| Region boys: Siegel wins thriller; injured Oakland falls |
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By: JEFF JORDAN, Special to The Post
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Posted: Wednesday, March 3, 2010 12:54 am
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As “they” say, survive and advance, and the Siegel boys (22-8) did just that beating Lawrence County (23 – 5), 68–67, in overtime Tuesday night.
With the win Siegel advances to the Region finals scheduled at Shelbyville Thursday night at 7:00 vs Columbia (19 – 11). Siegel will also play a sectional game on Monday either at home or, if the Stars lose to Columbia, the Stars will be somewhere on the road versus a Region 3 opponent.
The only thing remotely pretty about the Lawrence County game was that it was a victory. Siegel easily won the battle of the boards but committed 17 turnovers, Lawrence County had 12,
For some unknown reason, Siegel appeared listless for large portions of the game. After falling behind by six at the first quarter break, Siegel put together a good second quarter (18 points) and a great third quarter (21) and managed a nine-point lead. Lawrence County managed to come back and tie it at 53 – 53 with four minutes left. It was tied at the final horn 59 – 59.
As most sportswriters know, to have a good story it helps to have a goat and a hero. In this game it’s the same person!
Marc Gooch was a hero with 19 points but missed a very important free throw with just a few seconds left that would have given Siegel a three-point lead.
He becomes the goat if Siegel loses so Marc makes sure it doesn’t happen. In the overtime, Gooch switches roles again and, by scoring six overtime points, including the game winner, and pulling down the game’s most important rebound on a missed Siegel free throw, Marc Gooch becomes our hero.
He’s not the only one. Kerry Hammonds is definitely not in full basketball shape but he is also definitely not the scoreless player that we saw vs Shelbyville just a few days ago. On this night, Hammonds, an MTSU signee, had 22 to lead all scorers. Siegel really needed both players because Cedric Williams fouled out late in the fourth quarter.
In this game, both teams shot 26 of 64 (41 percent) from the floor.
Lawrence County was led by Trent Garland with 19.
The second game of the evening was a disappointing 74-70 Oakland loss to a fired up and much improved Columbia Lion team (19–11).
OHS ended their excellent season at 26-5 under first-year coach Mike Wright and one victory short of the sectional.
Coach Wright is not big on excuses but he doesn’t need to be. He’s got me. Injuries had a lot to do with this loss.
Guard Christian Adams turned an ankle in the first quarter and, although he came back in later, he could barely walk in the fourth quarter. Guard Darius Rhodes hurt his already damaged knee in the second quarter and never returned.
Despite the injuries OHS had some chances and tried to ride their superstar Jamal Hughes to the win. Hughes, who had one of the best years and careers in recent memory, finished with 33, with 14 coming in the third quarter alone. Kody Brown had another good night with 20, 10 in each half.
It was very difficult for OHS to overcome the early Columbia lead but the Pats had a fine third quarter and even took a brief 1 point lead in the fourth quarter but in seconds it was gone and with it, the game.
Scheduling note: The TSSAA, for the first time ever, gave the Regions the right to change the locations of their games if it saved a great deal of travel for teams and fans.
On the surface this makes sense. If we had a 7AAA sweep on the first night in girls, the rest of the girl’s games would be played at the highest seed, in this case Riverdale. We didn’t get the sweep so it’s back to Shelbyville but it didn’t stop the talk. Why should Riverdale and Blackman travel to Shelbyville to play? That’s an easy one: because the rules say so.
As I understand it MTCS has that problem right now.
The Lady Cougars are supposed to meet Moore County in East Robertson Wed. night. This is under discussion as I understand it.
Common sense solution, move that game to a neutral sight, say Coffee County or Oakland. More common sense; do this ahead of time not the day before.
There’s a lot more to this and it could work but I think the first step is the TSSAA has got to learn to think, discuss and look at options before just throwing it out there.
For heavens sake ask somebody who knows something!
Remember the new, improved football districts. How’s that coming by the way? It was only going to take a meeting or two to fix that mess.
To bring up another point, why should Siegel, Blackman and La Vergne do their best and win the first round and then as their reward, find themselves at Riverdale? If we had gotten the sweep, the next round should have been at OHS or Smyrna, both neutral sites,
One more point: Why ask Shelbyville to host, get a tournament director, hire gate keepers, security, clean up and game workers and stock the concession stand and then more the tournament without Shelbyville ever hosting a game except the one game their girls won? If you were a Principal or an AD, would you do that?
Under the heading of “Just trying to help” comes this item. The boy’s games scheduled for Tuesday night at Warren County were postponed due to snow and will be played
Wednesday night at the same site. These games were Cumberland County vs Ooltewah and McMinn Co. vs Cleveland.
The girl’s Championship game between Cleveland and Walker Valley scheduled for Wednesday night at Warren County will be played at a neutral site somewhere in the Chattanooga / Bradley County area. Just drive around until you find it.
As we were leaving Shelbyville on Tuesday, the PA man said – “Blackman girls vs Riverdale girls Wednesday night at 7:00 for the Region 4 Championship." I’ll see you there.
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