East Hamilton, Brainerd Home For Sectional Showdowns

Even before Oakland and Blackman played for the Region 4-3A championship last week, Oakland was working on a game plan for East Hamilton.

But a funny thing happened to the Patriots. They upset Blackman.

That set up Monday’s Class 3A sectional between the Blaze and Hurricanes at East Hamilton High School.

“The Oakland coach (Troy Bonds) and I talked Thursday after the region championship games,” Hurricanes coach Rodney English said at Sunday night’s practice. “He said they threw pretty much everything in the wind because Blackman had destroyed them three previous times.

“They came up with a game plan of running and jumping and trapping them, standing in their face and being physical with them and Blackman didn’t handle it.”

Those things happen at this stage of the high school basketball season when everything is on the line. It’s the win-and-survive phase of a long, grinding campaign.

Four Chattanooga teams – East Hamilton, Brainerd, Tyner and CSAS – are in the same position in the critical sectional round.

It’s either win or go home.

The Hurricanes and Panthers, who will face Livingston Academy, have home-court advantage. The Rams and Patriots have the added pressure of trying to win on the road – Tyner plays at Macon County and CSAS goes to Clay County.

“Playing at home is a tremendous thing,” Brainerd coach Levar Brown, who is trying to lead his team to its third straight state tournament appearance.

Walker Valley’s Mustangs, the Region 3-3A runner-up to East Hamilton, will play at Oakland.

All games start at 7 p.m. local time.

Two years ago, Brainerd lost to Christ Presbyterian Academy in the quarterfinals. Last season the Panthers reached the title game and lost to Fulton 59-50.

The Hurricanes are playing in their first sectional.

Tyner is trying to get back to state for the first time since the 2012-13 season.

Arts and Sciences hasn’t been to Murfreesboro, where Middle Tennessee State University plays host to the tournament, since 2011. The Patriots’ 2011-12 and 2014-15 seasons ended with sectional losses to Friendship Christian and Clay County, respectively.

Blackman (26-4) at East Hamilton (24-10): Cam Montgomery, a 5-foot-9 sophomore guard, hit four 3s in the first quarter, finished with 21 points in a Region 3-3A championship game victory over Walker Valley and made the all-tournament team.

Blackman is expected to present the ‘Canes with their stiffest challenge to date.

“They’ll be very fundamental and they do their stuff well,” Montgomery said. “They’re pretty athletic, quick and long. We want to make the first punch and show them it’s not going to be easy to come in here and win.”

The Blaze, who beat Oakland three times, including in the District 7-3A tournament title game and has one state championship (2014) to their credit, and the average margin of victory was 17 points.

So, that’s why Oakland went to an all-out approach in the Region 4-3A title showdown last week.

“Coach Bonds told me they had already turned their attention to us because he thought we would come out of our region (as the winner),” English said. “He said, ‘You guys match up well with Blackman because of your style of play.’ Oakland didn’t have the size we have. They tried to play 1-3-1 and 2-3 zones and trapped out of the 2-3. I’ve looked at seven Blackman videos and they’re good because they’re well-coached. They play control basketball and wait for you to make a mistake and when that happens they make you pay.

“I think we can guard Blackman if we don’t look at their chest where is says ‘BLACKMAN.’ I thought if we had to go over there and play them it might be a little too much for our kids with all the hoopla that goes with their program, all the banners and the success they’ve had and we would have been behind the 8-ball before the ball was ever tipped. But they’re coming to our place. We’re going to respect them because they’re good. We’ve got come out of hungry and aggressive.”

Blackman was 15-0 against district rivals this season before Oakland pulled the region upset with a 51-39 shocker. The Blaze have won six of their last seven games that included a 52-34 win over Oakland in the district tournament championship.

This has been a season of “firsts” for English’s Hurricanes. They came into the district tournament having lost seven straight postseason games, but beat Bradley Central in the semifinals to break that drought.

Two days later, East Hamilton was blown out 77-47 by Cleveland in the title showdown. The ‘Canes beat Stone Memorial in the region tourney, knocked off White County in the semifinals and then rallied to beat Walker Valley for the school’s first district championship.

