JEFF JORDAN, Special to The Post
Posted: Wednesday, February 24, 2010 12:26 am

The Oakland boys (25-5) are basketball champions of District 7AAA, beating the Siegel boys (19-8), 52-43 Tuesday night in front of a huge crowd at La Vergne.

After leading by one at the half, Siegel scored only two points during the first four minutes of the third quarter while Oakland tallied nine. That was enough as OHS held for the win.

Siegel opened the game with an effective and rarely used 1-3-1 zone and took an early lead as a result, but the Patriots caught up quickly.

After Oakland star Jamal Hughes scored two baskets for Oakland, Siegel countered with a box and one defense that appeared to also be effective as Hughes was held to seven points in the first half.

When Siegel went cold after halftime, Hughes heated up with seven more points in the third quarter. Oakland won the quarter 13 – 4 and never looked back despite two Siegel runs.

At one point Oakland led by 12. Hughes finished with a team and game high 20 and a tournament total of 39 in two games. He’s almost at 700 points for the year.

Both teams made too many turnovers but they were almost even and were not a factor.

When Hughes wasn’t scoring, Kody Brown (13 points) and Christian Adams (9 points) were. Buddy Mitchell’s 4 free throws were crucial for the Patriots down the stretch and so was the large, vocal Oakland cheering section.

It was a terrific tournament championship for the Pats, who barely beat Siegel for the regular season title. It took an Oakland win in three overtimes to decide the regular season championship.

Meanwhile, Siegel had its moments on Tuesday but simply fell too far behind. Future star Cedric Williams had a team high 14 points but Siegel’s “stars” Kerry Hammonds (8 points) and Marc Gooch (7 points) finished far below their averages.

Oakland’s team defense likely contributed to this. In defense of Hammonds, he was clearly winded near the end which is characteristic of a player who has missed most of the year due to injury. Nobody asked but there are better days ahead for the Stars who don’t play until Saturday and will have Siegel Nation cheering them on at home.

The loss did not hurt Siegel much; they still host the third-place team from District 8AAA (Shelbyville) in a region match up at 7 on Saturday. This gives them almost four days to prepare and also to rest. Oakland, with the win, also hosts at 7:00 Saturday and the Patriots take on the fourth-place team from 8AAA, the Franklin County Rebels.

In the third place game, Riverdale (17-16) edged out the Smyrna Bulldogs (12-19) by a score of 44–40.

After trailing by six at the half, Riverdale simply went out and took control of the game. The Warriors won the rebound battle, made fewer turnovers and out shot Smyrna 43% to 34% and won the second half 25-15.

At the end, two free throws by D.J.Smith and a tip in by Vari Craig were enough to put the Warriors over the top. For Riverdale,

Vari Craig and Travaris Clarke both had 16 points, and both players had terrific tournaments as Clarke had 51 points and Craig had 49.

Smyrna was led by Josh Woodard with 13 points and Josh also had 40 points in the 3 games. Parrish Gaines had 8 and P.J. Whitaker had 7.

Smyrna’s not dead yet: The Dogs travel to Lawrence County on Saturday night at 7 while Riverdale goes to Columbia on the same night.

Riverdale has a good chance to win as the Warriors beat Columbia 69–55 in the first game of the year – but that was a long time ago and the game was at Riverdale. Due to the snow, Smyrna’s only game with Lawrence County was cancelled so we really have nothing to go on.

Your all regular season team was made up of T.J Chesterfield and Vari Craig from Riverdale, Smyrna’s Josh Woodard, Siegel’s Marc Gooch and Cedric Williams, Oakland’s Christian Adams and Will Walker, Blackman’s DeShawn Smith and LaVergne’s Julian Reese and Terrence Dixon.

Your All Tournament Team members were Travaris Clark from Riverdale, Kerry Hammonds and Cedric Williams from Siegel, Smyrna’s Josh Woodard and Oakland’s Kody Brown and Christian Adams.

What a night for Jamal Hughes of Oakland – he made both all star teams and was MVP of each! Is some university out there paying attention?

Coach of the Year – Mike Wright of Oakland. I think an Oakland coach has won this before.

Some tournament impressions: LaVergne High School did a “5 star” job of hosting – congrats to LaVergne AD Gary Miller and all the staff.

It was a great tournament with 5 games decided by 4 or less and an overtime.

The biggest upset? The Riverdale boys beating LaVergne.

Of the teams still playing, which loss hurt a team the most? That’s easy. The La Vergne girls being upset by Blackman. That put LaVergne on the road at very tough Lawrence County and should they win their likely opponent is Riverdale. This would have to mean that this Blackman victory was the most meaningful win. It put Blackman in the finals and they now play at home in the region with no Riverdale or LaVergne in sight until the finals if they can get there.

What team overachieved? That’s easy too, the 6th place Riverdale boys who upset host La Vergne and won by 11, then lost to powerful Siegel by 2 and then beat Smyrna by 4. They played hard all 12 quarters.

The other 4 girl’s teams besides our four in the region are Shelbyville, Lawrence County, Columbia and Lincoln County. The other eight girl’s teams still alive from Region 3 are # 1’s Cleveland and Cookeville, #2’s Walker Valley and White County, #3’s Bradley Central and Cumberland and #4’s Coffee County and Soddy Daisy.

Only two from each region can advance. I’ll go with Cleveland and Walker Valley. If you remember, Blackman beat Walker Valley last year on the way to Murphy Center.

In the girl’s matchups this Friday, I think Riverdale is clearly better than Columbia (sorry Hillary), if La Vergne is serious in preparing this week, then they are at least a tiny favorite to beat Lawrence County. If Shelbyville brings it all, they are a slight favorite to beat Siegel, and Blackman had better do the same if they expect to win over the Falcons of Lincoln County. Let’s get a Rutherford County sweep and play the rest of the tournament at Oakland. That could happen – the rules allow for this.

See you at a region game.