Loose End

Ooltewah wins 12-2 in 5 innings including a grand slam by Ryan Jones in the last inning. Ooltewah got off to an early 4-0 lead in the 1st but Red Bank hung around, with the score at 6-2 in the 4th before the Owls blew it open in the 5th. Burke had a pretty solid game on the mound and both teams should perform well in Regionals, good luck to all.

How much is admission? Or what has it been in the past? I'd like to see both Brandon Brown and Courtney White go, both have skills that could add to a game like this. Brandon's really quick and can finish around the basket and Courtney can dunk and has a good all around game.

I contend the use of steroids is a definite strategy to increase your strength and the longevity of your career. And at one time it was not illegal, so you can't say they were breaking any rules when they did it. Is it the same exact situation? No. But when your desire to win overshadows your love of the game, things like this happen. At least steroid usage created a more exciting baseball league, stall ball doesn't even do that. And I think I should first clarify that I define stall ball as using two or three players to keep the ball in the backcourt, passing it off every few seconds without even considering moving in towards the basket. Slowing the game down to a halfcourt offense is one thing, stall ball is completely different. I don't really even care if there is the actual shotclock, but at least the referees should be given a rule to enforce that would preclude any stallball for an extended period of time.

I think it's poor sportsmanship to hold the ball like that. It violates the spirit of the game and it's not what the fans paid money to see. I know I get a bit embarassed when a team I am rooting for starts doing it, and it's just disheartening to see another team do it. There's a reason all other forms of basketball use a shot clock, it keeps the game tight and gives the team that is down at least a chance. A lot of baseball players used steroids before they were banned, and steroids was a part of the game, and those players were MVPs, but that doesn't make it right. There's nothing in the rules about John Chaney sending in a player to purposely play rough against opposing players, but that doesn't make it right. There are a lot of things that go in sports that are contrary to the spirit of the game. I don't think there's any way you can convince me that purposely NOT playing basketball in a basketball game is in any way a part of the game.

Cumberland by 7 at home.

The top two seeds fall, wow, what a twist. The Region is wide open, and it's anyone's guess who is going to take it. I guess that whole "Region 5 sweep" thing is looking pretty ridiculous now, eh? And props to Owlsfan10 for calling the Red Bank upset, he got a lot of flak for it and now deserves credit. I say whoever wins out of Cleveland/Brainerd will be taking the Region, and seeing as how I think Brainerd will win, I'm going with Brainerd as Region Champs. Cumberland has a chance since they're playing at home, but I don't see it.

Yea, I would like to congratulate the Owls on their District Championship. It didn't pan out for you in the Region, but you were a very exciting team to watch and I liked how you pulled it all together in the end. For all the Seniors, good luck in whatever you choose to do, for the rest, good luck in the upcoming seasons. On behalf of the (now defunct) Old School Ballas, thank you.

Wow, that's amazing. If Red Bank can pull off this upset this will be a very interesting region.

I don't think Ooltewah will run over McMinn, Ooltewah isn't that sort of dominant team. But they do keep games close and as of late have been winning them. I'm thoroughly convinced that Ooltewah has gotten better since they played McMinn, and McMinn might have as well, but given what Ooltewah has gone through to get here, I think they are prepared for a dogfight against McMinn. It turns out I am going to make the trip up the mountain, hope to see some more Ooltewah fans there. My prediction is 73-65, Ooltewah, but the Cherokee's never get it too close.

How many Chattanooga people plan on driving up there for the 1st round? I'm tempted to, but I don't think Ooltewah will need the support against McMinn. 2nd round will be different though.

If Ooltewah comes to play, and all indications say they do, the will make it to substate. McMinn is no pushover, but Ooltewah already beat them twice early on in the season when they were playing much less cohesively than they are now. As I already said, the past couple of games I've seen the Owls play with more heart and swagger than I've seen all season, and there are four seniors looking to go out in a big way. I wish I could have seen Cumberland during the regular season, but I'm pretty sure Ooltewah can get past McMinn without too much difficulty based on what I've seen. Looking at Cumberland's record, it's hard to say what kind of team they have. They lost big at Soddy two days after Ooltewah defeated Soddy on the road, but they just beat Cleveland in the tournament at home a week after Ooltewah lost by two at Cleveland. Maybe they're just as inconsistent as Ooltewah, heh. Plus they're so far out of Chattanooga I don't know much about the teams they've played. Suffice to say that I imagine Ooltewah will win, but I want to see how well they play against Soddy first. If Soddy has any sort of success against them, I think Ooltewah will have the upper hand. That is, of course, Cumberland makes it past the Trojans who can play some good ball when they want to.

Ooltewah thought they were going to cruise when Sanders went down too, but Brainerd still played them just as close as ever. I suppose you don't believe us, and you don't have to, but don't be surprised when Ivery drops 30 on you.

5AAA better produce or you guys will look ridiculous (nevermind that you do already). And Sanders is good, but you're really overlooking a good team. Brainerd and Ooltewah played just as close in the championship as they did in the two regular season games, Ooltewah just happened to get the good breaks that Brainerd did the first couple of times. I think Brainerd must cause some real matchup problems for Cleveland since they already beat them twice and once again the Panthers will prevail. Ooltewah will cruise to this win by at least 10. This Owls team has definitely improved since they last played McMinn (and beat them 2 out of 3 times then) and now have the swagger of a championship team. It won't be close. I don't have them penciled in, but I really wouldn't be surprised if Soddy Daisy pulled out a win either. If they play to their potential, they can be pretty devastating.

