Tyner coach E’Jay Ward holds the region trophy alongside his team and supporters.
photo by M. A. Locke
It might be safe to say that Signal Mountain’s win over Tyner in the District 6-AA championship game last week at Howard may have been a wakeup call for the Rams.
Those guys in maroon and gold have been playing their best basketball of the season since that loss and they earned a chance to host a Sub-State game on Monday by defeating those same Eagles on Thursday night in the Region 3-AA championship at Red Bank’s Susan Ingram Thurman Gymnasium.
With the win, Tyner improves to 19-10 with its third win in four games against Signal Mountain while the Eagles are now 21-13 following Thursday’s 59-46 setback.
The Rams will host Upperman on Monday while the Eagles will travel to Livingston Academy after the Wildcats won the Region 4-AA title by a 72-48 final Thursday night.
E’Jay Ward, Tyner’s energetic first-year coach, was all smiles following Thursday’s victory.
“Defense, defense and defense. That’s what I’ve been preaching all year and that was a key for us tonight,” he said while players and fans kept celebrating near mid-court.
“I want them to experience the bright lights of the state tournament and we’re only one win away. I’m so happy that we get to play at home on Monday so all our fans can come watch us on our court. We’re playing our best basketball right now and I think we’re peaking at the right time.
"Marquis Hinton did a great job coming off the bench tonight as he responded well and Jeremy Elston has been playing in games like this for the past four years. He's a tough kid and I knew he would come through.
“We’re putting it all together as my guys responded tonight. We’ve been waiting for this game all week,” he added.
Signal Mountain coach Steve Redman is just happy that his team’s season isn’t over.
“We’re still alive and just one win away from the state tournament,” Redman said after a brief talk with his team following the game.
“We dug ourselves too big a hole in the first half as we had a tough time scoring. It’s tough to win a game like this when you only score 12 points in the first half, but we couldn’t throw it in the ocean as we only hit three of 23 field goal attempts.
“I’m proud that we got to this point as nobody expected us to be in the region finals, but I’m not pleased with our execution as we just didn’t do what we needed to do. Tuesday’s overtime win over Sweetwater was a huge win and I think we may have had a letdown after that, but we didn’t deserve to win this game.
“Tyner did what they had to do to win, but we’re not finished yet,” Redman added.
Owen Honroth scored the game’s first points with a layup some 20 seconds in to give Signal Mountain a quick 2-0 lead, but by the time Jarren Radden sank the second of two free throws with 1:19 left in the first, the Rams had scored seven unanswered points.
The difference was 9-5 at the end of that first quarter as the Rams never trailed again.
Marquis Hinton came off the bench to spark Tyner in the second stanza as he scored seven of the Rams’ first 12 points. The difference was 21-7 following his 3 with 3:30 to play and the Tyner lead was still 14 points at 26-12 when the horn sounded for halftime.
The Eagles shot the ball much better in the second half, but they were never really able to cut into Tyner’s lead. Amon Grace scored four points in the final minute to give Tyner its biggest lead of the game at 42-26 with one quarter remaining.
K.T. Webb sank two free throws with 2:19 to play as Signal Mountain got within seven at 51-44, but the Rams were never threatened as they sank eight of 10 charity tosses in the final two minutes to win going away.
Hinton was the scoring leader for the Rams as he finished with 19 points while teammate Grace was next with a dozen. Solomon Bridgeman was next with nine points while Michael Little and Jeremy Elston both finished with eight.
Wil Allen and Webb topped Signal Mountain’s scoring chart with 11 points each while Honroth had nine and Radden seven.
Tyner also had an unofficial 34-25 edge on the boards as Elston claimed nine and Bridgeman seven for the Rams. Honroth had seven and Radden six for the Eagles.
REGION 3-AA BOYS CHAMPIONSHIP
TYNER 9 17 16 17 -- 59
SIGNAL MOUNTAIN 5 7 14 20 -- 46
TYNER (59) – Bridgeman 9, Grace 12, Craddock 3, Little 8, Elston 8, Bowens, Halfacre, Gladden, Dozier, Hinton 19.
SIGNAL MOUNTAIN (46) – Howley 2, Allen 11, Sylvestro 6, Webb 11, Honroth 9, Radden 7.
3-POINT GOALS: Tyner 6 (Craddock, Little 2, Hinton 3); Signal Mountain 2 (Allen, Webb).
REGION 3-AA ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM: Dominique Oggs, Meechie Oggs (Sweetwater); Lucas Brown, Will Thomas (Red Bank); Jarren Radden, K.T. Webb, Wil Allen (Signal Mountain); Javon Craddock, Solomon Bridgeman and MVP Jeremy Elston (Tyner).
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)