The Donelson Christian Academy Wildcats put together an impressive performance to finish out the Christmas Classic with a 73-49 victory over Grace Christian Academy last Saturday night at Middle Tennessee Christian School.
The Wildcats held a convincing lead since they led 16-7 after the first period. At halftime, GCA needed to turn the corner, but DCA continued to build their lead.
It was a solid weekend for Donelson Christian, taking two comfortable wins into the Christmas break.
Head coach Nate Johnson was pleased with how his team is playing on both sides of the ball.
“It’s a great team effort all the way around,” Johnson said. “I was real pleased with our effort coming back-to-back nights. Especially playing the night game, you don’t know what you’re going to get, but I thought our energy was great from the team, from the bench and everything.”
Johnson’s team has as much experience as any other team they may play. Ben Singer, Blake Anderson, Jude Charlton and Riley Stanton have been with the program for years and are playing their best basketball. They know the system, and Johnson has to simply fine tune their execution.
“We haven’t really changed much,” Johnson said. “They’re playing with a lot of confidence right now, knowing what we expect on defense… I love the way we’re playing defense right now, which really puts us in an offensive setting.”
In the first contest, the Wildcats took down host school Middle Tennessee Christian School 53-39. The Wildcats were led by a strong scoring performance from Singer, who scored 29 points. Tristen Moore finished with seven points, and Jon Lewis chipped in five to help push the Wildcats to a comfortable win in the event opener.
It was the second loss in as many days for the Lions after dropping the first game of the Christmas Classic to Friendship Christian. Despite the two losses, GCA head coach Len McKnatt was happy to give his guys the opportunity to work on themselves and try new things.
“We’re a young basketball team, and we’ve been trying different stuff,” McKnatt said. “We haven’t pressed all year. These are the first two games we really pressed. We’re not really good at it at all, but you know, it’s giving us something to work on.
“Now, I think all the teams would tell you, we’re just glad to be playing. Hopefully, I’ll get to keep playing, but we’re just thankful for each time we get to play.”
BOX SCORE
Donelson Christian (73): Ben Singer 18, Jude Charlton 16, Blake Anderson 15, Drew Johnson 7, Max Frazier 6, Tristen Moore 6, Riley Stanton 3 and Milo Schumann 2.
Grace Christian (49): C.J. Tinnon 8, Dean Bechman 7, Hudson Barton 6, Ben Caldwell 6, Trace Phillips 4, Jackson Sleeper 4, Connor Armstrong 3, Dawson Bechman 3, Jordan Carter 3, Hiett 3 and Ashton Kelly 2.
Main Street Media correspondent Elijah Campbell contributed to this report.
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