Cathedral Green Wave end season with close loss in first round of South State
Published 12:27 am Tuesday, February 13, 2018
Matthew Hall and the Cathedral School boys basketball team needed a crowning spark to finish with a victory Monday night, but it unfortunately didn’t come after a more than 20-minute injury delay.
The Green Wave trailed by one point with just under three minutes remaining in its first-round MAIS Class AAA South State Tournament matchup, but couldn’t hold on after the extended break and ultimately ended its season, 31-27.
As the game neared the final minutes, Bowling Green’s Lync Sharp fell to the floor after he and Cathedral’s J.T. Taylor were both fighting for a loose ball. Sharp was responsive and his head was held stable on the floor until he was taken off the court via stretcher.
“The whole thing was weird,” Hall said. “With the injury, we all kind of had to reset. We were up the whole game, but I don’t think our lead ever got more than six to eight.”
Cathedral went back and forth with Bowling Green as the clock was winding down, most notably regaining the lead after Colby Passman made a crowd-jolting layup off a missed free throw.
As Bowling Green was driving back down the court, Braden Edwards was fouled and had a chance at two free throws himself, making the first to tie the game 27-27 with 11.7 seconds remaining.
Edwards missed the second free throw, but received a second chance after Cathedral committed a line violation.
“The explanation that I got was that our guy clapped,” Hall said. “He was trying to pump our guys up, but they called it. We were kind of beating ourselves up over that one, but it’s all a part of the game.”
Edward made his second attempt, and Bowling Green never then lost the lead.
Looking back on how this season started, Hall said, he couldn’t be more proud of how his team finished.
The Green Wave will lose three seniors in Ty Tobias, Caden Poole and Conner Branton.
“Our first game we lost by about 35 points,” Hall said. “I just told them to hang in there because we were going to get to where we wanted to get.
“Conner and Caden are baseball guys. They delayed the prep to their season just to play with us, and they did an excellent job. They haven’t played basketball in a few years, but ended up being starters. Obviously Ty is the best player on our team, and he is a tremendous leader so it’s tough on him to lose.”
Branton and Tobias led the efforts with eight points each in the loss. Passman added six of his own.
“You could just tell that someone’s heart was going to get broken in the end with this one, but we had a fun season,” Hall said. “I love this group of kids.”