State champs! Cardinal Newman knocks off Augusta Christian for SCISA basketball title

Amarii King and Evan Carter pulled each other aside for a pep talk at halftime Friday in the SCISA Class 4A championship.

The Cardinal Newman teammates talked about the adjustments they needed to make going into the second half. The talk worked as Carter and King took over in the third quarter.

The two scored 11 points each in the third as Cardinal Newman took control of the game and held off a late rally to defeat Augusta Christian, 71-61, to win the state championship at the Sumter Civic Center.

“I told Evan, ‘You gotta do what you got to do.’ You are a senior and we feed off of you,” said King, who is in his first year at Cardinal Newman after transferring from Keenan. “And I just did exactly what he did. So we both come out here, ready to play.”

It was Cardinal Newman’s 10th championship, the first since moving up to Class 4A. The team’s last title came in 2020, when it was in Class 3A.

The game was a rematch of last year’s state championship, won by Augusta Christian. It was the third matchup of the season between the teams. The two teams split the regular-season series 1-1 by a total margin of five.

It didn’t look like it was going to go down to the wire Friday after Carter and King’s outburst in the third. King hit back-to-back 3-pointers in the quarter and Carter scored seven straight points at one point as the Cardinals went on a 17-5 run to lead 50-35.

King finished with a game-high 25 points and Carter had 23, both season highs.

“We had games like that early season,” Carter said of himself and King. “But we knew what was at stake and I’m glad we got it together.”

The Lions rallied behind Kentucky baseball commit Khaleel Pratt and closed the margin to 61-58 with 3:21 left. Pratt had 10 of his team-high 23 points in the fourth quarter.

But Luis Echevarria hit two free throws and Josiah Peeples scored on a driving layup to push the lead back up to 65-58 with less than two minutes left.

“Both teams are good but luckily we closed it out down the stretch, hit our free throws at the end,” Cardinal Newman coach Phillip Deter said.

The championship caps off what Deter called a “roller coaster” of a season that included players missing time with injuries and other situations. That coupled with only two seniors on the roster led to growing pains.

The Cards had a four-game losing streak in late December and early January but started peaking near the end of the season.

Cardinal Newman finished by winning 12 of its last 14 games.

“You are dealing with a lot of young kids on our team,” Deter said. “You got to teach them to grow. The good thing for us is Cardinal Newman helps you grow. We needed that support. Our coaches, I got a bunch of them that do a great job. We went through a lot of stuff, injuries and stuff off the court. … Lo and behold, we are playing our best basketball at the end of the year and I am proud of them.”