Cleveland guard Isaiah Johnson dribbles around a Blackman defender during Monday night's Class AAA Sectional before a raucous crowd of about 3,000 at Raider Arena. The Blue Raiders won 49-42 and earned their first trip -- fourth overall -- to the state tournament since 2005 next week in Murfreesboro.
photo by Courtesy Richard Roberts/Cleveland Daily-Banner
CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Raider Arena was built for night’s like Monday.
With a partisan crowd of about 3,000 whooping, hollering fans rocking the rafters, Cleveland defeated Blackman, 49-42, in the Class 3A Sectional and earned the school’s first trip to the TSSAA boys’ state basketball tournament since 2005.
"This crowd was absolutely amazing," Cleveland's sophomore guard Kley McGowan said.
With pandemonium surrounding him, Cleveland coach Jason McCowan tried to soak it all in, and it wasn’t easy.
“This is a big weight off my back,” McCowan said. “We finally got over the hump to get to the state tournament and beat such a great team to get there. The last time we played in the sub-state (2011) my dad (Dom McCowan) went into the hospital and never came out. I’ve been thinking about him and my grandfather a lot and wish they could have been here to see this. It’s a real emotional moment.”
The Blue Raiders, winning their 21st consecutive game since a December loss at Oak Ridge on a trip marred by off-the-court problems, became only the fourth team in program history to reach the state tournament.
The 1989 Blue Raiders were the first and the 1996-97 team captured the only championship by beating Brainerd behind a 27-point, 16-rebound effort by Vincent Yarbrough (that eclipsed a 34-point by Brainerd's Harris Walker.) That Blue Raider team finished with a record 33 wins against two losses.
With Monday’s win, this Cleveland team tied the second-best win mark with 29 against four losses. The 1968-69 team also won 29 games after winning the first 27 to start the season. That squad lost to Bradley Central in the district semifinals and fell to Howard in the region title game.
The following year the Blue Raiders had a 20-game winning streak and posted an 18-game streak in 1970-71, said Steve Campbell. who was a senior on that 1971 team. Campbell, now 65 years old, attended Monday’s game.
Another member of the 1968-69 team was Edwin Martin, who is the grandfather of current standout guard JaCobi Wood.
“He has told me some stories about when he played here,” said Wood, who scored a game-high 16 points and spearheaded the fourth-quarter slowdown in which the Blue Raiders saw the team’s 34-21 third-quarter advantage sliced to 36-30 heading into the final period. “I’m really happy about getting to state.”
Elsewhere in Class 3A Sectional action, Cleveland’s fellow District 5-3A contender, suffered a tough 61-59 loss in Murfreesboro despite a 29-point performance by Jamaal Walker, who was playing hurt. The Hurricanes end the season with a 23-10 record.
The Blue Raiders put some distance between themselves and the always-tough Blaze by scoring seven straight points to open the fourth period.
Dustin Bunton, who spent a majority of the season waiting to become eligible after transferring from Walker Valley, started the spree with tip-in following McGowan’s errant 3-point attempt.
Isaiah Johnson, who scored 13 points, addled the Blaze with a long 3 to push the lead to 41-30.
Grant Hurst, held in check with just seven points, came up with a layup for his only second-half points with 6:14 on the clock.
That would be Cleveland’s last field goal.
About 15 seconds after the Hurst shot, Bunton took an inadvertent elbow to the face and went to the sideline while a trainer treated a bloody upper lip.
Blackman’s Jalen Page scored on a layup and the Blaze were within 41-32 with just over five minutes remaining.
McCowan, in his 11th season as the Cleveland coach, ordered the offensive slowdown to continue. The Blue Raiders failed to take any kind of shot – field goal or free throw – until Hurst’s free throw with 1:14 remaining. He missed the front end of a one-and-one.
When Blackman’s Jordan Birchfield knocked down a 3 the Blue Raiders were staring a shrinking 41-35 advantage.
“I think we felt a few nerves right then,” said McGowan, who scored seven points, all in the third period that included a pair of 3s. “We knew if we just stuck to the plan, we could beat them.”
Wood was fouled by Page and calmly sank two free throws and gave the Blue Raiders a 45-35 lead with 64 seconds left.
Burchfield hit a field goal and T.J. Cross added a 3-pointer and the Blaze were within five points at the 37.8-second mark.
Johnson hit one free throw.
Wood connected twice.
Johnson made one with 4.5 seconds left and that was the ballgame.
“They’re a great team and we knew it would be a tough matchup,” Wood said. “They play hard and they’re very athletic. We slowed it down there at the end to run time off and get the win. That’s all we wanted.”
