RUMBLE ON THE RIDGE

Southwind blows past Sylvan Hills

— Armed with size, speed and good shooters, Memphis Southwind blew past Sylvan Hills 89-60 for the Rumble on the Ridge championship Saturday night.

Tournament MVP JaJuan Johnson scored 24 points and grabbed five rebounds as the Jaguars (5-0) posted the largest margin of victory in the 15-year history of the tournament.

Southwind, which finished second in the 2010 Rumble on the Ridge, had four players 6-8 or taller on its roster. The Jaguars outrebounded Sylvan Hills 35-21, hit 31 of 57 (54.4 percent) of their shots and 23 of 27 (85.2 percent) free throws.

“I don’t think they got the memo,” Sylvan Hills Coach Kevin Davis said of Southwind. “This is a high school tournament. They were so big and long and skilled. They made really nice adjustments as the game went on. When you play a team like that and you don’t quite have their size, you almost have to play a perfect basketball game.”

The Bears (2-1) weren’t perfect, hitting only 16 of 45 (35.6 percent) shots, including an 0-of-10 effort on three-pointers. Sylvan Hills also made only 22 of 37 free throws.

Kentucky signee ArchieGoodwin had 22 points, but he was only 4 of 14 from the floor and 14 of 23 from the line.

Sylvan Hills hung with Southwind for a quarter. The teams were tied after the first eight minutes, but when Johnson hit the second of his two threepointers 29 seconds into the second quarter, it started a 15-1 run by the Jaguars.

Sylvan Hills was never closer than 11 the rest of the way.

“This is going to help us because I don’t think we’ll see another team like that,” Davis said. “You’ve got to take the positives from this game and accentuate those.”

Sophomore reserve Kaylon Tappin came in and added 12 points for the Bears. Tappin was 5 of 7 from the floor and had 3 rebounds in limitedaction. Devin Pearson led the Bears in rebounding with nine.

Southwind guard Peyton Hulsey came off the bench to score 21 points and lead the Jaguars in rebounding with nine. He was also 11 of 11 from the free-throw line.

Blake Johnson and Meiron Hardy also scored 10 points for Southwind.

Sports, Pages 32 on 11/27/2011

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