East repeats as AAA champs
MURFREESBORO — It's official. There's nothing Chandler Lawson can't do.
The sophomore scored 18 points and grabbed 15 rebounds to win tournament Most Valuable Player honors Saturday at the Murphy Center as East defeated Southwind 65-45 to win the TSSAA BlueCross AAA state championship game for the second consecutive season. The Mustangs (35-3) are the first team since White Station in 2003-2004 to win consecutive titles in the state's largest classification.
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Lawson basically had double-doubles in each game of the tournament — he had nine rebounds in Friday's semifinal victory over Oak Ridge — and celebrated East's victory with a cartwheel, pulling it off about as effortlessly as a 6-9 human being can.
"Just letting the emotion out," he said.
It was a celebration worthy of East's accomplishments. The Mustangs now have eight basketball championships, two more than any other school in Tennessee. The title also matches the one the football team won in December.
"It's a hard-working school," said East coach Robert Jackson. "That's the mindset because nobody over there in that community is ever given anything. It's a dog mentality, and that's what the school produces, basketball, football, doesn't matter.
"And we do it for Dez. Always. Dez is our community."
Jackson of course was referring to former East coach Desmond Merriweather, who died in February of 2015 at the age of 41 after a long battle with colon cancer. Fueled by emotion, that year's team made an underdog run to the state tournament before losing to Brentwood in the semifinals.
The Mustangs took it a step further in 2016, beating Cordova in the title game and were the heavy favorites to repeat.
"We've been through a lot together," said junior guard Alex Lomax. "A lot of ups and downs ... we were still hated by most of the city. We didn't get respect; we had to come to demand respect.
"It's just a long process we had. We talked about all we've been through. ... It's just great. We're still together and we're going to stay together."
Which spells bad news for the rest of the state. East's four all-tournament team selections — Lawson, Lomax, T.J. Moss and Malcolm Dandridge — are all underclassmen.
Lawson was the best of the bunch on Saturday, controlling the glass on both ends against the smaller Jaguars (33-7). He averaged 18 points and 12 boards in three games this week.
"I just play my role," he said. "I try to get every 50-50 ball."
Dandridge, a 6-8 sophomore, chipped in with 11 points and six rebounds as East won the rebounding battle 36-29.
"They crash the boards," said Southwind's Carlos Marshall. "They're big and they're real smart. They're always talking to each other."
Lomax finished with 14 points while Moss added 10 for East, which led for 29 of the 32 minutes.
"Credit to them; they're a good team," said Southwind coach Paul Edwards, who lost for the first time in six state tournament games.
"They're big and I think they wore us down ... the wear and tear of the last two games and we're not a deep team."
Marshall — who was limited after picking up two early fouls — led Southwind with 16 in his last high school game while Freeman added 15. Those two and Robert Boyd eventually fouled out as East dominated in points from the free-throw line (21 of 26 compared with 3 of 8).
East led 33-23 at halftime and Lawson — proving that maybe he really can do it all — opened the third with a 3-pointer that pushed the lead to 13. Southwind pulled to within seven on a bucket by Boyd before East closed the quarter on a 10-4 run. Back-to-back dunks by Lawson and Dandridge early in the fourth quarter effectively ended it, much to the delight of the East fans who made the trip.
"It was just like home," said Lomax.
And home is where the gold ball will remain.
Reach John Varlas at john.varlas@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @johnvarlas