A tough season for Cuba High School’s boys’ basketball team came to an end at home on March 3 with a quarterfinals loss to St. Clair in the Class 4 District 3 Tournament. St. James won the district championship after defeating St. Clair on March 7 in the district finals. 

The Wildcats finished the season with a 4-22 record after winning at least 13 games in their previous four seasons. Cuba only had one returning starter from last year’s team — Braden Gipson, and the majority of its roster experienced their first significant varsity playing time. The young black and gold squad lost eight games by less than 10 points, showing that the team isn’t as far off from turning it around as their record indicates.

The Wildcats will lose starters Cameron Carnal and Felipe Valadez along with role players Ryan Thompson, Noah Halbert and Gavin Robinson to graduation. Carnal led Cuba in rebounds (4.4 rpg), was second on the team in scoring (10.8 ppg) and tied Gipson as the team’s leader in assists with 62.

Cuba head coach DJ Dace spoke after the loss to St. Clair about his final message to his seniors. 

“First of all, I had to say thanks to them. Cameron (Carnal) is a four-year guy for me and Felipe (Valadez) has been with me the last two years and I hope that they take what they learned from basketball and apply it to life,” Dace said. “I also told them I love them and I’m always gonna be here for them.”

Cuba will return fellow starters Gipson, Ethan Noltkamper and Caleb Brown, contributors AJ Flores and Seth Adderly and freshman standouts Layten Eikermann and Max Keogh. Gipson averaged 16.3 points 2.8 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 2 steals per game while shooting a stellar 91.8% from the free throw line and is expected to be named an All-District and All-Conference selection. Brown averaged 9 points, 4.3 rebounds, shot 80% from the charity stripe and led the Wildcats with 17 blocked shots despite missing three games due to injury. Brown received his first significant varsity playing time this year and ascended as the season progressed, solidifying himself as Cuba’s top front-court player going forward. Noltkamper scored almost five points per game and was second on the team in steals playing the role of a scrappy, hardworking guard.   

Junior varsity stalwarts Christian DeLuna, Brayden Lewis, Lane McInnis and Elijah Jesse will all have the opportunity to crack the varsity rotation with a strong offseason. Dace was optimistic that his team can learn from this year’s loss in districts and bounce back next season.

“I think a game like tonight, where we battled like this, I think it’s going to really catapult us into next year. Our upcoming senior class is hungry, they have a lot of leaders, and they’re the ones that really do a lot of good things,” he said. “I think this is going to propel us to the next step. I’m really excited for next year. We had a lot of young guys. Layten Eikermann played really well as a freshman. You know, the future is definitely bright for us.”

March 3 vs. Saint Clair

Although the sixth-seeded Wildcats played at home, they were technically the road team on the scoreboard against the third-seeded St. Clair Bulldogs. The Bulldogs came out of the gates scorching hot, knocking down five first quarter three-pointers to propel them to a 21-14 lead going into the second frame. The Wildcats didn’t waver, and began the second period on a 10-2 run to take a one point lead. Both teams then exchanged baskets and St. Clair took a 28-26 lead into halftime.

The rims appeared to tighten for Cuba in the third quarter, as the Wildcats had numerous shots and layups rim in and out. St Clair didn’t dominate the frame, but used timely transition baskets to increase their lead to seven points entering the fourth quarter.

St. Clair made it a double-digit game early in the final frame thanks to second- and third-chance opportunities from offensive rebounds. Cuba responded with one last gasp to narrow the gap to seven points. But that was as close as the Wildcats would get as a combination of the Bulldogs’ pressure defense and shots not falling for the black and gold helped St. Clair pull away with a 61-47 victory.

Dace spoke afterward about trying to preach mental toughness and positivity throughout the ups and downs of the game.

“All week, we preached believing. We struggled this year and a lot of times we struggled, it’s just doubt creeping in,” Dace said. “I think we played like we believed in the first half but our offense got quiet in the second half.”

Dace then credited St. Clair for their shot making ability along with their defense on Cuba’s leading scorer, Gipson. 

“They face guarded Braden (Gipson), which made it tough. But he did a really good job of trying to make something happen,” Dace said. “They just knocked down more shots than us. We didn’t shoot the ball as well as we did in the first half, and against a team that shoots 40 to 50 three’s a game, you’ve got to knock down shots.

Despite hounding defense from the Bulldogs, Gipson finished with a team-high 14 points to lead the Wildcats. Brown drained a trio of shots from deep and finished his strong sophomore season with an 11-point effort. Carnal added 10 and Valdez chipped in four points in their last game as Wildcats. Noltkamper made a trey and a layup for five points and AJ Flores buried a three-pointer in the second quarter for his lone basket.

St. Clair sophomore Carson Roemer poured in a game-high 27 points to lead the 17-10 Bulldogs into a semifinal matchup versus Salem.