RALEIGH - Madden Collins ’25 came off the bench with no lack of confidence or shooting stroke Thursday night.
By the time he was done, there was one less undefeated team in North Carolina high school basketball.
Madden had the hot hand, especially as the second half wore on, hitting four of his five attempts from 3-point range. His 23 points, together with 18 points and nine rebounds from Mikey Wilkins ’25, and 12 points and four assists from Keenan Wilkins ’24 were essential to one of Christ School's most impressive regular-season wins in recent memory.
Despite trailing by double digits less than four minutes in, and then by 11 points at the half, the Greenies surged past 15-0 Moravian Prep, 70-61, in the semifinals of the John Wall Holiday Invitational.
"We took a big punch early on. The boys were paying attention to the details of the scouting report on them, but they still punched us early because they are a good team," Christ School coach Josh Coley said.
"We stayed persistent and challenged each of the guys to be great at their job at halftime. Be great at your job, no more and no less. The boys have really been poised down here and stuck to the game plan. Tonight, we were able to wear on them."
Christ School (13-3) advances to play Charlotte Myers Park (8-2) in Saturday night’s championship finals, set for 8 p.m. at Broughton High School.
The Greenies previously won the John Wall Invitational 15 years ago (back then it was the GlaxoSmithKline Holiday Invitational), but were a serious underdog for Thursday’s semifinals in the eyes of many. It looked like those projections would be correct when Moravian Prep took a 14-4 lead at the 4:25 mark of the first quarter, prompting Christ School’s first timeout.
The team settled in with Lleyton Thomas-Johnson ’24 doing an admirable job with his defense on South Carolina recruit Eli Ellis. USC Upstate recruit Jamari Briggs ’24 gave Christ School its first lead of the game on a lay-in that made the score 54-52 with 4:53 to play. He then broke a 54-54 tie with a 3-pointer on the very next possession.
Free throws allowed the Greenies to pull away late.
Jamari finished with nine points and six rebounds, followed by George Mason recruit Bryson Cokley ’24 and Lleyton, who scored four points each. Lleyton matched Mikey with nine rebounds.