GCA boys basketball tops Oldenburg for first regional title

MARTINSVILLE

Max Booher’s lava-temperature start was the flotation device that Greenwood Christian clung to early in Saturday afternoon’s regional game.

But for the Cougars to advance, contributions had to be more evenly distributed the rest of the way.

And they were, as GCA fended off a scrappy Oldenburg Academy squad, 49-42, at Martinsville’s John R. Wooden Gymnasium to win its first-ever regional championship and punch its ticket to the Class A Washington Semistate, where a 10 a.m. semifinal against Bethesda Christian awaits.

“We had different guys stepping up, especially on both ends of the floor,” said Greenwood Christian coach Jackson Williams, whose squad improved to 18-7 on the season. “Ben Comerford comes in and gives us a lift off the bench along with Alieu Ceesay.

“All of our guys … Eli Jackson, Noah Reed did a great job running the game for us and controlling tempo, especially here in the second half. We just have some small mistakes there at the end as a team that we’ve got to fix, but we’ll fix them, hopefully, for next week.”

One thing that didn’t require tweaking, particularly early on, was Booher’s skill set at the offensive end. The 6-foot-2 guard scored his team’s first 14 points, connecting on 5 of his 8 shots over the course of the opening quarter, including three 3-pointers. He finished with 26 points — the lone GCA player in double figures.

“Usually, it’s anyone’s game, and I just started off hot,” Booher said. “I just wanted to get a big lead early because they’re a good team and they play slow. But my teammates all step up every night.

“I think it was our defense and our mentality all game. We wanted this really bad. I’m sure they wanted it, but I think we wanted it more.”

Oldenburg (13-12), riding the shot-making talents of 6-2 senior guard Connor Miles, claimed its final lead at 19-18 on a Miles putback. The Cougars closed the second period with a 9-3 scoring burst, points coming on a Booher baseline jumper, a pair of Evan McIntire buckets and Comerford’s triple from the right baseline.

Greenwood Christian widened its advantage to 11 points after a Jackson layup at 3:06 of the third, but the Twisters dialed up their defensive intensity and gradually climbed back into it.

Oldenburg twice got to within three points in the fourth quarter, 37-34 at 6:16 and finally 42-39 after a steal and layup by junior Jacob Stenger with 3:10 on the clock. The Twisters appeared poised to make it even closer, but Stenger’s 12-footer in the lane was off the mark and rebounded by Reed.

The Cougars spread the floor and ultimately reaped the rewards. Senior guard Jordan Taulman delivered a pass inside to Ceesay for a chippy at the 1:12 mark to make it a 44-39 score; Booher then hit one of two charities at 43.2 seconds and Reed swished both of his free throws at 27.9 to pretty much put the outcome on ice.

“We just know that, our whole team, we can step up when we need to,” said Reed, who finished with six points and led the Cougars in rebounds with five. “We have faith in everyone.

“We knew that we were in the lead, we were going to take good shots and slow it down a little bit. That’s what we did.”

Ceesay and McIntire scored six and four points for the Cougars, with McIntire collecting four rebounds. Six of the nine Greenwood Christian players who saw the floor scored, while eight of them secured at least one rebound.

Miles and Stenger scored 13 points apiece to lead Oldenburg Academy, which is coached by former Greenwood assistant Michael Higdon. Junior forward Henry Wanstrath added 12 points and grabbed a game-high seven rebounds.

Greenwood Christian turned the basketball over 10 times to the Twisters’ nine. Both squads had 38 field goal attempts, with GCA making 17 and Oldenburg 16. The Cougars made good on 11 of 12 free throw tries, hitting eight of nine during the final quarter.