Florence, SC – The Dorman Cavaliers are a team that to say it sounded like a broken record to talk about during the early stages of the 2024-2025 high school basketball season would be a vast understatement. Following a narrow victory in their first region game with Boiling Springs, Dorman Head Coach Thomas Ryan was quick to point out his team’s youth – not in terms of their classification as students (i.e. Freshman, Sophomore, etc), but rather they were young in not having played a lot of meaningful minutes together.
Another thing became apparent in those first few games of the season – that Jaden Johnson would end up being something special for this team that, as they began to gel, would quickly start to look more like the Dorman teams we have become accustomed to seeing make deep runs in the playoffs year in and year out.
It would be easy to gloat and say ‘I told you so’ when you look at the fact that Dorman was playing for the 5A division I upperstate championship on Saturday evening. But, to do so would diminish the incredible path they had to go on to get to this point.
From the preseason and throughout most of the regular season, the odds-on favorite to repeat as region 2-5A champions and make a return to Florence was the Byrnes Rebels – and that is understandable given that, once again, this team would have to cut its teeth more. What is remarkable is just how quickly they did cut their teeth. It did not take until the last weeks of the season or into the playoffs for them to gel. As a matter of fact, it is almost like they never had to endure growing pains at all.
After falling to Byrnes for just their 2nd region loss of the season back on January 14th, the Cavaliers rattled off 6 straight victories to continue going toe-to-toe with the then-undefeated Rebels. That set up a showdown with Byrnes in the return game in which Dorman handed them their first loss of the season in a 76-57 win, upping the streak to 7 games. The Cavaliers ended up running the table the rest of the way to make for a 10 game win streak while Byrnes closed by dropping 3 of their last 4.
Despite all the odds and the chatter, Dorman ended up winning the region title and taking the top seed in the playoffs. But, even with that laurel added to the crown, they did not stop the grind. They won a tight one 79-73 in their playoff opener over a solid JL Mann and followed that up with a dominant 74-56 victory over River Bluff in the quarterfinals.
All that led to a showdown with the Blythewood Bengals for the upperstate title and a chance to return to Florence next weekend for state.
The game played out in a fashion all too familiar with the 2024-2025 edition of Dorman basketball. Hard-fought, low-scoring, heavy on the defense. Neither team broke onto the scoreboard until Blythewood hit a three about 2 minutes in. The Bengals built as big of a lead as 6 points in the first quarter, yet still Dorman kept them within striking distance, trailing 14-11 at the end of the frame – thanks to a familiar name.
Remember when I said “Jaden Johnson would be something special for this team as they started to gel?” Well, he did some special things.
After Grant Aiken-Ross knotted the game at 14 in with 3:45 to play in the half to overcome what was a 6 point deficit, Dorman once again found themselves in a hole when the Bengals answered with a quick 5-1 spurt. Johnson drained a three to dig his team out and tie it at 18. was fouled shooting a three, sending him to the line with an opportunity to give his team their first lead. He nailed all three to make it 21-18 approaching 2 minutes to play in the half.
After Blythewood answered on the other end with a game-tying triple, Aaden Bruton-Smith put the Cavaliers back in front with a layup – a lead that they only built on over the course of most of the 2nd half.
After leading 25-21 at the break, Dorman opened the third quarter with a 5-0 spurt that extended to a 9-4 run that was eventually snapped at the 2:15 mark of the 3rd quarter. After that, Dorman would go on to build its largest lead of the night, up 11 points with just 5 minutes to play in the game.
But, unfortunately, things unraveled hard from that point on. Blythewood ended the game on a 13-1 run that was capped by 2 game-sealing mistakes by the Cavaliers. With about 20 seconds left in the game, Blythewood’s TJ Lewis drained a game-tying three to make it 45-all. Dorman got down the court quickly, but nobody ran down court and without numbers to back up the play and go for the rebound, they missed a layup for the lead, giving the Bengals the ball.
When play resumed after a quick Blythewood timeout, Peden Breazeale made the 2nd critical error when he shouldered a Bengal player out of bounds while he was trying to take the ball up court. With the Bengals in the bonus, they went to the line for 2 shots and split them, giving them a 1-point lead. After the missed freethrow went out of bounds, Dorman would have to inbound and go quick. But, they never got the opportunity as the inbound pass went out of bounds, awarding possession to the Bengals to run out the clock for a 46-45 victory and secure a date with Ridge View for the state championship on Friday night.
“We competed as hard as we could. We just self-destructed at the end”, said Dorman’s Thomas Ryan. “I think some of our inexperience really showed off down the stretch. But, we will learn from this. We didn’t close out a couple of games. Go back and look at Byrnes and Riverside pre-Christmas. But, we got rolling and finished the season strong and overall had a good season. I’m just disappointed in the finish. We just struggled to know what plays to make down the stretch”, he later added.
Jaden Johnson led the way for the Cavs with 22 points, but he was held to just 1 in the 4th quarter– a fact that no doubt ended up playing into Blythewood’s favor in the end.
Asked about Jaden’s effort, Ryan gave the simplest yet most truthful answer.
“Jaden is special. Like the rest of the team, he will learn from this and get better moving forward, and I am glad that he is a Cavalier.”
That statement rings particularly true because there are a lot of teams they will play in the future that will not be so thrilled to see that #2 on the court in blue and white.
Disappointing as it is to let a semifinal game where you had a double digit lead slip away in 5 minutes, Cavalier fans can take some good solace in the fact that they are not going anywhere. Not that anyone ever said they were. The Cavaliers have a very bright future ahead of them with 4 starters returning next year, all with more experience under their belts. All of that is in addition to a Jaden Johnson that will continue to develop. That leaves little doubt that if they aren’t the favorite, they will definitely be in the hunt to be back here this time next year.
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