Throughout the postseason, Tanner Massey has tweeted the same thing over and over again.
“Game 7 mentality.”
The Atlantic Collegiate head boys basketball coach was setting a simple yet effective tone for his team: each game down the stretch meant everything.
In the Saturday, March 8, Class 2A state championship against High Point Academy, that seventh-game mentality paid off and culminated in a trophy celebration. The Armada, with a 58-52 victory, hoisted the hardware for the first time in school history in the program’s first postseason-eligible season.
“For a brief moment in my mind, I thought back to the game day practices we had,” Massey said of the win. “Our first team meeting. All of the practices, the weight room sessions for our guys, all those things just flashed back. Our guys put in so much effort and time and sacrifice. This is all them. This is a credit to our players.”
The Armada’s win is noteworthy above and beyond the feat of winning the title. The backdrop of the impressive 24-3 season the Armada put together — which included a region championship and a dominant run through the state playoffs — is the school’s emergence onto the scene of Horry County athletics.
ACA opened in fall 2023 and is competing this 2024-25 school year — in all sports — for the first time in South Carolina High School League competition after officially being assigned a region (Region VII-2A) over the summer during the SCHSL’s classification/realignment period.
Two years after opening, Atlantic Collegiate now has secured its first team state championship.
Massey used that Game 7 mentality to help his group get it done.
“It was a five-game playoff run and then two games before that, so it was seven games.” Massey described. “That was the mentality we had. As I was coaching the game, for two moments, it felt like I had already been here because of how we prepared, how we had coached and the intensity level that we played with. It already felt like we had been here.”
The Armada entered Saturday’s finals with that mentality, and it didn’t take long to see it pay dividends.
High Point sprinted out of the gate alongside ACA and capitalized on a fast start, keeping pace with the Armada’s speed and length over much of the first quarter. But toward the end of the second half, ACA hit the gas pedal and turned it on.
Anton Daniels hit a three-pointer that started an impressive run to end the half for the Armada, who took commanding momentum into halftime. Jaylen Bellamy added a pair of back-to-back buckets, giving the Armada a 32-21 lead at the break.
Out of the intermission, High Point cut into ACA’s advantage with an 8-0 run, briefly making it a one-score game. But Massey called a timeout with under six minutes to play in the third quarter, settling things back down and allowing the group to open up a 43-35 lead going into the fourth quarter.
“We had lost our defensive identity for a moment,” Massey said, mentioning that he made the decision to then insert senior Justin Bellamy into the game. “That was what it was. We knew they were coming out with a ton of pressure, so we had to adjust… We had to be available for one another and flash to the ball… it wasn’t anything emotional, but a little more tactical. It helps when you have [Bellamy] coming off the bench to get a stop.”
High Point was able to tighten things up briefly in the fourth quarter and cut the ACA lead down to four points, but never enough to give the Armada a true scare down the stretch. The Armada closed things out over the final eight minutes, leading to a trophy celebration on center court of the Florence Center to wrap up the season.
“This feels great,” Justin Bellamy said after the win. “This means a lot to me… We got things together and we knew what we had to do. This was the plan for the whole year, to come here and win a state championship. We bought in with our coach, came here as a team and won it all.”
Bellamy’s twin brother, Jaylen, was among the group of ACA players lingering around the court after the win to take pictures with friends and supporters.
The win, he says, was a product of belief and resiliency.
“This feels great. It’s a blessing. We prayed for this moment every day. We worked hard, and it’s a blessing to be here,” Bellamy said.
Hannah Strong Oskin is the executive editor of MyHorryNews. Reach her at 843-488-7242 or hannah.oskin@myhorrynews.com. Follow her on X @HannahSOskin.
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