Upperman's Collin Gore works the ball under pressure Monday night at Tyner. The Bees defeated the homestanding Rams and will advance to the Division I State Tournament next week in Murfreesboro. In the other Class AA game involving a Chattanooga team, Howard went on the road and edged York Institute, 56-55, to advance.
photo by Greg Davick
A trip through the Chattanooga area for a Class AA Sectional has never been the best route to a state basketball tournament berth. In fact, under most circumstances, a loss in the Region 4AA finals comes with a near certain season death sentence attached to the runner-up trophy.
But in a season mostly forgotten from a year ago because of its abrupt end prior to the state tournament being played, Upperman came to town and did something no Region 4AA team had done in 12 years: it won on the road against a Region 3AA champ.
It was perhaps the one bright spot that came from 2020 for a team that won 30 games.
“Winning last year at Howard was tremendous.
That was as big a factor as anything coming into tonight. We played York (Institute) three times in a week and lost the one that counted. Our kids never blinked, though, because of the success we had last year on the road. I know you don’t go on the road down this way and get away with it often, but we were confident we could get it done,” Upperman coach Bobby McWilliams admitted.
And get it done, they did.
Upperman (25-5) punch its ticket to the Class AA state tournament with an impressive 61-50 win against 3AA champ Tyner and did so inside the Rams’ mostly impenetrable fortress. It was Tyner’s first loss at home since 2019 and snapped a 24-game winning streak there.
“I knew when we beat those guys three years ago and they were loaded with freshmen, they were going to be a force. I expected a dog fight tonight, and it was. They’ve got a couple of next level guys, and tonight they had a little more than we did,” said Tyner coach E’Jay Ward.
A trio of freshmen started against Tyner three years ago in the sectional loss, and last night was the 108th win for the senior class. To say they have grown up would be an understatement.
The Bees opened with senior Alex Rush posting low, taking a drop step and jamming it home less than 30 seconds in the game. After a Tyner turnover, Upperman’s A.J. Nash barely touched the bottom of the net with his corner 3 – one of six treys in the first half for the Bees –
and it was obvious the long trip from Baxter was going to be a business one.
Tyner, however, withstood the early punch as it has time and again this year as Malique Hambrick, Keelan Jackson and Keilan Holloway each hit 3s to get the raucous crowd into the game.
“They hit us in the mouth early, and we never really got back in it. I thought we played some really good defense, but they made us play defense for a long time on some possessions and then they hit some contested shots. I thought they did a really good job not forcing anything,” Ward complimented.
The three Bees who stung Tyner the hardest were Rush, guard Collin Gore and Jace McWilliams. In the second quarter, Upperman scored the first seven points to make it 25-15 as Gore had eight in the period and 13 in the first half, hitting all five of his shots. Hambrick hit a couple of treys for the Rams and Trent Gresham got a big steal and layup to close it to 32-25 at the half.
“Our big thing in the first half was we only allowed them three offensive rebounds, and that was big. If we were going to have a chance to win, we had to limit them on the boards because they can kill you there,” Upperman’s McWilliams said.
The Rams managed to whittle it down to 41-36 heading into the final period with a strong defensive quarter, but every time it looked as if the patented Tyner hammer was about to fall, Upperman responded, matching the Rams blow for blow.
Upperman jumped out again in the fourth with three straight possessions in which Rush got fed down in the low post and delivered each time. Tyner stayed in it till the end, but the Bees missed just two shots in the final period and wound up getting the rebounds on both of them.
“I knew they would be ready and they were. We just couldn’t get it over the hump; the sense of urgency just wasn’t there in spots. Sometimes things just don’t go your way. The guys are hurting right now but nothing in life is easy, and we will watch this film and the expectations will be big next year,” Ward said.
Tyner got within 56-50 and got a turnover right at 1:00 mark, but a careless turnover on the inbounds pass led to an easy Upperman layup that sealed the deal.
“We told the team we had to take care of the ball, we had to rebound it and we had to win the 50-50 balls, and we did,” said McWilliams of their fourth quarter play.
The Bees shot an astounding 63 percent from the floor (22 of 35) and hit a 59 percent clip from behind the arc (7-of-12). Tyner hit just 38 percent for the game, but the biggest part of that was missing 16 fourth quarter shots.
Holloway gave Tyner its biggest spark of the night, scoring 15 points, but more importantly, limited Gore in the second half. Hambrick finished with 12, all on 3-pointers, but no other Rams made double figures.
Gore was just exceptional all the way around, leading all scorers with his 22, while Rush had double figures in rebounds, scored 14 and altered several Tyner shots in the lane. McWilliams had a typical coach’s son game, doing all the small things right, always being in the right place at the right time, and finished with 13 on the night.
SUMMARY
UPPERMAN 18 14 9 20 – 61
TYNER 15 10 11 14 – 50
UPPERMAN (61) – Collin Gore 22, Nash 8, Fox 4, Grissom, Allen, Alex Rush 14, Jace McWilliams 13.
TYNER (50) – Malique Hambrick 12, Gresham 6, Dillard 6, Ross, Jackson 6, Bloodsaw, Conyers 3, A.Sims 2, Holloway 15.
3-0POINT GOALS: Upperman 7 (Gore 4, Nash 2, McWilliams); Tyner 8 (Hambrick 4, Jackson 2, Holloway 2),
Records: Tyner (20-3), Upperman (25-5)
(Contact James Beach at 1134james@gmail.com)