Chase Purvis – Southern Maryland Christian Acdemy Photo: Bradley Steiner (IG)
By: Kyle Alexander
Last winter, Southern Maryland Christian won the Maryland Christian School Tournament (MCST) championship against Heritage, capping off an 18-11 season. Now with the Summer League underway, they picked up where they left off last season.
Southern Maryland Christian kicked off the CHSL with a 4-0 start, sitting as the number one ranked team. They started the summer off with back-to-back blowout wins against Broadneck and Huntingtown and then defeated Springbrook by 11 and Riverside by two. They’ve outscored their opponents 249-193 during that stretch, forcing numerous turnovers in the process.
The key to their hot start has been defense and turnovers. In the first four games, Southern Maryland Christian combined for 47 turnovers and 53 steals, compared to their opponents combined 78 turnovers and 26 steals.
“Defense is our bread and butter,” said head coach Pop Haley. “We want to play fast, we want to be physical, we want to be tough.”
With their focus on defense, Southern Maryland Christian has five players on the team averaging over 2 steals per game, with senior guard Aaron McGlone leading all of summer league with 4.3. If their defense wasn’t suffocating enough, junior guard Chase Purvis is second on the team with 3 steals a game, and junior guard Ja’zyere Thompson is third with 2.7 steals a game while leading the team with 1.3 blocks a game. With Southern Maryland Christian being able to take the ball at a moment’s notice, they’ve made sure to capitalize off their opponent’s mistakes.
Aaron McGlone has been a two-way spark plug for the team, leading the team with 17 points on 54/41 shooting splits. Sophomore guard Semaj Carter backs him with 14.7 points a game on 50/30 splits. Southern Maryland Christian has four players averaging double-digit points and four players shooting over 30 percent from three. Coming off a championship win in the winter, Coach Pop doesn’t want the team to be stuck in the past.
“I have a mindset of I’m never complacent and the mindset is, you know, we just want to keep on continuing to get better,” said Coach Pop. “We won, and it was huge for us to win. However, you know, we just moving forward, trying to just continue to get better.”
Southern Maryland Christian is keeping their foot on the gas pedal from last winter to this summer. With a hounding defense and an efficient offense that can make teams pay for turnovers, they have the keys to drive this early success into the CHSL.