The North Carolina Leadership Academy varsity boys’ basketball team, a Class 1-A program, is off to a great start to the season with a close road win over Class 4-A Morehead and a blowout win at home over Class 3-A Trinity.
On Nov. 14, the Falcons escaped with a 72-71 win over the Morehead Panthers. The NCLA led by six points at the end of the first quarter, but trailed 34-31 at halftime. Morehead pushed the lead to six points by the end of the third quarter, but the Falcons battled back and claimed the victory.
“The Morehead game was a great win for us,” Head Coach Rodney White said. “We had a couple of guys out with injuries, so we had to play with eight players. We had to man up and go small. Near the end we missed a couple of free throws and they had a chance to win. With 1.8 seconds left they turned the ball over, but the referee reversed the call and said it went off us. They missed a lay up at the buzzer and we stole a win on the road.”
The Falcons’ Caden Ryker led the way offensively with 33 points and also had six rebounds and four steals. Ryker passed the career 1,000-point mark in the game.
“Caden is a great player and he is the first person to score over 1,000 points in our school’s history. He is a great kid and has a great family. He has some D-III schools looking at him, but he is not really focusing on that right now. He wants to go into engineering and he is looking at MIT, Wake Forest and N.C. State,” White said.
The NCLA’s Ryas Ferguson had 15 points and four assists against Morehead. Colton Ketron scored 14 points and had four rebounds. Graham Hronich had eight rebounds, eight assists and four points.
On Wednesday, the Falcons pulled away early in a 58-16 win at home over Trinity.
“We gave up 71 points to Morehead, which is a lot of points. Against Trinity we just picked them up man-to-man on defense until we got tired, and then we put in subs,” White said.
Hronich finished with 15 points, three rebounds and five steals. Walt Martin had 14 points and three steals. Ryker, who got into early foul trouble, had seven points, five rebounds and three steals. Ferguson had six points, four steals and five rebounds.
While the Falcons will play a tough non-conference schedule, White and the team are aiming to claim a conference title in their new 1-A/2-A conference. The new conference consists of The NCLA, Cornerstone Charter (2A), Piedmont Classical Academy (2A), Bethany Community School (1A), Millenium Charter (1A), Phoenix Academy (1A) and Triad Math and Science (1A). The team finished 15-11 last season, and the Falcons want to improve upon that.
“I think we should be able to take care of business in the conference. We have a tough non-conference schedule. We play College Prep & Leadership Academy on Friday, and they are usually real good. That should be a tough game for us. We also play Northeast Guilford, Mount Airy and West Stokes, and we play in a Christmas tournament that will have Ragsdale and High Point Wesleyan,” said White. “I am excited about the season and excited about what we have at NCLA. We have Ryker. Walt Martin is a 6-5 kid that decided to come back and play basketball. Hronich is a great point guard. Ferguson is a good player and Clay Smith is a 6-3 kid that should be back from injury in January.”
The NCLA will play an away game against West Stokes on Nov. 29 at 5:30 p.m.
Nov. 14
NCLA —20 11 21 20—72
EMHA—14 20 24 13—71
