St. Thomas Aquinas beats Mater Academy for first boys’ basketball playoff win since 2015
St. Thomas Aquinas is still a long way from bringing its boys’ basketball program up to the standard of most of the rest of its athletic department. The Raiders’ win Thursday — a closer-than-it-should-have-been 81-64 win against Mater Academy Charter in the Region 4-Class 6A quarterfinals — was undeniably a big step, though.
For the first time since 2015, St. Thomas Aquinas won a playoff game.
“We’ve got a lot more work to do,” Raiders coach Julius Sandi said. “Last year was good. This year is even better.”
St. Thomas Aquinas, which had four straight losing seasons before Sandi’s first full season last year, began the second half with a 15-0 run to open up a 45-26 and the lead never shrunk to single digits again. The Raiders (20-7) led nearly wire to wire in Doral to beat Mater Academy, which reached the 6A championship last year.
Into the region semifinals for the first time since 2015, St. Thomas Aquinas will now face Pembroke Pines Charter on Tuesday in a rematch of the District 14-6A championship. The Raiders lost by 20 points in the district title game.
No matter what happens next week, this season has been an important step in the right direction for St. Thomas Aquinas. The Raiders have only qualified for the region postseason four times in the last seven years and 20 wins are their most since 2012. On Thursday, they overwhelmed Mater (14-5) with superior size and athleticism — plus experience — to pull away in the second at Doral Academy Preparatory School.
Matthew Cadogan, a 6-foot-6 senior combo guard, led St. Thomas Aquinas with 27 points and 6-8 senior swingman Andrew Akuchie added 21, with three dunks early in the third quarter while his Raiders pulled away.
Zakaih Saez, a 6-5 junior wing, also scored 16 points to give St. Thomas Aquinas three players in double figures. Eighth-grade guard Alexander Constanza led the Lions with 18.
Mater jumped out to a 9-2 lead by hitting three straight three-pointers in the opening moments. The entire first half was played within eight points and the Raiders took a 30-26 lead into the break. In less four minutes, they turned a tight game into a blowout.
The Lions didn’t score for the first 3:37 of the first half and, by then, St. Thomas Aquinas was up 45-26. The Raiders outscored Mater, 30-14, in the third quarter and it was even more lopsided before the Lions finished the period on an 11-3 run. In the fourth quarter, Mater cut the lead as close as 71-61 before St. Thomas Aquinas finished the game with a 10-3 push.
“We like to run,” Sandi said. “If we’re able to create turnovers, we like to push it and like to attack the defense before they get their set defense, and we were able to do that.”
Cadogan set the pace with 16 first-half points and six more in the third quarter as the Raiders pulled away.
He has been instrumental to St. Thomas Aquinas’ entire turnaround, a sophomore playing on junior varsity when Sandi took over midway through the 2019-20 high school basketball season. As soon as he took over, Sandi plucked Cadogan up from the JV team and Cadogan was starting by the end of the season.
Now he’s averaging more than 14 points per game this season, forming a formidable 1-2 punch with Akuchie, who’s averaging more than 16 for the second straight year.
“It’s going to stick with me forever,” Cadogan said of the Raiders’ turnaround. “This is definitely the start of a good program.”
As he watches the football team rack up state titles and the girls’ basketball team contend virtually every year, Sandi is setting a high bar for it can go.
“That type of culture that STA already has,” Sandi said, “I’m just trying to emulate that and trying to bring the basketball program to where all the other sports are.”
