Northwest's 22-year district title drought is over

Northwest High alum Marques Maybin is a legend among Clarksville high school athletics. He led the 1996 Vikings team to a Class 3A state tournament berth. But that team fell short of a district championship.

It had been 22 years since the Vikings program had experienced a district tournament title. After Wednesday night, you'd have to place the emphasis on the word "had".

Northwest came ready to compete and it did so at a high level, knocking off defending district champion Springfield, 61-53, beating the Yellow Jackets for the second time in three meetings this season to capture the program's first tournament title in more than two decades.

"These kids, this community deserves it," Northwest coach Vincent Turner said. "The kids have worked so hard and not many people believed they could do this. But our team, our coaches, this Northwest administration has believed and they encourage our kids everyday and they hug our kids after every game win or lose. They care and our kids care and they played a tough game against one of the toughest teams in the state in Springfield."

Now Northwest (20-6) turns its attention to Beech who it'll face at 7 p.m. Saturday at Willard Ross Memorial Gym.

"I'm going to let them enjoy this for about an hour," Turner joked. "Then we'll get game film and get ready to back at it."

Turner has guided Northwest to the previous two region tournaments, losing to Station Camp in the first round last year and falling to Mt. Juliet two years ago in the region semifinal. But the Vikings come into Saturday's game winners of 17 of their last 18 games. It's only hiccup was a 57-48 loss to Springfield on the road two weeks ago.

Beech (17-14) has struggled at time this season and has won only two of its last five games. The Bucs come into Saturday's game on a two-game slide.

Northwest knows that if it want to advance deep into the postseason, it'll have to cut down on the 16 turnovers it had Wednesday against Springfield. The Yellow Jackets' press often caused uncharacteristic miscues from Northwest.

But the Vikings got 25 points from Shatar McClay and 23 from Tariq Silver.

"We feel like we have three of the best athletes in the district in Shatar, Tariq and Dezman (Stacker). When we can space the floor, it's hard to guard any one of those guys one-on-one."

All three Vikings players were named to the All District and All Tournament team.

In the boys' consolation game earlier Wednesday, Northeast broke away from Kenwood to claim a 64-49 victory and take third place overall in the district tournament.

The Eagles will go on the road Saturday to face Station Camp while Kenwood will go to Lebanon Saturday in the region tournament. Both games will be at 7 p.m.

Reach Prep writer George Robinson at georgerobinson@theleafchronicle.com or (931) 245-0747 and on Twitter @Cville_Sports. 

ALL DISTRICT TEAM

Northwest: Shatar McClay, Tariq Silver, Dezman Stacker.

Clarksville High: Teal Young, Nathan Keener.

Northeast: Jaylon Tharpe, Jontae Brown.

Rossview: Logan Miller, Will Midlick.

West Creek: Tairell Fletcher.

Kenwood: Tyree Boykin.