RTCA’s Lady Crusaders win their 7th Region Championship and Crusaders win Back to Back

Robert Toombs Christian Academy’s basketball teams won Region on Friday, February 17th. RTCA’s Varsity Boys basketball team played against the number two team in the region, FPCA, on Thursday, February 16th. The Crusaders came out with a big win in the first round of the region tournaments with a score of 59-32 over FPCA. Junior Drew Vaughn led the way with 26 points, 8 rebounds, and 4 assists. Senior JaShaun Powell had 12 points and 14 rebounds. Sophomore TJ Stanley added 10 points and 12 rebounds. Here’s what Head Varsity Boys Coach, Adam Callaway, had to say about the game on Thursday, “I was super proud of the effort and energy they guys played with. We had a great game plan going into the game and the guys really bought into the past three days of practice. We executed what we worked on perfectly and the results showed. It was all about defense and we held them in check all night.” With the Crusaders winning the first round, both the Crusaders and Lady Crusaders would play for the Championship on Friday, February 17th.

The Lady Crusaders played against Twiggs Academy on Friday, February 17th, and won with a score of 50-20. Top scorers for the Lady Crusaders were junior Bree Wimberly with 31 points, sophomore Meredith Durden with 12 points, and junior Ansley Akins with 4 points. Here’s what the Lady Crusaders Head Coach, Jake Wilkinson, had to say about the game, ” I’m so proud of this team and all of their hard work. We set three goals this year and we accomplished the first one which was to win Region. The girls played hard and were focused on the game and what needed to be done from start to finish. We’ve never been a jump on you type team and I knew how well our defense can be and was hoping our offense would feed off of that and it did. We had several fast break lay-ups coming off of our press and intense defense.” The Lady Crusaders have won 7 Region Championships in a row and not only that but they haven’t lost a region game in 7 years. The Lady Crusaders also had five All-Region players this year: juniors Bree Wimberly, Ansley Akins, Emmie Davis, and sophomores Meredith Durden and Kylie Acosta. The Lady Crusaders advanced to the Elite 8 on Friday, February 24th at 12:00pm at Stratford Academy.

The Crusaders played against the #1 ranked team in the region, Memorial Day School, winning 51-39. This will be the Crusaders second Region Championship win in a row. Top scorers for the game were junior Drew Vaughn with 23 points, senior JaShaun Powell with 16 points, junior Hayden Kight with 6 points, and sophomore TJ Stanley with 6 points. Here’s what Head Coach Adam Callaway had to say about the game, “This one is a sweet victory for us being that we were the underdog all year long. Everyone kept telling us we didn’t have a chance and would finish the season third at best. We used that to fuel our fire and motivate us during practices. The team did such a great job on the defensive end of the court that Memorial had nowhere to go being that we mixed up our defense on them. This worked out well in our favor holding the #1 ranked team to only 39 points in a game and only 14 points in a half says a lot about the hard work these guys did. Senior JaShaun Powell spoke to the team in the locker room before the game started. He talked about how bad he wanted this win and got the whole team fired up. He’s been a great asset to the team and has left his mark on RTCA helping several athletic teams make it to Region, Final Four, and State wins.” The Crusaders will play Saturday, February 25th at 12:00pm at Tattnall.