Brainerd, Central Boys Advance To Region 3-AA Hoop Finals

Panthers Eliminate Hixson; Pounders Slide Past Red Bank In Semifinals

  • Saturday, February 28, 2015
  • John Hunt
Brainerd's Kentrell Evans gets a finger roll as he lays in two of his 33 points against Hixson in the first Region 3-AA semifinal contest of the day, played in the Loudon High School gymnasium. Evans led the Panthers to an 81-65 victory over Hixson's Wildcats. Brainerd now faces Central, 71-58 victors over Red Bank in the second semi of the day.  The region championship will be played Monday night at a yet to be determined location.
Brainerd's Kentrell Evans gets a finger roll as he lays in two of his 33 points against Hixson in the first Region 3-AA semifinal contest of the day, played in the Loudon High School gymnasium. Evans led the Panthers to an 81-65 victory over Hixson's Wildcats. Brainerd now faces Central, 71-58 victors over Red Bank in the second semi of the day. The region championship will be played Monday night at a yet to be determined location.
photo by Dennis Norwood

LOUDON, Tenn. -- Brainerd won both regular-season matchups while Central won at the Best of Preps third-place consolation game before capturing the District 6-AA title last week at Red Bank.

The season tally is now two wins each against each other and now they are ready for Round 5 following the Region 3-AA semifinals here at Loudon High School Saturday afternoon.

Brainerd overcame a one-point halftime deficit to defeat Hixson by an 81-65 final while Central outlasted Red Bank by a 71-58 final in the second game.

These two teams will meet for the Region 3-AA championship on Monday and hopefully, it will be somewhere other than Loudon.

BRAINERD 81, HIXSON 65: The Wildcats may be the most improved team in District 6-AA as they really came on strong at the end of the season.

Hixson had a precarious one-point lead at the half before Brainerd came storming back in the third quarter to settle the issue as the Panthers prevailed over the Wildcats for the third-straight time this season.

Brainerd went through the district schedule with 12 straight wins and the Panthers have played wellf or most of the season as they improved to 22-6 with Saturday's win.

If you really want to know the difference in this point, just take a quick look at the slender fellow wearing the jersey with number 10 on it.  He's a sophomore point guard for the Panthers named Kentrell Evans.  This is his first year to start, but he plays like a seasoned veteran and that was surely the case in his latest game.

He set the tone for Brainerd's offense as he dished and dashed and dazzled for 33 points as he scored 15 in the first half before adding 18 more in the final 16 minutes.

When the Panthers needed a big play on the offensive end, he was the man with the plan.

"I just tried to have fun out there, but I felt like our defense in the second half was the difference," Evans said in a modest tone following the game.

"We just executed our game plan and I felt comfortable being the leader of the team," he added.

Brainerd coach Lavar Brown was just happy that he was wearing a Brainerd uniform.

"I thought we had a horrible first half, but we just had to use our height advantage.  I just told my guys to give it to Kentrell and get out of the way, but we have lofty goals and we're not finished yet.  We had quite a heart-to-heart talk at the half and I think they may have listened," the coach smiled.

 Evans scored on a drive down the lane as the clock ticked down to zero to give Brainerd a 17-15 lead when the first quarter ended.

Evans scored again on a putback of his own miss and was fouled with 2:35 to play in the second quarter.  He converted the three-point play to give the Panthers a 36-31 lead before two free throws by Braven Morton, another charity toss by Chandler Abbott and a 3-point bank shot from the key by Keyshawn Bradley at the buzzer allowed Hixson to take a 37-36 lead into the dressing room at halftime.

That's when Brown had his conversation that greatly affected his team's play in the second half.

Abbott scored on a jumper in the lane to start the second half for a 39-36 Hixson lead before the Panthers scored 19 of the next 22 points for a 55-42 lead following a putback by Marques Tipton with 1:37 left in the quarter.

The difference was 58-46 when the third stanza concluded.  The Wildcats got within six points following a layup by Abbott with 3:40 to play, but Brainerd sank 10 of 11 free throws in the final 2:41 to win going away.

"I thought we played tough, but they've been in this situation before and it showed," said Hixson first-year coach Lawanza Crutcher, whose team finishes with a 16-18 record.

"They took advantage of the third quarter as we just didn't box out very well and we missed too many easy shots.  That gave them their momentum back and allowed them to regain their confidence, but they were undefeated in district play for a reason," Crutcher added.

While Evans was tops for everyone with his 33 points, teammates Tipton and Da'V Moore were also in double figures with 15 and 14 points, respectively.

