Lookout Valley Knocks Off CSAS For 4-A Boys Title

Monday, February 24 will be a day worth remembering for the Lookout Valley boys basketball team and their faithful followers.

The Yellow Jackets entered District 4-A as the second seed behind CSAS, although these two teams split regular season games by winning on the other team’s home court.  The Patriots won by 16 at Lookout Valley while the Yellow Jackets prevailed by 13 at CSAS, thus giving the top seed to the Patriots.

It didn’t seem to matter as CSAS hosted the boys consolation and championship games on Monday night as Lookout Valley won there again, this time by a much closer 38-35 final.

The Sale Creek Panthers had an amazing comeback to beat Tellico Plains by a 47-44 final in the first game.

LOOKOUT VALLEY 38, CSAS 35: It was all Lookout Valley in the first half as the Yellow Jackets built a comfortable 10-point lead by intermission, but things got interesting in the final two quarters.

The third quarter belonged to the Patriots as they had an 11-2 scoring advantage in that eight-minute span. 

Jacobi Dixon sank two free throws with 5:13 for Lookout Valley’s only points, giving the visitors a 27-18 lead at that point.  The Patriots then scored the final eight points to get within one at 27-26 with one quarter remaining.

It would have been easy for the Yellow Jackets to just toss in the white towel and surrender, but they did anything but as they got back on track to pull out the win.

Jarius Cameron scored on a drive down the lane with 3:25 to play to give CSAS a 35-32 lead, but Lookout Valley finished the game on a 6-0 run, including four straight points from Jaylen Bates and two key free throws from senior Allen Ray with 14.6 seconds left to give his team a three-point lead.

There was still more than enough time at that point, but Ray stepped to the line and calmly swished both shots to give his team a little breathing room. Those were the only points the 17-year-old senior scored for the game, but none were any bigger.

CSAS had three shots in the final six seconds, but none would fall as the Patriots had to settle for second in this tournament for the second-straight year.

“I shoot a lot of free throws in practice and have hit about 80 percent for the season, so I felt perfectly normal there at the end.  It feels great to win this tournament as it’s been a while since we did,” Ray said after being named the tournament MVP.

“We had won in this gym earlier in the season, so we weren’t nervous when we started,” said Lookout Valley coach Mike Morton after his team had improved to 19-8 overall.

“Take the third quarter away and we played pretty well, but CSAS played great defense and kept us from scoring.  We got some great looks, but the shots just wouldn’t fall.

“We were trying to run plays there at the end and we finally got one to work, but we weren’t patient in the second half.  Our intent was to go inside all game.  We don’t get many opportunities to celebrate like this at Lookout Valley so we’ll enjoy this one for a little while before we start preparing for Saturday,” Morton said in reference to his team hosting a play-in game in the region tournament.

“We were just too young and our inexperience cost us tonight,” said CSAS coach Mark Dragoo, who has been the leader for the Patriots for the past 31 years and was honored earlier in the season when the school named the court after him.

“The mistakes we made were from a lack of experience as Jordan Morris was the only one who played in this tournament last year.  I thought we played fine in the second half, but the first half was terrible.  You can’t score 15 points in the first half and expect to win games like this.

“Freshman Justin Brown had a good look on the last shot, but it just didn’t go in.  I’m confident he’ll make that shot in the future,” Dragoo added.

Bates scored 14 points and was the only Lookout Valley player in double figures.  Dixon was next with nine.  Both teams unofficially had 20 rebounds with Bates grabbing nine and Dixon five.

Morris scored 13 points to lead CSAS, including 11 in the second half.  Louis Bell and Jerome Foster both finished with six.  Foster and Morris led the CSAS rebounders with six and five, respectively.

The Patriots are now 13-11 for the season and will also host a first-round region game on Saturday.

SALE CREEK 47, TELLICO PLAINS 44: Jackson Greer sank a 3 on Sale Creek’s first possession, but the Bears got untracked and had an 18-12 lead at the first break.

The Bears maintained the upper hand for the rest of the half and had a 32-23 lead at the break.

Tellico’s biggest lead came at 40-25 late in the third stanza, but that’s when Sale Creek made its move.

The Panthers ended the quarter on an 8-2 run and trailed 42-33 with one quarter remaining.

That run continued for the rest of the game at Sale Creek outscored the Bears by 14-2 in the final quarter.

Hunter Loomis sank a 3 from the wing with 4:02 left in the game to give Sale Creek a 45-44 lead.  Korbyn Brown sank two of three free throws in the final 17 seconds to give the Panthers a little breathing room.

With Sale Creek’s lead at 46-44, Major Carter had a chance to tie the game with 3.7 seconds left, but missed both free throws.  Brown got the rebound, was fouled and sank the first for the final three-point margin of victory.

Sale Creek improves to 8-19 with two wins in its past three games after not winning a single district game during the regular season.

Greer scored 19 points to lead Sale Creek while Brown followed with 10 and Loomis nine.

Dale Rinehart scored 14 points to lead Tellico Plains while Evan Harris had 13 and Kobe Walker and Carter eight apiece.

Greer and Brown were both named to the All-Tournament team.  The four from CSAS included Ethan Brown, Louis Bell Jerome Foster and Morris.  Lookout Valley’s representatives included Ryan Barber, Chris Dixon, Barber and MVP Ray.

CONSOLATION SUMMARY

SALE CREEK          12   11    10    14  --  47

(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)