LAURINBURG — Head coach Greg Baines and the Christ the Cornerstone Academy boys basketball team have learned to appreciate even the smallest achievements.
The team is in its first year as a member of the Carolinas Christian Athletic Association — the Defenders primarily competed at the middle school level prior to this season. They’ve faced a learning curve while playing against high school competition this year.
That learning curve has been evident against more experienced programs like Scotland Christian Academy, the Defenders’ McColl Road rival. Scotland Christian cruised to an 87-20 win over the Defenders on Monday night. But regardless of how lopsided the score got, Christ the Cornerstone’s supporters always found reasons to cheer — a made three-pointer, a steal, a good assist or any other positives outcomes.
“Or if you call a play and they’re all in the right place,” head coach Greg Baines said. “Even if we didn’t score, they were in the right place doing the right thing. Or, when they shoot a three-pointer, we’ve got everybody boxing out. It may go in, but we had everybody boxing out.”
Those small things are important not only because they help boost momentum, but also because they help the Defenders get to where they want to be as a team. Sure, they’re inexperienced, but the Defenders aren’t making excuses when it comes to improvement.
“I think we’ll be a much different team come the end of January,” Baines said. “We’ve made strides in the last three weeks.
“We had four practices before we had our first game, so we’re still putting stuff in. We only have eight or nine players, but the guys are working hard, and that’s all you can ask for.”
The Defenders are searching for their first win of the season. They fell just short of that win in a 33-32 loss at Columbus Christian last Friday.
The Defenders had their hands full against Scotland Christian, the defending CCAA champion. The hot-shooting Saints challenged Christ the Cornerstone on both ends of the floor.
“Guys are improving. Even tonight against a very good Scotland Christian Academy team, some great players, some great shooters, we actually handled their pressure better than I thought we would,” Baines said. “We got beat soundly, but we did a lot of thing better than we had been doing.”
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