian Acad.; Braedon Moore, Christ Presbyterian Acad.; J.J. Platt, Webb (MVP); Jordan Jenkins, Webb; Tanner Ham, Columbia Acad.; Garnett Hollis Jr., Battle Ground Acad.

All-District

Girls — Gracie Semptimphelter (Battle Ground Acad.); Susannah Matthews, Carley Smith, Carrington Washburn (Christ Presbyterian Acad.); Madi Lewis (Columbia Acad.); Zharia Hutchinson, Macie Medes, Ryan Pierce (Franklin Road Acad.); Anna Smith (Grace Chr.); Sydney Cooper, Sarah Wisniowski (Middle Tenn. Chr.); Mariah Edmonds, Anna Caite Markham (Providence Chr.); Lauren Vann (Webb); Caroline Fox (Zion Chr.). Player of the Year — Carrington Washburn, CPA. Coach of the Year — Becky LeGate, CPA

Boys — Garnett Hollis Jr. (Battle Ground Acad.); Jordan Dewalt, Braedon Moore, Evan Shiflet, Braden Zapp (Christ Presbyterian Acad.); Tanner Ham, Gary Smith Jr. (Columbia Acad.); Sean Casey, Kingston Gardner (Franklin Road Acad.); Mason McKnatt (Grace Chr.); Braden Smith (Middle Tenn. Chr.); Alex Garrett, Jordan Jenkins, J.J. Platt (Webb); Briggs Rutter (Zion Chr.). Player of the Year — J.J. Platt, Webb. Coach of the Year — Jeff Mitchell, Webb.