First Presbyterian Christian Academy opened basketball season Thursday at the St. James Center, hosting Habersham School of Savannah. The Lady Highlanders forged a last minute run but fell 38-31.
The FPCA boys throttled the Patriot boys 121-32 in the game that followed.
Friday night, the Highlander boys played their first region game and downed I-Can Academy 100-53 at the St. James Sports Center.
Lady Landers
The FPCA girls were trailing by 16 points with only 2:07 left when they staged a run-and-gun rally led primarily by the offense of Mary Kathryn Whitney and the defense of Auset Gibbs.
Gibbs pressured the Lady Patriots, forcing turnovers and allowing Whitney to score five of her 13 points in the final minutes. Gibbs knocked in three of her five points in the final two minutes, and newcomer Charlotte Osmers dropped in four of her nine points during the run. Haley Stuart contributed four points in the game.
The momentum caught the Lady Patriots off guard and the Lady ’Landers strong defensive stance held the visitors to only six fourth quarter points.
Lady Patriot Ashlyn Burnsed led Habersham with 22 points, including two from behind the arch. Emma Ricks had 12, Ashlyn Ricks and Peyton Burnsed each chipped in two points in their win.
The FPCA girls are 0-1 overall.
FPCA boys
The Patriots were not able to stop the full press and did not have the speed for the rushing attack of the FPCA boys in Thursday’s rout.
FPCA had a 29-3 lead by the close of the first quarter and were up 65-12 by the half. Highlanders Isaiah Scott and Simone Steele both hit 2 trey shots. Scott led in scoring with 35 points. John Killough scored 27 while Steel chipped in 24. JD Allen added 18 points for the double digit scorers.
Friday night, I-Can Academy gave the Highlanders more competition for the first half, but FPCA turned on the after-burners for the remainder in the second half to earn a Region 2-AA win 100-53.
Although Scott struggled at the free-throw line at first, once he settled down the freshman guard drained a game-high 44 points, including a fourth quarter three-pointer.
Steele, also a freshman, drained five treys on his way to 23 points. Allen hit a trey and finished with 17 points.
The Highlanders are 2-0 overall and 1-0 in Region 2-AA.
FPCA will host Coastal Home School Thursday beginning at 6:30 p.m.