High school tourneys near; here's expert lowdown on The Murfreesboro Post

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High school tourneys near; here's expert lowdown

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By: JEFF JORDAN, Special to The Post

Posted: Sunday, February 14, 2010 7:15 am

What do the Blackman freshman boys, McFadden and Siegel Middle girls and the Thurman Francis and Central Middle boys have in common? Answer: they all won their respective county tournaments within the last couple of weeks. Now it’s high school time!

The 7AAA high school basketball tournament gets under way Friday afternoon at La Vergne High at 4.
With Blackman and La Vergne playing this Monday, all the tournament matchups aren’t known yet but let’s take a look at each team and what we do know about the first-round games.

The Riverdale girls won the regular season (20 – 2, 10 – 0) and get the No. 1 seed. They’ll play Saturday at 4 and have a 17-game winning streak. The Lady Warriors present matchup problems for anyone.

They do not have a true center but can play as many as four guards or four forwards at any one time.

Coach Hillary Hodges always has her team prepared; they appear to be as serious and intense as she is, plus they’re strong and can rebound, play good defense and shoot. Jaclissa Haislip and Shacobia Barbee are the strongest players, but, frankly, there are no real weaknesses for this state-ranked team. The journey for Riverdale to erase last year’s bad memories and a possible third trip to Murphy Center begins Saturday.

The La Vergne girls are the No. 2 seed and Coach Keith Dean has a talented team with the most wins (23) in the county. The Lady Wolverines have a tall, vastly improved and still improving center in Stephanie Myers and the league’s leading scorer in Jasmine Dale (18 ppg). The squad is quick, can play defense and the entire lineup can score, but La Vergne often gets off to slow starts, often followed by huge comebacks, but injuries
have been a problem all year. To win this thing, the blue and white better not overlook a second-round matchup and they will have to beat Riverdale. So far, LaVergne’s had no luck vs RHS, losing by 33 and 12.

LaVergne will play Sat. at 7:00. LaVergne has flirted with greatness before. Coach Tim Tackett had them in the Sub-State once and so did Coach John Strickland. Is this the year the Lady Wolverines get to Murphy
Center? The trip, wherever it ends, begins Saturday.

The Blackman girls are a dangerous bunch featuring a true leader in Shelby Campbell, who may have the best jump shot in the county – girl or boy. The Lady Blaze opened the year winning 12 in a row but are barely over .500 since: not a good sign at tournament time. Blackman has lost to LaVergne once (after leading most of the game) and play them again Monday night at Blackman. The Blaze have also lost to RHS twice butremember last year? Blackman lost big to RHS then beat them in the region and advanced to the state tournament.

Coach Chad Hibdon will take a repeat.

The Siegel Lady Stars will likely win at least 17 games. They are well prepared by Coach Alan Bush who
fashioned an 11-game winning streak earlier in the year. Since then a number of close losses have hurt the Stars but they never quit, as Riverdale found out last week while watching a 20-point lead shrink to 7 in only a quarter. If anyone expects to beat the Stars, best to give them your full attention – especially the fine, super fast point guard Chanice Cason. Siegel plays at 4 Friday.

The Smyrna girls, under first-year coach Shawn Middleton, will win at least 15 games but the Lady Dogs have struggled in the district. Just when you think, there’s no way Smyrna will win the district tournament, they lose to Riverdale by 1. That was only a few days ago. I think it’s best not to overlook Smyrna, especially if Katy Williams (16ppg) gets hot.

The good news/bad news about Oakland is they will win at least 10 games this year but 9 of them will be outside the district. The bottom line on Jennifer Grandstaff ‘s squad – great hustle, always prepared, terrific defense – can’t score enough. Better days are ahead at Oakland – trust me.

Prediction: OHS and Smyrna likely will not win this tournament. Either BHS or Siegel could win it with the right matchup and I wouldn’t overlook either. The favorite has got to be Riverdale but if the La Vergne girls areplaying in their own gym in the finals versus Riverdale, or anyone for that matter, I can’t believe La Vergne will
run from that challenge.

The boy’s tournament news is equally confusing.

It took three overtimes for OHS (23-5, 9-1) to beat Siegel a second time and sew up the No. 1 seed. Oakland has
had another great year, this time under new coach Mike Wright, and forward Jamal Hughes has had a terrific season. Hughes averages 24 a game and has scored 659 points on the year and counting; solid team play is another OHS strength. The Pats play at 5:30 Saturday.

Injuries hit the No. 2 seed Siegel Stars hard this season, possibly costing them a district title. Ben Dotson’s squad didn’t quit and has gotten fine play from Cedric Williams and Marc Gooch among others. If Kenny Hammonds can come back at full speed, the Stars will be still tougher to handle. Siegel has a small lineup or a big (really big) lineup and will give anyone trouble. The Stars play Saturday at 8:30.

The La Vergne boys are a nice collection of quick well coached forwards and guards. They can beat anyone but I’m not sure they know it, despite being on the verge of a 20-win season. Michael Couey coaches the Wolverines, and they’re hosting the tournament. It’s probably enough to remember that three weeks ago they beat Oakland. This team is a threat to win the tournament if they continue their excellent defensive pressure, and guard Terrance Dixon has his deadly jumper working. The Wolverines play Friday at 8:30.

There’s no explaining Blackman. Coach Kyle Turnham has his squad playing excellent defense but the Blaze have struggled offensively. In one recent five-game stretch, Blackman beat Smyrna twice, lost to Siegel by 8, lost to seed Oakland by 1 and then beat Riverdale. All of this from a team that does not have a player in the top 10 in scoring, rebounding or steals. They are now officially the team that no one wants to play.

Good news; Lonnie Drayton has the Smyrna boys with double-digit wins and on the comeback trail. The bad news is the trail is long. If the Dogs and senior Josh Woodard can avoid a first-round loss then they can scare someone and advance. It’s best not to overlook the Dogs: they just lost to RHS by 2, lost to BHS by 1 and then beat La Vergne.

Riverdale is one of those teams that struggles in the league but wins big outside it. RHS is 12 – 7 outside the league including five losses by a total of 10 points. Coach Brandon Burks has done a good job with a team that struggles to score but works hard on both ends. Sophomore Vari Craig can be a 6-6 force in the paint for the Warriors. Beware of the Spear!

Who do you like to win this thing? I think it will be La Vergne. Oakland or Siegel but that’s a copout. If you
make me pick just one, I’m going with Siegel with or without Hammonds.

We will have coverage in the POST or online at murfreesboropost.com on almost a daily basis until we know both winners.

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Member Opinions:

By: tennessean on 2/14/10
I'm guessing that Jeff picked Siegel in both of the previous two meetings with Oakland. It's an easy pick to make. If you watch the two teams warm up, it looks like a middle school about to play a college team. I guess someone forgot to tell Oakland that they were overmatched. Good luck to all teams, and we can only hope that the cheerleaders behave. :)