Southwind advances to AAA title game

MURFREESBORO — Good shooting is contagious. And everyone from Southwind had the fever Friday.

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Led by 27 points from Tennessee-Martin signee Carlos Marshall, the Jaguars advanced to the TSSAA BlueCross AAA state title game for the second time in school history with an impressive 83-71 victory over Independence at the Murphy Center. Southwind (33-6) will take on defending champion East in Saturday's 1 p.m. title game.

"Hopefully, (the shots) will keep falling for one more game," said Jaguars coach Paul Edwards. And if they do, Southwind has a great chance to match the championship it won in 2013.

Marshall did most of the damage. The 6-5 senior — who scored 24 in Wednesday's quarterfinal victory over Murfreesboro Oakland — showed off his terrific mid-range game and hit a pair of 3s in the first half en route to finishing 11 of 15 from the floor.

"My teammates put me in good positions with the inside-out game," said Marshall. "I just try to stay within myself. But it was a good morning."

Southwind's other star, junior guard Mark Freeman, chipped in with 15 points but it was the Jaguars' role players that really hurt the Eagles. Christian Jones knocked down 3 of 4 3-pointers to finish with 15 points while 6-8 sophomore Kameron Jones added 10 points on 5 of 6 shooting, blocked 3 shots and altered several more.

"They're the heartbeat of our team," said Edwards, referring to Marshall and Freeman's talented supporting cast.

"Quentin Williams came in and hit some big shots and Kristian Williams took a big charge for us ... we were shooting well from 3 but I told them at halftime, 'don't forget about the paint.'

"But we're a pretty good shooting team. When we start playing inside-out, we're successful with our jump shots."

Despite shooting a remarkable 62.5 percent from the floor (30 of 48) Southwind led by just five points at halftime. But they held Independence scoreless for nearly six minutes in the third quarter.

Southwind took command with an 8-0 run that began with Robert Boyd scoring inside on a nice feed from Freeman before Marshall came up with a steal and a bucket in transition. Kameron Jones then dunked off another good assist from Freeman before Marshall capped it with a mid-range jumper.

The Jaguars led 54-43 after three and then hit 14 of 16 free throws in the fourth quarter to seal the game after not attempting a single free throw through the first 24 minutes.

"I think we were more comfortable," said Freeman, whose team started off much better than it did Wednesday. "We just had to get used to the atmosphere, the lights. They had some great guards and their No. 2 (Grayson Murphy) has a great motor."

Murphy scored 24 and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead Independence, which ends the season 24-11. Corbin Daugherty added 14 while McKyan James chipped in with 10.

Reach John Varlas at john.varlas@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @johnvarlas