Boys State: 'Canes, Panthers Set To Face Tough Foes

After more than a week since their games, there is only one thing left for the East Hamilton and Brainerd boys’ basketball teams to do now.

And that’s to play basketball against formidable opponents in the 2017 Class 3A and Class 2A state tournaments at Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.

The Hurricanes and Panthers arrive in the mid-state with diametrically different resumes in one important area.

Brainerd has been there before.

East Hamilton has not.

Both Chattanooga squads are facing strong West Tennessee powers and that fact never seems to change. State tourney teams from Jackson to Memphis are routinely the strongest clubs in the four-day event.

Eighth-ranked East Hamilton (25-10) plays No. 2 Memphis East (33-3) at 1:15 p.m. CDT at MTSU’s Murphy Center on Wednesday.

East is led by Alex Lomax, who last week was named the Class 3A Mr. Basketball and he’s got at least 10 college offers.

Lomax, a member of the East High Poetry Club, was the Gatorade Player of the Year in Tennessee last year when he averaged 13 points, five rebounds, six assists and four steals while maintaining a 3.6 GPA.

“It’s a big challenge,” Hurricanes junior point guard Justin Dozier said. “We have to go out there with good chemistry, make sure we play good defense and don’t make many offensive turnovers. We have played against guys like Alex and T.J. Moss in summer ball and we know about them.”

The Mustangs are ranked third in the country by USA Today and appealing a TSSAA rule that prohibits them competing in the prestigious Dick’s Sporting Goods High School national tournament in New York.

If the TSSAA rules in favor of the Mustangs at a board of control meeting, that would also benefit the Riverdale girls, ranked No. 1 by USA Today. The Georgia high school governing body allowed Wheeler High School to play in the 2015 Dick’s tourney.

On Thursday, No. 8 Brainerd (26-7) takes on Haywood (26-7), which captured the 2014 Class 2A championship.

“Last year gave us a lot of confidence,” junior forward Jesse Walker said, referring to the Panthers’ drive to the championship game where they lost 59-50 to Fulton.

In 2015, Brainerd lost in the quarterfinals. That same year, Mitchell, Haywood and Hamilton, all from the West Tennessee lowlands, swept titles in all three classifications – 1A, 2A and 3A.

In 2014 and 2016, West Tennessee teams won two of the three championships.

East Hamilton, an 8-year-old program that had never won a postseason game in seven tries until this season, received a shot in the arm when it stunned Blackman 72-68 in the sectional. The Blaze had appeared in five straight state tournaments.

“I think we’re ahead of where I thought the entire program would be in three years,” Hurricanes coach Rodney English said. “I got the right kids at the right time and they understood that if they made a commitment to basketball and stuck with it, we could be successful.

“I’m sure they thought I was crazy and over the top at times, but now you say that and they will defend me in a heartbeat.”

The Hurricanes’ probable starting lineup against East will include freshman Sam Randolph, sophomore Cam Montgomery, senior Noah Fager and juniors Dozier and DaVae Hughley.

Hughley and Dozier each average 14 points per game and Hughley pulls down eight rebounds, 5.3 coming on the defensive boards. Dozier also averages 4.3 assists and 1.8 steals, both team-high numbers.

Fager, who shoots 46 percent from 3-point distance, and Montgomery score 13 points on average and Montgomery leads the ‘Canes by shooting 76 percent from the free-throw line.

English says the program is set up now on a solid footing, pointing out that the school’s freshman team included two ninth-graders with the being eighth-graders and it was winning games by 30 or 40 points this season.

While East Hamilton is playing in its first state tournament Memphis East is making its 15^th appearance.

Edge to the Mustangs, who have not lost to a Tennessee Division I team this season. Their losses were against Hamilton Heights of Chattanooga, Montverde (Fla.) Academy and Sierra Canyon from California.

Coach Robert Jackson – he is assisted by former NBA star Anfernee Hardaway – brings the Mustangs to Murfreesboro riding a 15-game winning streak that includes games with 110 and 107 points and six more in the 90s.

Despite those impressive numbers, Hurricane players don’t believe they will take the court awed by the opposition.

“I’m confident in myself and this team’s ability to play good basketball,” Hughley said. “There may be some nervousness because we’ve never been this far before. It’s a big stage for us. But the team in front of us will be just another team and we have to take them down. It’s the same as Blackman. We don’t have anything to lose, so we’re going after them.”

Said Fager, “We’re going in there with a winning mindset. We know what we have to do to beat East. I know how good Memphis basketball has been, but I just know there will be five players on the floor Wednesday we have to beat on that particular day.”

Junior Vandrele Wilson is a highly competent role player that has been confident from the moment the Hurricanes landed on the bracket opposite the Mustangs.

“First of all, we’re excited that East Hamilton has made it to the state tournament for the first time in history,” he said. “I think it’s going to be all about Memphis East and nobody will give us a chance. We’re going over there and do what we know how to, and that’s play basketball.”

Appearing in their third straight state tournament, coach Levar Brown’s Panthers go into Thursday’s action with the assuredness of a veteran team accustomed to the basketball spotlight.

Haywood’s Tomcats and the Panthers have a combined 30 trips to the tournament with this being Brainerd’s 17^th.

When teams launch annual bids to punch a ticket to Murfreesboro they know it’s a marathon, not a sprint, toward that ultimate goal.

Playing basketball at the pinnacle of the ability scale in March can be derived from the meshing of several factors. Or, it might be as simple as making a key shuffle of the lineup.

“Every year for us it seems like it came down to a substitution we made that got us clicking,” said Brown, who is in his fourth year as Brainerd’s coach. “This year we put Joseph Norwood and Michael Hampton in the starting lineup just before the district tournament and that made the big difference.

“They’ve really had an impact on our defense, which has been solid all year. I’d like to see that on the offensive end and I’m hopeful that happens Thursday at 10 a.m.”

Norwood welcomed his spot in the lineup after transferring from Ooltewah.

“The biggest thing for me was to stay focused, keep working hard and not be distracted by little things people threw at me,” he said. “My teammates helped a lot. This is my new home and my ultimate goal was to get in the starting lineup and help the team any way I could.”

Brown pointed out that two guards that played on Haywood’s 2015 are this year’s team as well. Both players, Brown said, have committed to Division I colleges and present problems on the perimeter.

One of those two guards, Dedric Boyd, underwent meniscus surgery last month has returned to action and scored 14 points off the bench for coach Kendall Dancy in the Tomcats’ 62-58 win over Jackson South Side in the sectional.

“It felt good to be out there and it feels good to go to state,” Boyd told sports writer Brandon Shields of the Jackson Sun.

Boys State Tournament Schedule

At Middle Tennessee State

Wednesday, All Times CDT

Class 3A

Bearden (22-9) vs. Independence (23-10), 10 a.m.

Southwind 31-1) vs. Oakland (24-7), 11:30 a.m.

East Hamilton (25-10) vs. Memphis East (30-3), 1:15 p.m.

Oak Ridge (30-2) vs. Brentwood (26-8)

Class 2A

Wednesday

Knoxville Catholic (29-1) vs. Macon County (29-4), 4:30 p.m.

Whites Creek (28-5) vs. Sheffield (21-7), 6 p.m.

Thursday

Haywood (26-7) vs. Brainerd (28-5), 10 a.m.

Maplewood (26-7) vs. Sullivan East (31-7), 11:30 a.m.

(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)