Christian Academy of Myrtle Beach basketball team drops season opener

The Christian Academy of Myrtle Beach boys basketball team faced its first true test of the year.

And without star point guard Bernard Jones, who is sidelined with a torn ACL, the Saints had a tough time Tuesday.

Christian Academy was right there with Freedom Christian Academy (N.C.) until the third quarter, but the Patriots went on a big run and never looked back en route to a 63-51 win over the Saints in their first contest of the year.

“He underwent surgery back in March and we’re hoping to have him back by Christmas break,” Christian Academy coach Darren Gore said of Jones. “He’s about 65 percent right now. It’s going to be a challenge [playing without him].

Michael Green had 15 points and 10 rebounds, Jalen Matthews had 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Saints (0-1). Meanwhile, Jay Williams contributed 13 points and Jaylen Johnson added 12.

Gore liked what he saw from his team after some sluggish performances in preseason games.

“Tonight we played with a lot more energy,” said Gore, whose team fell in the second round of the SCISA-A playoffs last season. “Playing at home is always nice; we had a good crowd. We played hard the whole game against a team with a lot of good athletes.”

Gore said his squad has a lot of time to correct its mistakes and he scheduled a lot of tough opponents in order to do so.

“I told our kids what were trying to do is just get better for the SCISA [Class A] playoffs in February,” he said. “We’ve assembled an aggresive schedule with a lot of tough teams and a lot of public schools early on. I think all those games will get us better and help us make a run.

“We have a young team but we have some good, talented kids that are working hard. I think we can make a good run at it. We’re basically just trying to get better and better every game and eliminate the early preseason mistakes we saw last week.”

This story was originally published November 17, 2015 at 10:34 PM with the headline "Christian Academy of Myrtle Beach basketball team drops season opener."