0
0
When Chris Washington Jr. first came to PCA, he wasn’t exactly sure what to expect.
A highly-touted 2026 basketball prospect and one of the nation’s top-50 players, he joined an experienced group coming off of a heartbreaking championship loss.
Whatever doubts he may have had quickly dissipated as the season got going. Wins came easy for the Lions and Saturday in Tennessee Tech’s Eblen Center, they were raising gold for the first time following a 78-68 championship win over BGA.
“This is crazy man,” Washington said. “When I first got here I wasn’t sure that I was going to fit in. I’m this new kid and this big five-star recruit, I didn’t think I was going to be able to adjust. I just appreciate my teammates for accepting me.
…now we’re brothers. We’re champs.”
Washington’s championship debut with the Lions’ didn’t start off according to plan.
After leading by 13 in the first quarter, PCA saw its lead become non-existent late in the second quarter. BGA’s Arnett Hayes took over giving the Wildcats a four-point lead at the half.
Washington was held to just two points in the half scoring the game’s first points.
Once the second half got going and the teams began trading baskets, that’s when Washington got going.
PCA slowly began to pull away and that’s when Washington struck. In the closing minutes he threw down a pair of monstrous dunks to cap his 17-point outing and extinguish any hope of a comeback for the Wildcats.
“That felt good,” Washington said. “Momentum plays like that, they broke it up. They gave us our juice.”
Free throw shooting leads Lions to gold
It was a tall of two halves when it came to free throw shooting and which team was gettng to the line more.
BGA dominated in that department in the first half. The Wildcats connected on 11 of their 12 free throw shots over the opening 16 minutes while PCA was just 4-for-4.
That trend continued into the third and would not flip until the fourth quarter.
A plethora of fouls saw the Lions get into the bonus early and they took advantage of that opportunity. BGA was assessed two technical fouls in the quarter and by the time the final buzzer sounded, PCA had gone 22-for-24 at the line in the quarter.
BGA was 3-for-4 at the charity stripe in the quarter. PCA’s Aiden Bolden and Tryce Grensing combined to go 16-for-16 on their attempts closing out the game.
Bolden had the ball in his hands as time expired and after watching Washington and Preston Wade get their dunks in during the game, Bolden threw down a 360 dunk as time expired to celebrate the win.
“I was just trying to get us fired up man,” Bolden said on his dunk with a smile. “Everyone else had one so I said I just might as well get one myself. I knew it wasn’t going to count and I didn’t mean any disrespect by it.
…I just wanted to be a hype man before we celebrated. That 360 was nice though.”
