STARKVILLE — When the Victory Christian Academy boys basketball team trailed eight points and went into the break trailing Starkville Christian School on Friday night, coach Brent Harris didn’t show concern.
Harris, in his eighth year at the helm, looked stoic with his arms folded as he took short strides down the sideline. The Eagles had been there before and avoided disaster each time.
So when Anthony Sharp converted an and-one for a 59-49 lead that helped push the Eagles to a 67-49 fourth-quarter cushion and a 92-74 win, Harris wasn’t surprised.
“It’s just kind of the nature of the beast,” Harris said. “We’re gonna run our press and do what we do. Starkville Christian was throwing over the top and hitting shots. We told our guys, ‘If they can play like we play for four quarters, by God, they’ll be there at the end and we’ll see what happens.'”
The Eagles have played from behind more than their 19-0 record would suggest. Harris pointed to the team’s Jan. 8 win at North River Christian in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, as the moment he knew this year’s players would fulfill the potential he recognized during their junior varsity years. The Eagles trailed by 17 in the third and by 12 with four minutes left to play.
“We tied it with 10 seconds left, and we ran a double screen deep to Anthony (Sharp),” Harris said. “He got fouled, hit two free throws with .08 seconds for our only lead. That was the first time we’d beaten them in their gym. They knew there we might have something.”
Victory Christian beat North River twice this season and has cleared 90 points in four games. Playing from behind, despite being a regular occurrence, hasn’t fazed it.
When Starkville Christian hit five 3-pointers in the first quarter and Nick Wylie scored 15 of his 25 points, Victory Christian stuck with its press and continued to run the floor on offense.
“When they’re hitting them from that far out, there’s not much you can do,” Sharp said. “But you have to get out there and get on them. We didn’t do a good job of that, and rebounding and playing defense.
“But it’s not just been one game. … We’ve had some games where we’ve been down late, like in the last three minutes of the game and we’ve come back. I knew when we started coming back in those games — we would kind of fold in the past — that we were different. That’s the best thing about this team.”
Harris lauded his team’s bond, and noted the group’s chemistry as an equally important trait that has lifted his team’s state championship inspirations. The anticipation of reaching the final eight is real, he said, but it also makes his job a bit more difficult.
“I really have to keep that energy level up,” Harris said. “They’ll get in a mood where they think we can just show up. I have to remind them you can’t just turn that switch on and off; it’s got to be on all the time. Later in the year, they really got it. I’m hoping that’ll keep going.”
Brady Scarbrough and Sharp paced Victory Christian with 30 and 28 points, respectively.
Girls
Starkville Christian 49, Victory Christian 38
Charity Morris scored 23 points to lead Starkville Christian.
Victory Christian cut the lead to 37-32 with 4:39 left in the third quarter, but buckets by Heather Koehn stretched the lead back to double digits to help the Lady Cougars improve to 17-6.
Faith Miley led Victory Christian with 13 points. Koehn and Carley Wells had eight points for SCS.
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