Wilson Hall's Matthews scores 1,000th career point on way to Hines Furniture Athlete of the Week

The Wilson Hall basketball team was about as busy as a squad can be last week.

The Barons bookended their week with a pair of back-to-backs, going 3-1 in a slate of region contests. While a loss to rival Laurence Manning made things a little bit more difficult, they were able to set the table to claim the regular season region title this week with a trifecta of victories. Leading the way was senior Shawn Michael Matthews, who was able to eclipse a personal milestone along the way.

Matthews opened the week by scoring his 1,000th career point against Camden Military, setting the tone for the Barons. His performance across the week helped him snag another honor, as he was named the Hines Furniture Athlete of the Week.

"That's probably the best part about Wilson Hall is the family and the culture," Matthews said of the support from the Baron faithful. "It's always comforting to have that reminder."

Baron head coach Rip Ripley was glad to have a leader like Matthews, along with his senior classmates, to help navigate through a challenging week.

"From a team standpoint, we knew the importance of this week coming in. A lot of our guys stepped up, and Shawn was certainly one of them that kinda took control in spurts and was kind of our steady hand throughout," Ripley said. "He's one of our leaders in general this year and a big part in having the kind of success we're having."

While a slate of four games in a week is a challenging task, Matthews said their taxing schedule during the holidays helped them prepare to play a lot of basketball in a short window of time.

"I think we kinda prepared for it early in the season with all the Christmas tournaments and early out-of-region tough competition," the senior said. "It helped us have that upper hand against some of our opponents who haven't had that."

The Barons started the week with a 55-34 win over Camden Military where Matthews led a balanced-scoring effort with 12 points. In the process, he scored his 1,000th point, joining teammate Hugh Humphries, who reached the milestone 10 days prior. He became the 15th member of the 1,000-point club at Wilson Hall.

"It's definitely a confidence booster," Matthews said of the milestone. "There haven't been a lot of them at Wilson Hall, so to hear that is impactful to me. It propels us into what we hope to be a great postseason."

Ripley appreciated having the chance to recognize two seniors for reaching that milestone, as it highlights the spectacular careers they've had side by side.

"(It's special) Anytime you have a career moment with him and Hugh, who have kinda been tied together all the way through, right? They both played varsity as freshmen, they were both starters when I took over their sophomore years. They were both big parts of that puzzle, so it's always exciting," Ripley said. "Shawn made a reference back when we did The Grind about how we've grown together, and I love that quote, and I've used that with him and Hugh specifically because it is all part of the process; just continuing to grow with these guys and the relationships we've been able to develop is important.

"A great moment these last couple of weeks. We hoped it was coming towards the end of the season, and I'm excited for both of those guys to be able to reach that pinnacle."

After the win over Camden Military, the Barons went to Laurence Manning and suffered a heartbreaking loss in double overtime. Wilson Hall maintained the lead for most of the night but let LMA claw back to force overtime and eventually claim a 65-62 win. While it was a frustrating defeat, it certainly added some fuel to the fire as the Barons hosted Trinity Collegiate and John Paul II to close out the week.

"It was pretty easy because it was our rivals and double overtime in a game we should've won. I think the fact that we didn't want that feeling and we'd backed ourselves into a corner (was enough motivation)," Matthews said. "We had to win out if we wanted to win the region, so we kinda had to grind. We all put our heads down and worked. As a team, we came together, and we had some of the best practices of the season because of that loss. In the long run, it's going to help us a lot."

Ripley knew his team would respond to that adversity because this unit has been through plenty of ups and downs together through the years.

"The excitement of having a veteran group is that we've been through this before," Ripley said. "He made a comment earlier in the season when we won a big game over Christmas break, and he said, 'A couple of years ago, these were games we weren't finishing, and we did now.' That shows their growth as a group and his wherewithal to recognize that and bring it up to the guys; he's a big part of that."

Wilson Hall's matchup with Trinity was no walk in the park. They trailed 26-15 at the end of the first quarter but clawed their way back into the game and eventually jumped ahead for a 73-67 victory. Matthews scored 15 points in the victory and took some lessons from their loss to LMA as they sought to avoid repeating history.

"We saw that Trinity gave us a chance on some hard-working, get-down-the-court opportunities, and we wanted to take advantage of it," the senior said. "Part of our problem against LMA was that we let them in and didn't take advantage of their mistakes, so against Trinity, we really attacked their mistakes, and that was the reason we won that game."

The Barons then handled business on Saturday with a 52-38 win over JPII. Matthews and Humphries each scored 14 points to lead Wilson Hall to victory. That set the table for the Barons to claim the region title this week with wins over Hilton Head Christian and Camden Military. They won each game by more than 20 points, clinching the regular season title as LMA suffered a region loss to John Paul II on Tuesday. They now go into their region tournament this weekend as the top seed with a chance to secure a strong seed for the state playoffs.

"We did it all for state; that's most important for us as a team," Matthews said. "Looking at the region tournament, the four teams in there have a chance to win it. That'll be a really fun region tournament."

Across the week, Matthews really did a bit of everything for the Barons. He averaged 12.3 points and 8.5 rebounds per contest, adding 3.5 assists per game. That steady production is exactly what the Barons needed during a taxing week.

"Just providing that consistency for us when other guys are up or down," Ripley said of Matthews' performance. "His physicality this week has been better. He's kinda still getting healthier from that injury (during football season), to be honest. It's kinda come back now, and he's playing closer to full strength, which is exciting as he continues to get comfortable. Inside, his presence was bigger for us this week, which was very huge for us."

While Matthews has enjoyed checking off milestones in his final basketball season at Wilson Hall, his favorite aspect of this season is the unified growth of the SCISA basketball community. As he strives to claim that elusive state title, his strong faith will continue to guide his path.

"We want to surprise people. We think this is one of the best teams we've ever had. We want to make a statement and win together," Matthews said. "One thing we do that I think is a really big part of our culture, and I wish was more said to people, after every game, we want to be with the other team and pray at center court. We want to get that sense of community because, at the end of the day, it's just a high school sport. I think that's part of our goal, too; as we build that community, we want to build SCISA basketball as a better, well-oiled machine that produces competition and great people."