Now they’re making their first sectional appearance with a shot at their first state tournament berth at stake.

“Coach told us Blackman is a good team,” junior point guard Justin Dozier said. “We’re very confident; we just have to be ready, bring good energy and do what we do.”

Livingston Academy (19-14) at Brainerd (22-5): The fact Brainerd can earn its third successive trip to Murfreesboro says a lot about team leadership, Brown said.

“With the returning guys we have this year, two (Kentrell Evans and Jesse Walker) being all-state players, they’ve been able to keep our guys focused on the job at hand, especially the younger players,” the coach said.

The Panthers have won nine of their last 10 games and have come a long way since December to the point of taking another crack at the program’s fourth state title.

The Wildcats, who dropped a 45-43 decision to Macon County in the Region 4-2A championship game, have lost three of their last five. The first two setbacks in that string came against Upperman and Murfreesboro Magnet School in the district semifinals and third-place game. They beat Notre Dame and Upperman in the regional prior to losing to Macon County, one of the hottest teams still standing.

“I definitely believe defense is going to win this game,” Brown said. “I don’t know if we’re better than last year’s team because we lost two guys (Dajuanta Ross and Malik Beavers) that could guard all five positions. This year it’s different; we’re not as physical as that team was last year.

“I think it’s going to be a great game and I feel good about it.”

Tyner (25-4) at Macon County (28-4): The Rams’ last appearance at state was in 2013-14 and the trip didn’t last long. Tyner fell hard 81-62 to East Nashville in the quarterfinals. East Nashville eventually lost to Jackson South Side in the title game.

And the Tigers won’t be a pushover on Monday. They have won 17 straight games and 20 of the last 21 and come in as District 8-2A and Region 4-2A tournament champions. More importantly, Macon County is 11-1 at home this season, that setback an 86-81 decision to Class 1A Clay County on Dec. 16.

In fact, Clay County swept the regular-season series with the Tigers.

“Unfortunately, playing on the road was not in our game plan,” Rams coach Keitha Booker said. “We definitely wanted to have home-court advantage. I told our guys after the loss to Brainerd that we’re still alive and we have a shot, but we have to take care of business or go home.

“We’re going to be in a tough environment and we have to defend the basketball and create some turnovers.”

In looking back at the region title game versus Brainerd, Booker surmised his squad wasn’t ready to play and the Panthers “clicked on all cylinders” on offense and defense. That forced the Rams to play catch-up the entire second half. The decisive spurt came when the Rams, with a one-point lead, missed back-to-back layups, got a technical foul and Brainerd capitalized on the mistakes.

“We beat ourselves, but we still have another shot at getting over that mountain (Monteagle) and getting to the state tournament,” Booker said. “Everybody is committed and ready for the challenge.”

CSAS (23-9) at Clay County (29-4): The Patriots lost sectional games in 2011-12 and 2014-15 and last appeared in the state tournament in 2010-11, and that trip ended with a quarterfinal loss to Lake County.

The 55-47 sectional loss three years ago was against Clay County and CSAS also suffered sectional defeats in 2008 and 2005, so the Patriots would certainly like to change that pattern this time around.

Obviously, it can be done. CSAS reached the semifinals in 2010 and lost to Temple Academy in the 2007 championship game.

Clay County’s Bulldogs, out of Celina, Tennessee, are on a pretty good roll too, having won 16 of their last 17 that included a 102-61 rout of Trousdale County in the Region 4-1A tournament.

Clay County can also win a low-scoring affair, which it did (45-43) versus Pickett County in the region championship game. The Bulldogs also scored 101 points in a December game and were in the 90s five times.

Coach Mark Dragoo could not be ready for comments on this story.

Sectional Schedule

All Games Start at 7 p.m. Local Time

Class 3A

Blackman (26-4) at East Hamilton (24-10)

Walker Valley (19-12) at Oakland (23-7)

Class 2A

Livingston Academy (19-14) at Brainerd (22-5)

Tyner (25-4) at Macon County (28-4)

Class 1A

Arts & Sciences (23-9) at Clay County (29-4)

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