The RMA boys’ varsity basketball team was shocked. After cruising through the regular season with an unbeaten conference schedule and marquee wins against Harrells Christian Academy and Arendell Parrott Academy, they hit a brick wall in an unlikely place… the first round of the conference tournament. Ranked as the number one seed in the conference tournament, the Eagles were expected to defeat last place Halifax Academy in commanding fashion. They did eventually show a flash of their fast paced, efficient potential, however it took a true surprise to knock it out of them.

After starting out the game with a few fast break points, the boys’ varsity settled in to what they thought would be a typical beat down of a weaker time. As time went on, however, the Eagles grew increasingly frustrated. Big men Kyle Holland, Brendan Acker and Davis Brown had uncustomarily difficult trouble finishing at the rim, and guards AJ Mitchell, Hunter Franks, and Elijah Mccadden found that Halifax Academy were making extremely difficult shots—three pointers with a taller defender’s hand in their face, fade away midrange shots, falling back baby hooks, eyes closed backwards from behind the basket (maybe not, but you get the idea). Our offense grew stagnant (and continued to miss normally easy shots) under the seemingly ridiculous onslaught, and the Eagles came into halftime visibly troubled and down by nine.

Coach Scott Dunn set the Eagles into a full court trap in order to gain easy baskets. It worked, however the Eagles lacked true defensive fervor. In the mid third quarter, a defensive spark plug came off the bench in the form of junior Joshua Legaj. With active hands, intensity, and releasing early to get easy fast break points, RMA was able to turn the game around with Elijah Mccadden’s easy steals and Legaj’s intensity. The regular season conference champions would live to see another day.