The Cleveland team poses with the Region 3-AAA championship hardware after blistering Warren Co., 73-44. The Blue Raiders will face the loser of tomorrow night's Siegel-Blackman game in the state sectionals. That game will be played at Raider Arena with a 7:00 p.m. tip.
photo by Joseph Dycus
CLEVELAND, Tenn. — Cleveland’s Alex Hyder had a look of equal parts disgust and disbelief as the referee called him for a charge in the third quarter, negating what was a slick finish. Instead of moping, he then went on a personal 6-0 run. He first outfought several Warren County defenders for an offensive rebound, which begat two free throws.
Then he back cut into an open layup.
And then the sophomore used his quick hands to steal the ball from the opposing guard, and used his long legs and even more elastic arms to slalom in for a clean layup. By the end of this sequence, the Cleveland Blue Raiders had all the momentum, and easily went on to win the regional championship 73-44 over the Warren County Pioneers.
“He has grown a huge amount, he’s matured,” 23-point scorer and senior Klay McGowan said. “He used to put his head down if you said something to him. Now he’s just taking it to heart and using it to help his play.”
Senior Grant Hurst began the night with a high-arching floater from the left baseline, but the early stars of the show were Warren County’s Dee Spates and Cleveland’s Judah Sault. Spates equalized the score at 2-2 when he drove left, and then spun right and somehow scooped in a shot around Hurst. He followed up that layup with another one just a few seconds later, and it was obvious he was on a mission to attack Cleveland’s soft middle, at least early on.
Meanwhile, Sault was unbelievable when it came to scoring off the ball. He owned the baseline like he was prime Amar’e Stoudemire, always finding the soft spot in the zone before receiving the ball. He was also active in the open court, scoring one of his layups on the fastbreak when he ran to the rim and forced up a shot through contact for the and-one layup. On the very last play of the quarter, senior Michael Dale drove baseline before dropping a pass off to Sault, who put in two of his seven first-quarter points.
Meanwhile, Warren County began the second quarter in a nightmarish fashion. The driving lanes Spates and Aiden Cummings found so inviting in the first eight minutes were nowhere to be seen. While senior Klay McGowan is better known as a shooting machine (and he did put in nine points in the first half), perhaps his best efforts came on the other side of the ball. He consistently rotated on time, and often used his springy legs to erase shots in mid-air.
“I just felt like when we got the ball out of Spates’ hands, those other guys didn’t want to make plays,” Cleveland coach Reggie Tucker said. “We just felt comfortable making the other guys making plays, because we knew we could let other guys catch it and we could rotate over.”
It wasn’t until half of the quarter had elapsed that Cummings used his superior size to seal off his defender in the post for a layup, thus finally putting the Pioneers on the scoresheet. By then, Hurst had taken over the quarter with his defense and tricky finishes. Hurst put in two after pulling off a dirty hesitation move in the open court to free himself for a shot, and then he used another deke with the ball to get open for another fullcourt layup.
A disgusted Warren County coach called timeout as the score read 21-10. Even though the Pioneers found a way to score thanks to Cummings throwing around his weight inside, triples by McGowan and sophomore Jasen Brooks made the score 29-20 at the half, and team was poised to win the regional title if their great play continued.
Coach Tucker’s boys didn’t just continue to play well—no, they straight up owned the third quarter. After Warren County’s Kaden Rutledge began the half with a layup, the Blue Raiders went on a 15-0 run as they ramped up their already swarming defense to a new level. Sophomore Alex may not get as much hype as Brooks or Sault, but his two-way play was the main reason for this outburst. But it was also a team effort, especially when it came to long-distance shotmaking.
“I was telling Klay “don’t look at me, just shoot it!”” coach Tucker said. “If you hit two or three in a row, why are you looking at me? If you’re open, shoot it.”
Most would associate McGowan with coldblooded daggers, and they wouldn’t be wrong. He hit three high-degree-of-difficulty treys, each from a different location and farther than the last one. He made them off the catch, walking up to the line after breaking the press, and running the wing.
“Those shots just gave my team all the momentum,” McGowan said. “They just used that to fuel our defense, which meant we got more stops and opportunities to shoot it. I just caught it and I knew it was going up.”
But Hurst was also comfortable letting it fly from behind the line. He may have had the craziest shot in a night full of them in the third, when he was the primary target on an inbounds play.
He ran to the right corner, and caught the ball with a defender right in his face. Most players would have looked for an outlet and tried to reset the offense. Not Hurst. Instead of passing out, he turned, aligned himself with the basket, and hurled in a fadeaway 20-footer while falling out of bounds. The raucous Cleveland student section had a front-row view to the amazing shot, and had an equally impressive reaction with someone making a whistling shell-like noise before it made its way into the net.
Michael Dale even got in on the scoring when he buried an off-the-dribble three on the fastbreak, a rare flashy play from the do-everything senior. While he is more well-known for quietly shadowing the other team’s most skilled wing or being the fulcrum in a zone-busting offense at the top of the key, his coach and teammates know those little things lead to big victories.
“He’s just a tough kid and understands his role, and is probably one of the most unselfish kids I’ve ever coached,” coach Tucker said. “I love that kid man. He’s just a phenomenal teammate.”
Meanwhile, Cleveland’s cause wasn’t helped by their star scorer’s inability to stay out of foul trouble. C.J Taylor, who will most-likely be playing for Vanderbilt on the gridiron this autumn, only put in four points and had fouled out in a frustrating night for Warren County’s most explosive player.
“He had four fouls early, so he just didn’t have a chance to get going,” McGowan said. “That helped us out defensively, since we could apply a lot of pressure on the ball and then just ran through the passing lanes.”
The fourth quarter was a bit ragged in terms of gameplay, but Warren County failed to make any sort of headway into the lead. Including some garbage-time heroics by junior Tate O’Bryan, Cleveland effortlessly cruised to the region title, a win celebrated by both fans, parents, and players with equal excitement.
“It feels good,” McGowan said. “It feels real good.”
Cleveland will face the loser of tomorrow's night's Blackman-Siegel contest Monday night for a berth in the state tournament.
SUMMARY
WARREN CO. 10 10 10 14 - 44
CLEVELAND 12 17 24 20 - 73
WARREN CO. (44) - Rutledge 6, Dee Spates 12, Cox 2, Elrod 1, Kuykendall 2, Desmaris 2, Aiden Cummings 11, Taylor 4, Seymour 1, Grayson 3.
CLEVELAND (73) - Dale 4, Brooks 7, Sault 9, Hurst 14, Lambert 2, O’Bryan 6, Hyder 8, Klay McGowan 23.
3-POINT GOALS: Warren County 2 (Spates 2); Cleveland 9 (McGowan 5, O’Bryan, Hurst, Brooks, Dale).
(You can contact the author at Joseph.a.Dycus@gmail.com)