Chick-fil-A Classic
Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2009
Game 22 Summary

COLUMBIA _ Christ School won its third consecutive Chick-fil-A Classic Tuesday with a 60-57 victory against Charlotte Christian in the Classic II final, but had to scratch, fight and claw to get it.

Leading 59-54 with 15 seconds remaining, the Greenies allowed Charlotte’s Akil Mitchell to free up for a 3-pointer to close the margin 59-57 then turned the ball over on the inbounds play. But Charlotte returned the favor when Mitchell was called for a travel on the next possession. Tony Kimbro hit a free throw with 3.7 seconds left and Charlotte was unable to get a possible game-tying shot off.

Kimbro finished with 17 points and was named to the all-tournament team.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do on defense,” said Kimbro, who was also on last year’s tournament championship team. “They are a really great team and it just showed how much work we still have to do.”

Christ School coach David Gaines would agree.

“We have a disturbing trend of not taking care of the basketball and not finishing around the rim and when you do that it lets people stay in the game,” he said. “We turn the ball over, make bad decisions. We just leave people in the game.

“The mental we make is what’s going to derail this team. But it’s good that we learned how to win games like this.”

Charlotte, which fell to 9-2, had to be wondering “what if”. The Knights had possession of the ball with an opportunity to tie the game or go ahead with 7 seconds left. But then came Mitchells turnover.

“We just battled back because that’s what good teams do,” said Charlotte coach Shonn Brown, whose team could face Christ Church (14-1) in the NCISAA playoffs. “We know they like to run up and down. They throw up 35 3s a game. They’re good and they’re strong. They are one of the top teams, but our team is right there. Tournament like these lets us know where we are and where we need to be.”

Anthony Gill led Charlotte with 16 points and 10 rebounds.