LANDRUM– Landrum’s varsity basketball teams each earned championship-round berths in last week’s Battle at the Border Shootout, but once there, the Cardinals experienced mixed results, with the men coming from behind to overcome a talented Spartanburg Christian Academy (SCA) squad, 54-42, while the Lady Cardinals absorbed their first loss of the year, to Cherokee.

With a rival matchup at Polk County this Friday, Jan. 6, Landrum’s men are now 9-4, and the women 11-1.

Landrum’s teams each began the annual tournament facing High Point Academy from Spartanburg, on Wednesday, Dec. 28.

There, the Cardinal women crushed their young and less-experienced rivals, 83-28, while the men earned a 75-56 win, turning it on after a half-time tie of 39-39.

From there, the Lady Cardinals out-scored SCA, 63-41, to boost their overall record to 11-0. In the second round, Landrum’s men outscored Blue Ridge, 16-3, in the fourth quarter, to defeat the Fighting Tigers, 66-48.

Those Dec. 29 wins earned each Cardinal team a berth in the final round, on Friday, Dec. 30.

Women’s action took place first, where, sooner or later, it was bound to happen that a rival team would play the solid four quarters on which the Cardinals have been working so hard. Cherokee accomplished all the small things that Landrum does much of the time, and works on doing all the time. Using consistently ferocious defense, generally crisp ball handling, and hotter shooting, the Braves topped the Cardinals, 77-46, with the Cardinals suffering their first loss on the season.

In the men’s matchup that followed, Landrum led, 12-4, after the first period, but fell behind by 23-19, at the half, before changing tactics.

With SCA coming out on fire, and leading at the half, the Cardinals successfully extinguished that fire.

“We like to get up and down the floor,” Cardinal coach Lyn Smith remarked after the game, “but we decided to slow it down.”

Smith commended SCA on having a “well-coached basketball team,” against whom the Cardinals started out well. Instead of panicking, Smith’s team stayed composed.

Landrum’s Foster Bridges, who just joined the school’s 1,000-point club, led with 19 points, a flurry of which he sank in the third quarter, to help the Cardinals begin to turn the game around. Field goals by Bridges gave the Cardinals leads of 29-27, 31-29 and 40-39.

The Cardinals’ Trey Smith added 14 points, eight assists, and four steals, while Easton Jenkins (10) and Manny Gonzalez (8) pulled down crucial rebounds. Gonzalez also electrified the Landrum crowd with two emphatic breakaway dunks, the second one ending the contest.

For Landrum’s women, coach Deon Brice noted that Cherokee provided a valuable lesson in what to expect in the post-season.

Friday’s varsity games at Polk County are set to begin at about 6:30 for women and 8 p.m. for the men.

For Landrum, Ellen Boatwright, Bridges, Smith and Gonzalez were selected to the All-Tournament women’s and men’s teams.