Hixson's Kaden Herman brings the ball up on a fast break.
photo by M.A. Locke
The Hixson Wildcats lived to play basketball for at least one more game.
Facing the Signal Mountain Eagles on the road Wednesday night in a District 6-AAA play-in game, the Wildcats were able to prevail and move on to the next round where they will face the East Ridge Pioneers on the road on Thursday.
Wednesday’s 59-53 victory might not have captured many style points, but that didn’t seem to matter to Hixson coach Lawanza Crutcher.
“This is a new season and we still have one more day to play,” Crutcher said after exiting the Hixson dressing room.
“I thought we played pretty well for three quarters and it was nice that we had a good lead as we knew Signal would make a run at us. We lost our composure a little bit, but were able to regroup and finish the game and I guess that’s what makes me most happy.
“I’m certainly pleased with our effort, but my motto has always been that I would rather win ugly than lose pretty. That was the case tonight,” he concluded with a smile.
The Wildcats got a layup from Kevin Morris following a steal and a 3 from the wing from Kaden Herman for a 5-0 lead and Hixson never trailed.
Ben Timblin scored on a putback as the host Eagles got within four points at 12-8 when the first stanza ended.
A 3 by Chapman Brown gave Hixson its biggest lead of the half at 23-12 with 1:49 left before the Eagles scored the final three points to trail by 25-17 at intermission.
Signal Mountain scored the first five points to start the second half and were down by 25-22 following two free throws by Christopher Kennedy with 5:54 left in the third, but the Wildcats got hot and had a 22-5 run to finish the quarter as the difference was 20 points at 47-27 with one quarter remaining.
The Eagles finally started playing with a little purpose in the final stanza, but they simply waited too long to get started.
A 10-2 run in the first three minutes allowed the Eagles to cut that 20-point lead to a dozen at 49-37 with 4:40 to play and a putback by Blake Wolfard got it to within 55-51 in the final minute, but Morris saved the day for Hixson with steals and back-to-back layups as things were starting to get interesting.
Wolfard scored on another putback at the buzzer to make the final margin six points.
It was a disappointing ending to a disappointing season for Signal Mountain coach Steve Redman and his young Eagles.
“If you don’t come ready to play, you’ll get beat every time. We played hard in the fourth quarter, but you can’t do that and expect to move on. We missed a ton of easy shots and way too many free throws, but we just didn’t play well.
“I really don’t know what to say as we were making the same mistakes tonight that we made at the start of the season. All I know is that I hope we can learn from it,” Redman said after his team’s season ended at 6-20.
Herman finished with 22 points to lead Hixson while Morris was next with 21.
Wolfard scored 14 points to lead Signal Mountain while Luke Matukewicz came off the bench to score 11.
Wolfard grabbed 15 rebounds and Timblin a dozen as Signal Mountain had an unofficial 36-21 edge on the glass. Nisiah Frederick grabbed seven for the Wildcats while Morris snagged six.
SCORING SUMMARY
HIXSON 12 13 22 12 -- 59
SIGNAL MOUNTAIN 8 9 10 26 -- 53
HIXSON (59) – Brown 6, Kevin Morris 21, Frederick 6, Kaden Herman 22, Williams, Guerero 4, Durham.
SIGNAL MOUNTAIN (53) – A. Matukewicz 8, Kennedy 7, Johnson 2, Luke Matukewicz 11, Blake Wolfard 14, Ottley 7, Timblin 4.
3-POINT GOALS: Hixson 7 (Brown, Morris 2, Herman 4); Signal Mountain 1 (A. Matukewicz).
(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)
Waiting for a rebound are Hixson's Nisiah Frederick and Signal Mountain's Andrew Matukewicz and Ben Timblin.
photo by M.A. Locke