Abbott had 16 points to lead Hixson while Bradley was next with 15.  William Nelson was also in double figures with 10.

Brainerd had an unofficial 40-24 advantage on the boards with Moore grabbing 16 and Tipton six.  Tavarus Weaver was tops for Hixson with 10 caroms.

CENTRAL 71, RED BANK 58: Coach Rick Rogers had been walking around like a cat on a hot tin roof in recent days as he just had a feeling that his team would be playing the Lions in the region semis.

But on a day when the veteran Central coach celebrated his 47th birthday, the Pounders were ready for the challenge, prevailing by 13 points as they improved to 20-4 overall.

"I'm just glad that we lived to play another day.  I've been worried about this game since the middle of January and it's the biggest hurdle we've cleared yet," Rogers said as he exited the Purple Pounder dressing room at the start of the Sequoyah-McMinn Central girls game for the region championship.

"The good news is that the next game won't be do or die like these last few, but everybody contributed today.  We got off to a good start defensively and that was a key factor in us getting out to a nice lead early, but we had a definite height advantage and I told my guys that we didn't need to be shooting 3s to win.

"It's been a long road for us to reach this point and I felt like we did a pretty good job against an improved Red Bank team," the coach added.

 The Pounders raced to a 15-3 lead in the first three and a half minutes and the Lions played chase the rest of the game.

Central's lead was 21-13 when the first quarter ended and the difference was 32-26 at intermission.

Red Bank had a tough time penetrating Central's defense, but the Lions took advantage of their outside shooting as half of their 10 field goals in the opening half were from beyond the arc.

Five straight points from Will Davis allowed Red Bank to get within one point at the start of the second half, but Central reeled off eight straight points and the difference was never closer than five.

"We had a heckuva ride as we've improved greatly this season," said Red Bank first-year coach Nick Fite after his team's season had ended at 16-17.

"I feel like we put Red Bank back on the basketball map, but we just beat ourselves with missed layups and free throws.  That's been our biggest problem all season.  We don't have a lot of depth and that hurts in a game like this, but we're working to change that.

"That's a very solemn locker room right now," he added.

Tre Tiller, one of three seniors on Central's roster, scored 20 points to lead the Purple Pounders while Ryan Montgomery and Terron Hayes followed with 18 and 16 points, respectively.

Jamichael Poole and Brian Billingsley also played well to finish with nine and eight points, respectively.

Kolbi Suttles, Will Davis and Malik McConnell all scored 11 points to lead Red Bank while Malik Davis was close with 10.

Tradayal Autry finished with nine.

Central won the rebound battle by a 33-27 margin.  Poole had eight and Montgomery seven to lead Central while Tiller, Billingsley and Hayes each grabbed five.  Malik Davis had a dozen rebounds for Red Bank.

REGION 3-AA BOYS SEMIFINAL SUMMARIES

HIXSON  15  22  9  19  --  65

BRAINERD  17  19  22  23  --  81

HIXSON (65) -- J. Alameda 6, Nelson 10, Abbott 16, Weaver 4, Morton 14, L. Alameda, Bradley 15, Lounds.

BRAINERD (81) -- Sow 5, Ross 4, Tipton 15, Evans 33, Melvin 3, Cothran, Herman, Walker 4, Moore 14, Beavers 3.

3-POINT GOALS: Hixson 7 (J. Alameda 2, Abbott, Morton 2, Bradley 2); Brainerd 5 (Sow, Evans 2, Melvin, Beavers).

RED BANK  13  13  15  17  --   58

CENTRAL  21  11  17  22  --  71

RED BANK (58) -- Suttles 11, M. Davis 10, W. Davis 11, McConnell 11, Autry 9, J. Davis 6, McGahee.

CENTRAL (71) -- Tiller 20, Billingsley 8, Hayes 16, Montgomery 18, Benford, Poole 9, Swafford, Lane, Hudgins.

3-POINT GOALS: Red Bank 7 (Suttles 2, W. Davis 2, McConnell 3); Central 3 (Tiller, Hayes 2).

(email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@Comcast.net)

Central High School's Tre Tiller leaps for a layup and two of his game high 20 points in the Pounders 71-58 win over Red Bank in a Region 3-AA semifinal contest on Saturday in Loudon, Tenn.
Central High School's Tre Tiller leaps for a layup and two of his game high 20 points in the Pounders 71-58 win over Red Bank in a Region 3-AA semifinal contest on Saturday in Loudon, Tenn.
photo by Dennis Norwood
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