Legacy Christian Academy’s boys’ basketball team set the bar just about as high as it could go this season.

The Eagles put together a dazzling campaign, setting a new single-season record with 32 wins, including LCA’s first-ever undefeated season at home.

That was just the first of the firsts – the Eagles won the Kentucky Christian Athletic Association’s KCAA Tip-Off Classic for the first time in school history, then capped off their season with the biggest accomplishment of all – winning a state championship.

The Eagles are still letting that sink in after a dizzying run to the KCAA boys’ basketball state title. It took three wins in less than a 24-hour span, including a final rematch with rival Oak Ridge Christian Academy in the championship game.

“It’s awesome, man,” LCA junior center Trace Stivers said. “You come into this year knowing that we have a chance to win it, and I think every time we stepped on the court we proved that. A couple days later, I’m still on the high right now but it’s all in God’s name so it can’t be too bad.”

Oak Ridge Christian, based in Morgantown, had dealt LCA a costly defeat just a week before in the Region 1 championship. That double-overtime loss dropped the Eagles in the seeding for the state tournament.

“We were No. 1 in the power rankings for most of the year with a few exceptions here and there,” LCA coach Shaun Cummings said. “We had lost in the regional tournament, so we ended up with a lower seed than what we felt like we really were, so we were a five seed.”

The Eagles opened with a 58-45 win against Bethel in the KCAA state quarterfinals on Friday, then had to face top-seeded Community Christian in the semifinals on Saturday.

LCA fell behind by as many as 13 points in that game before regrouping to claim a 52-39 win and a spot in the state championship game. Oak Hill Christian awaited once more, and this time the Eagles took the victory with a 67-52 decision – the fourth time in five meetings this season the Eagles came out on top.

“We were ranked fifth, so we went in as underdogs but also people knew that we were the best team,” LCA junior Ant McAfee said.

McAfee played a huge role, as the 6-foot-5 wing finished with 35 points and nine rebounds. Fellow junior Cole Phillips had 12 points and five assists, Stivers finished with nine points and six boards, and junior Ryder Harbaugh tallied eight points and four assists.

McAfee was named the KCAA state tournament’s most valuable player and reached 1,000 career points in the state title game. Needing 29 points to reach that milestone, McAfee got 35 – all but 99 coming this season, his first with the Eagles after moving into the region from Tennessee.

Harbaugh and Stivers were also named to the all-tournament team, while McAfee and Cole Phillips played in the KCAA All-Star Game the following week in Owensboro.

“We definitely came here with the idea that we knew that we wanted to do it and we knew we could do it,” Phillips said. “We just had stay together and go out there as a team and make it happen.”

The program, in its fourth year following the merger of Bowling Green Christian Academy and Anchored Christian School, was successful from the start. Coronavirus restrictions limited the Eagles’ schedule that first season, but the team won at least 20 games each of the next two seasons – the school’s first playing in the KCAA – before this breakthrough 30-win season.

With just one senior – Aaron Campbell – on this season’s roster, the Eagles have every expectation of challenging for the state championship again next season.

“We’ve had a good group of players come through here in the first four years,” Cummings said. “This year obviously we have a really talented group. It’s predominantly made up of juniors. As long as I get everybody back, I’ll have six seniors that have already won a state championship. We’re excited about that possibility of having that veteran team that has already won with the potential of possibly doing it again.”