FORT LAUDERDALE — Three weeks ago in the District 12-Class 3A final, St. Andrew’s boys basketball trailed Calvary Christian Academy, the No. 2-ranked team in the country per MaxPreps, by eight points going into the fourth quarter.
The Scots wound up losing 80-66, but after playing one of the state’s toughest schedules, they had hope they could pull off an upset if they met in the Region 3 final.
They got their chance Saturday and hung with the Eagles for a quarter. But after that, CCA overwhelmed the Scots with their height advantage and transition game, and breezed to the state semifinals with an 88-65 victory.
“The mistakes we made last game, we didn’t correct them,” longtime St. Andrew’s coach John O’Connell said. “And they jumped on it early. We didn’t keep the guards out of the paint. And in the first half, we didn’t make shots we usually make. It just got away from us.”
Scots senior guard Xander Gerard, who averaged nearly 25 points a game, scored 23 of his 25 points in the second half. But by then, the game wasn’t in doubt. The Scots (24-5) never trailed by fewer than 14 points in the second half. The Eagles (22-1) led by as many as 26 in the fourth quarter.
Gerard’s twin brother Brendan made a 3-pointer from the left corner with 2:44 left in the first quarter to pull the Scots within 13-12. Early in the second quarter, Ryan Connors’ basket cut the deficit to 22-18.
After that, the Eagles began to assert themselves. Five-star guard Cayden Daughtry, one of the top 15 recruits in the nation in the Class of 2027, scored 13 of his 21 points in the second quarter, including a driving layup in the final seconds of the half to push the lead to 39-25.
From there, the Eagles put on a show. They had more than 10 dunks, including several alley-oops. Aiden Bolden (6-foot-7) had 18 points, Kenneth Francis Jr. (6-5) had 11, Jadus Sorhaindo (6-8) had 7 and Chaunce Stewart (6-11) had 5.
Daughtry said coach Cilk McSweeney encourages the Eagles to throw lobs to their big men. “We know AB, Chaunce and Jadus are going to catch them.”
The Eagles went 5-of-9 from 3-point range “and we killed them inside,” McSweeney said.
“We knew there were things we had to do to keep from them making the big run. We didn’t do it,” O’Connell said. “You can’t chase that team.
“One thing we didn’t want to do is let the game get too far away from us where we had to extend our defense. They’re just too talented.”
Brendan Gerard didn’t score after the first quarter and fouled out with 3:49 remaining. After Xander Gerard, the Scots’ next highest scorers were sophomore guard Lynden Adea (8) and freshman Ryan Connors (7).
O’Connell will part with eight seniors who won 50 games in the past two seasons. “I like our underclassmen and we’ve got a good, strong JV team,” he said. “But we got a lot of work to do to catch (Calvary Christian).”
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: St. Andrew’s boys basketball eliminated by Calvary Christian
