East Hamilton's Cam Montgomery (2) heads baseline against a Memphis East defender. Despite Montgomery's 15 points, the Hurricanes were given a quick exit by the defending champion Mustangs, 76-56.
photo by Dennis Norwood
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – The East Hamilton Hurricanes enjoyed one of their best basketball seasons ever as they knocked off Blackman in the sectional round for a berth in the TSSAA state tournament.
Their reward for earning their first trip to Murfreesboro was a date with the best team in the state, defending AAA champ Memphis East.
Things didn’t exactly turn out like the ‘Canes had planned as a 22-6 deficit at the end of the first quarter led to a 76-56 defeat as the Mustangs improved to 34-3 with their 16th straight win.
Memphis East is ranked third nationally and have not lost to a Tennessee team this year. The Mustangs were hoping to play in a national tournament after the state tournament, but that request was denied.
Needless to say, the Mustangs played like the best team in the state as they rolled to victory in the opening round of the state tournament here at MTSU’s Murphy Center Wednesday afternoon.
The final margin was only 20 points, but it could have been much worse as the lead was as much as 35 points several times near the end of the third quarter and during the fourth.
“I think we came here today with a chip on our shoulder, wanting to show we belonged in that tournament, but we were ready to roll and played well from the start,” said Mustangs’ coach Robert Jackson.
“We’re comfortable here in this environment with the bright lights and lots of media attention, but I thought we had a great approach to this game. Any team that gets here is pretty good, but we hang our hat on defense and that was the key to a great start for us today.
“Our defensive pressure early allowed us to get some really good looks and we responded by making some big shots, but we were ready to play as we tried to put that earlier decision behind us,” Jackson added.
The Hurricanes missed their first five shots as the Mustangs got off to a 4-0 lead in the opening minute of the game.
Davae Hughley scored on a short bank shot and added a putback 30 seconds later as East Hamilton trailed by just 6-4 with 5:19 left in the opening stanza.
The Mustangs then scored the next 14 points and 16 of the last 18 for a 22-6 lead when the first quarter ended.
East Hamilton finished the quarter by hitting two of 16 from the field and it didn’t get much better in the second stanza as the Hurricanes were good on 17 percent of their shots after hitting just five of 29 shots overall.
The Mustangs’ 44-20 lead at intermission was indicative of East Hamilton’s shooting woes as Memphis East also had a 32-16 rebounding edge in that opening 16 minutes.
Despite a lopsided loss that ended East Hamilton’s season at 25-11, coach Rodney English was proud of the effort his kids put forth and he’s hoping that this is the first of many trips his teams will make to this venue in the years to come.
“I thought we were ready to play, but those guys are really big and really good,” English began his post-game comments concerning the game just played.
“We obviously didn’t shoot the ball very well, but their length and overall athleticism had a lot to do with that. Missing nine of 18 free throws in that first half also didn’t help.
“We were expecting a fast start like Memphis East got and we knew that we had to survive that opening three minutes. We just couldn’t make any shots, but I’m proud of my guys as they never backed down and never quit competing.
“This has been an awesome experience for us as this is where we want to be when the season ends. No question we need to play more teams like this next season to get ready for this, but I felt like we got better as the season progressed. And this game will not ruin what I felt like was an outstanding season by our team,” English concluded.
Chandler Lawson scored 17 points to lead a trio of Mustangs in double figures. Malcolm Dandridge was next with a dozen points.
Alex Lomax, who was recently named the Class AAA Mr. Basketball for 2017, finished with 11 points, four assists and three steals.
Cameron Montgomery scored 15 points, including a dozen in the second half, to lead the Hurricanes.
Hughley was next with 11.
The Mustangs ended the game with a 46-42 rebounding edge after doubling the Hurricanes in the first half. Lawson had a dozen to lead his team while Hughley had 11 for East Hamilton.
Shooting wise, Memphis East finished the game by hitting 31 of 64 shots from the field for 48 percnet while East Hamilton was just 14 of 55 for 25.5 percent.
MEMPHIS EAST 22 22 22 10 -- 76
EAST HAMILTON 6 14 14 22 -- 56
MEMPHIS EAST (76) – Moss 9, Lomax 11, Lawson 17, Hardaway 6, Dandridge 12, N. Merriweather 2, De Jesus-Castro 2, Collum 4, Washington 4, D. Merriweather 5, Cathey, Harwell 2, Wrister 2.
EAST HAMILTON (56) – Wilson 9, Montgomery 15, Hughley 11, Fager 5, Wingard 2, A. Williams, Pasley 6, Randolph 3, Dozier 5, Hodges, E. Williams, Hammett.
3-POINT GOALS: Memphis East 1-13 (D. Merriweather); East Hamilton 3-17 (Wilson, Fager, Pasley).
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)
Noah Fager goes skyward for a East Hamilton layup.
photo by Dennis Norwood