Calvary Christian boys basketball, ranked third in the nation, rolls to regional finals

For the haters, Shon Abaev looked more like a McDonald’s customer than a McDonald’s All-American in Monday’s first quarter, during which he was held scoreless.

But for Abaev and the rest of his Calvary Christian Academy Eagles, all that matters is that they defeated visiting North Broward Prep 62-34 in a Class 3A regional semifinal.

“I don’t really care what anybody else thinks,” said Abaev, a 6-8 senior forward who has signed to play for Cincinnati. “At the end of the day, I just want to win.“This (CCA team) is my family – not nobody else. Everybody knows I can score the ball. I just try to make the right play so we can win and hopefully get a (state-championship) ring.”

Abaev, who entered Monday’s game leading the Eagles in scoring (22.8), was held to 13 points on 5-for-15 shooting. That included a fortuitous 40-foot 3-pointer that banked in off glass as the third-quarter buzzer sounded.

He went 0-for-4 with two turnovers in that struggle of a first quarter, and that allowed North Broward Prep to hang around, trailing only 15-13.

However, CCA outscored North Broward Prep 26-7 in the second quarter, and the game was played with a running clock for most of the second half.

CCA (19-1), which is ranked third in the nation by MaxPreps, advances to Thursday night’s regional finals, where the Eagles will host Boca Raton St. Andrew’s.

The Eagles defeated St. Andrew’s 72-57 in the district finals on Feb. 7.

North Broward Prep finished its season at 14-14, and coach Casey Wohlleb said his squad just couldn’t hit shots against CCA’s pressure defense.

“We needed to be aggressive against the pressure,” Wohlleb said. “They sped us up. They went on a run, and we shot the ball poorly.”

Meanwhile, Abaev, the only Broward County player to make the cut for this year’s McDonald’s All-Star Game that invites the nation’s top-24 seniors, was dealing with two injuries on Monday.

First, he is just coming off an ankle injury that caused him to miss CCA’s three previous games.

Then, in the first two minutes of Monday’s game, he exited with a jammed index finger on his right hand. Abaev, who is a lefty, quickly returned to the game.

“(A player) backed up into my hand,” said Abaev, who was making no excuses. “I’m good. It’s not that bad.”

Fortunately for CCA coach Cilk McSweeney, he got 19 points from sophomore point guard Cayden Daughtry and 13 from 6-8 junior forward Collin Paul.

Daughtry has offers from Arizona State; Florida State; West Virginia and Mississippi State. Paul has offers from Miami, Florida State, Georgia Tech and more.

And, combined with Abaev, this trio makes CCA tough to beat.

“Shon is one of the best scorers in his (senior) class,” McSweeney said. “He can get his shot anytime.

“Cayden has grown a lot by being our lead guard, defending at a higher level and being more vocal.

“And Collin is our Swiss Army Knife because we can use him in multiple roles.”

CCA, which has won three state titles since 2017, avenged a loss to North Broward Prep in last year’s regional semifinals. North Broward Prep won that game 50-48 on a tip-in at the buzzer by Enrico Borio, who now plays for Jacksonville University.

This year’s CCA team, though, appears to be much better as its only loss came on Jan. 31, falling 62-55 to national power Montverde.

The CCA theory is that the team will be better next game, which will be Abaev’s second since returning from the ankle injury. And the jammed finger on his non-shooting hand – CCA hopes – should be a non factor.

“When he gets back to his normal self, it should be more domination,” Daughtry said of Abaev. “We dominated this team (North Broward Prep).

“With Shon averaging his normal 25, we are going to be blowing teams out by 50.”

This story was originally published February 17, 2025 at 11:40 PM.