It was a night when both Ooltewah's Owls and Central's Purple Pounders wanted to make a statement in the District 6-AAA high school basketball race.

The most noise, however, was made by one player—Central 6-4 senior post Ryan Merriman.

With a boisterous crowd on hand with good support from both schools, Merriman scored 25 points, grabbed 14 rebounds, made four steals, handed out four assists and blocked three shots as Central escaped with a 61-54 road victory.

"I underestimated Merriman,'' Ooltewah coach Ron Baker said. "He's a better player than I thought he was. I thought he was more show than go, but he took it to us tonight.''

Central improved to 10-2 overall and 2-1 in the district standings while the Owls dropped to 11-3 and 1-1.

"We knew their biggest guy was about 6-2 so we had to get the ball down low tonight,'' Merriman said. "We did a good job with that.

"Ooltewah has been doing real good this year and we had been hearing a lot of talk. We wanted to come in here and prove we shouldn't be so low in our district.''

Dominique Jones added 12 points in Central's balanced attack, Matt Wilhoite had 10 points and five rebounds and Jared Munson added nine points and four assists.

"Ryan has been the difference in a lot of our games,'' Central coach Bill Nelms said. "He is a good all-around player who knows where he should be and where to get the ball to everyone else.''

The difference in the game came early when Central outscored Ooltewah, 15-9, in the first quarter.

"I felt like both teams played well tonight,'' Nelms said. "We got the lead and never gave it up. I liked that. I knew they would make some runs, but we were able to maintain the lead by switching defenses.''

Sherman Moton led Ooltewah with 16 points while Chris Foster and Courtney White added eight apiece.

The Owls had a chance to take a lead in the third quarter, but missed seven of their first eight free throws.

"We've been lucky all year with the free throws,'' Baker said. "You win or lose at least five games every year with free throws. We missed 7-of-8 to start the second half and they hit theirs. We missed 8 of our last 10 free throws and still had a chance to win.''

Ooltewah pulled within 56-52 with 52 seconds left on a free throw by Michael Newsome. The Pounders then got a putback by Merriman and three straight free throws to seal the victory.

"We had a good crowd and a great atmosphere tonight,'' Baker said. "I don't know if we're going to be contenders or pretenders in the district. I do know I enjoy the kids and I'm happy again. But we've got to learn to protect our homecourt.''

The Owls will play host to the District 6-AAA Tournament and the Region 3-AAA Tournament in their new gym this year.

OOLTEWAH GIRLS 60, CENTRAL 38: It was tied at 35 after three quarters before the Lady Owls turned up the defensive pressure.

"We took it up a notch on them,'' Ooltewah coach Kendra Bell said. "I thought Brooke (Wachvieth) did a good job of putting pressure on their point and getting them out of their flow.''

Rachel Robbs led Ooltewah (5-7, 2-0 6-AAA) with 19 points and Gerica Massengill added 16, Jessica Steele contributed eight and Wachvieth had six.

Courtney Dawson had 16 points for Central (2-10, 0-3).

"We were right in it after three quarters,'' Central coach Rick Rogers said. "I'm not sure what happened. Maybe we got exhausted. I can't believe we only scored three points in the fourth quarter.''

SUMMARIES

BOYS

Score by Quarters 1 2 3 4 Score
----------------- -- -- -- -- -----
Chatt. Central..... 15 15 12 18 - 61
Ooltewah..... 9 15 12 19 - 54

CHATANOOGA CENTRAL (61) -- Jared Munson 9, Ryan Merriman 25, Dominique Jones 12, Matt Wilhoite 10, Lorenzo Meadows 4, Chris Geter 1.

OOLTEWAH (54) -- Matt Miller, Sherman Moton 16, Courtney White 8, Michael Newsome 4, Harrison Fox 4, Chris Foster 8, Brandon Brown, Hunter Augustino 6, Brandon Smith 2, Curtis Portor 6.

Three-point goals -- Moton 3, Foster 2, Augustino 2, Newsome, Munson, Jones.

GIRLS

Chatt. Central..... 16 8 11 3 - 38
Ooltewah..... 12 10 13 25 - 60

CHATANOOGA CENTRAL (38) -- Barbara Holland 4, Katie Johnston 1, Beth Cotter, Ragan Elliott 4, Chastity Besley, Lakeisha Dupree, Erica Rivers 3, Kristen Weickert 8, Brianne Williams 2, Courtney Dawson 16, Eboni Shelton.

OOLTEWAH (60) -- Jessica Steele 8, Brooke Wachvieth 6, Alexis Mathes 2, Brandi Meents 2, Jessica Hall 4, Bailey Reeves, Gerica Massengill 16, Kourtney Hedden, Rachel Robbs 19, Bridget Keough, Tina Clark 3.

Three-point goals -- Clark, Massengill, Weickert.

(E-mail Stan Crawley at wscrawley@earthlink.net)