AISA CLASS A BOYS FINAL: Abbeville Christian completes perfect season with win over Edgewood
Ahmod Billins passes to a teammate in Abbeville Christian’s win over Edgewood on Friday. (Tim Gayle)
By TIM GAYLE
The hardest part of winning a state championship is often living up to the pressure of high expectations.
After winning a football state championship and firing out of the gate with some impressive early-season wins on the basketball court, a lot of high school fans penciled in Abbeville Christian as a heavy favorite to win the 2026 state championship in basketball.
“I think for me it made it difficult,” Abbeville coach Ryan Langford said. “For those guys, this team is incredible (with all) the pieces. A facilitating point guard, a guy that can shoot it from the parking lot, a lockdown defender, do-it-all power forward, a center that can score at the basket or step away and take you (on the dribble). It’s really a dream come true.
“My job this year has been to get them ready for a game like this. We haven’t been in foul trouble all year. Teams haven’t fought as hard as Edgewood just did. Credit Edgewood, man. They played their butts off.”
Abbeville Christian (24-0) lived up to the expectations, pulling away from the Wildcats for an easy 66-45 win in the AISA Class A finals at Garrett Coliseum on Friday night.
“Everybody was like, ‘Y’all have to win it,’” said Abbeville Christian shooting guard Jayden Buckhannon. “If we didn’t win it, we were going to be a bust. So we always just kept that chip on our shoulder.”
Early on, they didn’t need a chip. Abbeville jumped out quickly with three 3-pointers from Buckhannon but the Wildcats refused to go away, slowing the tempo a little and finally pulling even at 17-17 on a Brock Whitt 3-pointer with 6:50 remaining in the first half.
“Mostly in our press break, we would run transition,” Edgewood coach Scott Phillips said, “but we tried to slow things down a little bit. I thought we could get to the rim with our big guys with the way they were pressing, the way we saw on film that they didn’t really guard the big guys on the press.
“Defensively, they can shoot the lights out so we went ‘man.’ I thought we were long enough, big enough and fast enough to stay there and we were, we just got in foul trouble.
“Right before halftime, it’s 19-18 and they go on a 12-0 run. We withstood it, made it seven or eight. We’re over here (on the bench) saying if we can get it to five, we’ve got a chance and here they come banging again.”
The Generals took an even game and turned it into a 10-point lead at the half, with Buckhannon closing out the scoring with a 25-footer as part of an 8-0 Buckhannon run.
“I’ve had the privilege and the honor of coaching Jayden since he was in the seventh grade,” Langford said. “First off, the kid has never seen a shot he didn’t like. And I’ve never told him to stop shooting.”
Buckhannon finished with 27 points, followed by Radarion Glover and Ahmod Billins with 15 points each.
“When you just get in that mode, you start going to work,” Buckhannon said. “You don’t think about what you’re doing, it’s just snap and you just do it.”
Edgewood trailed 46-33 at the end of the third quarter, still close enough to have hope, but not enough offense to catch the high-octane Generals.
“We haven’t had a game like this all season,” Billins said. “We just blow teams out and they give up before halftime. Every time we get into a close game, Coach Langford will come to us and say, ‘It’s a championship game. It’s supposed to be like this. In championship games, teams are going to play until the last whistle.’”
Brock Whitt led the Wildcats with 17 points, followed by Ja’Qub Anthony with 11.
Making the all-tournament team were Ronta Watson of Escambia Academy, Josh Riddle of Trinity Christian, Thomas Justiss and Whitt of Edgewood Academy and Glover, Billins and Buckhannon of Abbeville Christian.