ATHENS, Tenn. – Round Five is set for 7:30 Thursday night here at McMinn County High School.
We’re referring to the fifth time that Tyner and Brainerd will meet on the basketball court this season after both advanced to the Region 3-AA championship game with wins here in the semifinals Tuesday night.
So far, both teams have won twice as they won in the other gym during the regular season. Brainerd won the first time in the Best of Preps tournament in December while Tyner won last week's District 6-AA tournament title.
The Panthers improved to 27-5 with a 59-43 victory over the East Ridge Pioneers while the Rams advanced with a 56-41 win over the McMinn Central Chargers.
The girls championship, which features a District 5-AA rematch between McMinn Central and Sequoyah, will be played at 6 p.m. Thursday after play on Wednesday was called off because of predicted bad weather. The Tyner-Brainerd battle should begin around 7:45 or so.
Thursday’s winners will host Sectional games while the losers will travel. The girls are set for Sectional play on Saturday night with the guys following on Monday.
BRAINERD 59, EAST RIDGE 43: The Panthers had beaten the Pioneers pretty bad the first two times they played and while Brainerd won for the third straight time on Tuesday, it wasn’t quite the blowout it had been on the first two occasions.
“We tried to approach this game like we hadn’t played before, but I thought we were focused, motivated and ready to play,” said Brainerd coach Levar Brown shortly after the final horn sounded.
“We’re excited to advance to the sub-state level for the fourth straight year. I thought we played well for the most part tonight, but we got a little complacent. We know that East Ridge is a really good shooting team from outside and we wanted to chase them away from that 3-point line, but we stopped doing that for whatever reason in the second half,” the popular coach shook his head.
East Ridge coach Jon Goddard has a lot of room for optimism after playing a bunch of young kids this season.
“We didn’t do the little things to keep us in the game like we needed to do, but we were able to finally make some shots in the second half. We just need to build on a game like this as the future is bright for East Ridge basketball.
“Brainerd made big runs when they needed to as they’re a really good team. We wish them luck the rest of the way,” Goddard nodded.
Jessie Walker and Kentrell Evans both scored in the opening 15 seconds as Brainerd took the early lead and never trailed. The lead was only 9-6 following a jumper in the lane by the Pioneers’ Lorenzo Stewart, but the Panthers then went on a 11-4 run to double the score at 20-10 when the first quarter ended.
East Ridge was within 27-17 following a bucket by Marquis Hinton with 5:45 showing in the second stanza, but the Pioneers didn’t score again the rest of the half as the Panthers turned that 10-point spread into a 19-point lead at the break.
The difference was the same at 48-29 when the fourth quarter began before Elijah Garmany scored eight straight points to get the Pioneers within 11 at 48-37 with more than five minutes remaining.
That was as close as it would get as Brainerd was able to slow it down and run time off the clock with a double-digit lead.
Walker scored 19 points to lead the Brainerd attack while Evans was the only other Panther in double figures with 13.
Garmany had 16 points to lead East Ridge, which finished its season at 12-17.
Deaunta Johnson was next with nine points.
Brainerd had an unofficial 32-19 rebounding edge as Keyshun Bradley and Vesta Melvin both grabbed six for the Panthers. Johnson had six for East Ridge.
TYNER 56, McMINN CENTRAL 41: The Rams have shown on more than one occasion they can score a lot of points in a hurry, but they can also slow things down when they want to save energy with a big lead.
Tuesday’s win over the Chargers certainly wasn’t their most explosive game offensively, but much like Brainerd, they were more concerned about advancing to Thursday’s championship than running up a lopsided score.
“I feel a little better now as I knew they had some outstanding shooters,” said Tyner coach Keitha Booker after his team improved to 24-3.
“They still hit some really big shots and took us out of our style of play at times, but we did what we needed to do to advance. We were hoping to push the ball up the floor with a fast tempo, but there are other times when we need to slow it down and run our offense.
“The main thing was us keeping our composure to get to Thursday’s game. There were spurts tonight when we looked really good, but we got the win and that was all I asked for.
“Now we get to face Brainerd again in Round Five. We know it will be a battle like always, but we just have to defend our district title and we’re up for the challenge,” Booker concluded with a smile.
McMinn Central coach Doug Armstrong felt like Tyner’s defense took his team out of their usual flow on offense and it had a negative effect on the outcome.
“I thought we played pretty good defense, but we didn’t shoot as well as we normally do. They did a good job of shutting down Bryce Mason, who is our leading scorer, as they switched defenses a couple of times,” the veteran coach explained.
“They made us do things quicker than we’re used to and we didn’t get as many open looks as we normally get, but we hung in there and gave ourselves a chance.
“We got it down to 11 late in the game and had chances to get even closer, but weren’t able to do anything. It’s been a tough year, but we’ll be better next year,” he concluded after his team’s season ended at 9-18.
Kevin Cameron had an outstanding game for Tyner as he scored the first eight points of the game and finished with 22. Jeremy Elston was the only other Ram in double figures as he finished with 11.
Jordan Carter scored 14 points to lead the Chargers while Mason was next with 11.
Tyner had an unofficial 27-20 edge on the boards as Kevin McCauley and Jerrion Christopher both claimed six. Long had six and Mark Thacker five for McMinn Central.
EAST RIDGE 10 7 12 14 -- 43
BRAINERD 20 16 12 11 -- 59
EAST RIDGE (43) – Johnson 9, Hinton 5, Stewart 2, Simmons 3, Mathis 6, Taylor, Garmany 16, Eberhardt 2.
BRAINERD (59) – Herman 4, Sow 3, Melvin, Bradley 5, Evans 13, Norwood 4, Hampton 6, Chapman 5, Walker 19, Wofford.
3-POINT GOALS: East Ridge 6 (Hinton, Simmons, Mathis 2, Garmany 2); Brainerd 5 (Sow, Bradley, Hampton 2, Chapman).
McMINN CENTRAL 8 9 10 14 -- 41
TYNER 12 17 14 13 -- 56
McMINN CENTRAL (41) – Allen, Long 9, Jenkins, Mason 11, J. Thacker 3, Carter 14, Blakley, M. Thacker 4, Powers.
TYNER (56) – Cameron 22, Young 2, Bridgman, McCauley 3, Bowens 7, Ja. Elston 3, Je. Elston 11, Little 6, Christopher 2.
3-POINT GOALS: McMinn Central 9 (Long, Mason 3, J. Thacker, Carter 4); Tyner 3 (Ja. Elston, Little 2).
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)