Said McCowan of his late-game strategy, “We had a good enough lead we felt they would have to come out after us. We were going to make them come off their game. This team was built for (the slowdown). When you’ve got JaCobi on your team he can do stuff like that. We missed too many free throws and they got to within five. But we still had more points than they did and that’s all that matters.”
Blackman, which lost to Blackman in the Region 4-3A title game, led only once and it came on Kailon Benton-Hamilton’s 3 from the left corner to start the scoring. The Blaze went about eight minutes without a point until Page dropped in a layup almost two minutes into the second quarter.
Cleveland, as it often does, started out fast and furious and had an 11-3 lead after the first quarter. Wood scored seven points with two 3s and a steal-and-drive layup. His third bucket with 37.3 left in the period, was a strange one.
Wood was headed for a layup and his shot was deflected by a Blackman defender and the ball bounced about 10 feet up off the rim and hit nothing but net on the way down.
The Blaze showed some spunk in the second period after the Blue Raiders’ McGowan swished a 3 out of the left corner. The Blaze’s Page made a layup, Benton-Hamilton connected on one of his three 3-pointers and Page followed suit for a quick 8-2 spurt and trailed 16-11.
Cleveland answered with an 11-3 run – four different players scored – and went into the dressing room with a 27-14 advantage. Johnson ended the scoring spree with one of his two crowd-pleasing dunks.
The Blue Raiders were well on their way toward achieving one of their last two big-time goals for the season – getting to the state tournament at Middle Tennessee State University – the draw for the tourney will be conducted Tuesday at 5 p.m. (CST) on the floor of the Murphy Center on the MTSU campus.
“For sure, we could see us doing this,” Johnson said. “I always knew we had the potential to do great things and one would be getting to state.”
In December, when a scandal at an Oak Ridge hotel rocked the boys’ and girls’ teams, with multiple players from each squad being suspended from two to 10 games and later Blue Raiders star Deonte Ware being dismissed from the team, there were ominous clouds over any preseason goals the team might have set.
Just over two weeks earlier, Cleveland lost its first two district games to East Hamilton, the eventual regular-season champion, and Walker Valley by a combined 24 points.
“We envisioned this, but we went through some real adversity there for a while,” McGowan said. “Everybody was counting us out, but we fought back.”
Wood and Johnson took control of a shaken team that lost only once more – a 62-57 decision at Oak Ridge – the rest of the way.
Now, the hardened Blue Raiders are celebrating something Cleveland basketball hasn’t been able to over a 14-year time span.
“It means everything to us,” Wood said. “This is where we wanted to be, this was a big goal of ours before the season even started. That’s why we’re happy to reach this point.”
Oakland 61, East Hamilton 59: The Hurricanes played in their first state tournament in 2017, losing to eventual champion Memphis East in the quarterfinals. At Oakland, East Hamilton was eliminated in the Sectionals for the second straight season.
Walker, who along with fellow senior Cam Montgomery made up the team’s top one-two punch, poured in his game-high 29 points despite having hip and back problems. He saved his best efforts for the second half when the Hurricanes cut into the Patriots’ 45-37 lead after three quarters. Walker had 10 points in the period.
In the fourth, Walker scored another 10 points that included two 3-pointers.
Montgomery was held to nine points, just two in the second half.
Marcus Long scored six of his 13 points in the final quarter.
Oakland’s Ray Tyler and De’Arre McDonald each scored 19 points and D.D. Anderson had 10 points, 13 rebounds and three blocks.
Scoring Summary
Blackman 3 11 16 12 – 42
Cleveland 11 16 9 13 – 49
Blackman (42) – Harrington, Burchfield 7, Cross 6, Johnson, Cooper, Jalen Page 14, Lark, Stayton 6, Benton-Hamilton 9
Cleveland (49) – Isaiah Johnson 13, Bunton 4, Howard 2, JaCobi Wood 16, Hurst 7, McGowan 7.
3-Point Goals – Blackman 7 (Benton-Hamilton 3, Page 2, Cross 2), Cleveland 5 (McGowan 2, Johnson 1, Wood 1, Hurst 1).
East Hamilton 8 16 13 22 – 59
Oakland 14 17 14 16 -- 61
East Hamilton (59) – Jamaal Walker 29, Montgomery 9, Schramm 2, Marcus Long 13, D. Randolph 4.
Oakland (61) – Ray Tyler 19, De’Arre McDonald 19, Grant 4, D.D. Anderson 8, Jamison 8, Jackson 2.
3-Point Goals – East Hamilton 4 (Walker 2, Montgomery 1, Long 1), Oakland 1 (Tyler 1).
(Contact Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com and on Twitter @larryfleming44)