Boys Basketball Wraps Up Season

With spring just around the corner and multiple spring sports and activities starting up at Charlotte Catholic, several CCHS winter sports teams have concluded their seasons. One team in particular, the Men’s Varsity basketball team, finished its season on Tuesday, February 25th, in a 52-53 loss against Hopewell High School in the first round of state playoffs. Although the outcome of the game did not go as expected for the Cougars, Catholic had plenty of cherishable moments from the season that they can take with them.  

Junior Ben Denning believes the season provided the team with long-lasting memories. A highlight from the season for Ben was an away game against conference rival Butler on February 7th. “It was just a great atmosphere for the game with it being their senior night and the place was packed.” Catholic ended up winning 52-50 in this competitive matchup. 

Although the moments on the court were unforgettable, the most special moments for Ben were the activities off the court with his teammates. Ben especially enjoyed team bonding events. “I loved our pre-games at people’s houses. We would all just hang out and eat at one of the players’ houses and have a good time.”  

The season had many highs and lows. The basketball team’s runs in both the conference tournament and playoffs ended abruptly, losing by just four points to Butler in the second round of the conference tournament and by one point to Hopewell in playoffs. Ben felt that the most heartbreaking moment for the team was the loss in the first round of states. “We had way more in us than we got the chance to do, ending our game against Hopewell on a banked free throw was so lucky for them and our team worked so hard and deserved more than that. I feel really bad for the seniors to have to end their highschool basketball careers like that.” 

The loss of nine seniors and several key contributors to the program will definitely hurt Catholic, but Ben believes that there is lots of opportunity for growth over the summer with the current group of players. “It will definitely be different next year without the seniors and we are all going to miss them, both on and off the court. I really feel like next year's team will be good but you can never judge until the season starts.”

Overall, Ben felt the team met many expectations that he had in the beginning of the year. Ending the season 20-7 is a significant accomplishment for Catholic Men’s basketball, with plenty of room for improvement next year. “I felt really good about the team going into this season, we had a lot of really good players and lots of talent, both with returners and with transfers. I feel like our record in the regular season reflects my expectations for the team, with our losses mainly coming from days where we just didn't play together as a team as much as we could.”