There's no way McMinn will beat Ooltewah. Sure, they put together a pretty good string of wins at the end of the season, but those were all home games playing against such stiff competition as Meigs County and Rhea County. Give me a break. Let's let this thing play out before you claim that 5AAA will sweep 6AAA. I'll give you the upper hand and say 5AAA probably has more talent and will be the favorites overall, but if the District Tournaments have shown us anything, the favorites don't always win. As for the first round, I'll say Bradley, Ooltewah, Cumberland, and Brainerd pull out the win. I think Cleveland especially will have to look out, even without Sanders this Brainerd team is dangerous and plays with heart, as they already found out twice this season. I'm not so sure about Cumberland and Soddy, but since Cumberland already beat Cleveland and it's their home gym, I think they'll probably pull it out. I wouldn't sleep on this Soddy team either, though. In the end, I really think we'll have some good games. Good luck to all teams.

Nobody though Ooltewah was going to be good this year either after losing 4 starters, but Baker has a way to get results, so I wouldn't count them out just yet. Starting with last season, Ooltewah has been building a winning tradition that I think the players who didn't get a lot of chances to play this season will be able to carry on. If BJ Sanders is still around next season, look for him to be the main piece along with Wes Murray.

Hah, since he started varsity at Ooltewah last year (on a team that was perhaps better than this year's) I think he could dribble a ball pretty well and knows what he's talking about.

Ok, I think everything is in place as GoldenFlake described it. I think this will definitely be an exciting tournament, as both district tournaments to get here have been. Many questions still loom large: Can Ooltewah string together some more wins? Can Cleveland put together another good game if/when they meet Bradley? How well do the 6AAA teams stack up against the 5AAA teams? I think Ooltewah and Brainerd can play with Cleveland and Bradley, but it will be tough regardless. I think we're going to see some upsets, though. But, again, it really does put a damper on things to think that to watch the games all of us Chattanooga folk have to drive two hours both ways.

Ahh, I think I got Ivery and Talley confused, but yea, Ivery came up big. And Williams too. But I left Wes Murray off my list too. He didn't have any flashy plays this game, and actually missed a FT late in the 4th that would have won him the game, but he still plays very solid defense and I believe he was the one on Talley making him work for everything he got. Also, he was big in the Red Bank win. If either Murray or Foster are shooting well, it makes it much tougher to beat Ooltewah. "Last year, Brandon wasn't even a good backup point guard,'' Baker said. "He was a turnover waiting to happen. This year, he's our most improved player." Heh, good old Baker. Also, I've heard that Sanders might be moving out of Tennessee over the summer, which is very bad news for this team. He didn't get a whole lot of playing time, but showed flashes of brilliance when he did and, if he stays, will most likely be the centerpiece of our team. Can anyone confirm or deny it?

Oh yea, that's right. It seemed like Curt played a lot of minutes, but yea, that was the starting lineup. It's too bad Curtis wasn't in shape last year, he could have contributed a lot. It's weird to think of how great last years's team was, because they really were, but this team has its strong points too. And yes, Corey Sanders was suspended from school and therefore the team because of disciplinary problems at school. He was the District season MVP. Do they not give a tournament MVP? Because I definitely think Courtney and/or Brandon could have gotten that.

A more detailed analysis of the game: Both teams played well, and the game was called pretty evenly. The Panthers shot up to a quick lead, especially with those backdoor uncontested laysup, but the Owls had evened it by the end of the 1st quarter. The Owls played very well in the 2nd, and got up to a 6 or 7 point lead after Foster had drained several 3's but Brainerd cut that down to 3 going into the half. The 3rd and 4th quarters saw Ooltewah holding onto the lead, but it was very apparent that Brainerd was not giving up and this thing was going down to the wire. Brandon played well over this stretch and pretty much took the game in his hands for a while, forcing turnovers and gliding to the basket for easy layups, but Brainerd stayed in, especially with the great shooting of Talley, especially behind the arc. With about 10 seconds left in the 4th, Ooltewah was up by 2 and Murray was at the line for 1 and 1 after being intentionally fouled, and his shot bounced around the rim a few times and dropped into the hands of a Brainerd player. After the time out, I believe it was Talley who ran the length of the floor and delivered a running jumper that reminded me a lot of Sherman's last year, and of course it went in as the buzzer sounded. My heart sunk, and I sat down for a second, but I looked over and saw the ref signalling a two, so there was still game left to be played. The crowd got more into it and things got rowdy as Ooltewah and Brainerd hustled for the win. Foster showed his stuff again in OT and had several big plays that kept Ooltewah in it. Towards the end of the first OT with the game tied, Brainerd stalled for a minute and a half so they could get the last shot off. They missed their shot, and it was Ooltewah's ball with about 4 seconds left. On the inbounds, Baker showed he might cut it as a football coach as Courtney sprinted up the court and cut back to catch the lob and called timeout with about 2 seconds left. From the halfcourt, Brandon got the ball and drove to the basket but amongst a lot of contact got turned around the heaved the ball toward the basket but it didn't go in (I almost felt that after our last game in Brainerd the refs owed us a last-second call, but it didn't happen). In the second OT, Curtis was still alive with 4 fouls and had several big plays right in a row with about a minute left, including drawing two fouls and swishing 4 FTs in a row that pretty much sealed it for Ooltewah. There were so many great plays and great individual efforts during the course of the game that I wish I could describe them in detail, but I don't want to be up all night. I can't forget that Brainerd played a great game, though. I feel a little cheated that Sanders wasn't there, but the Brainerd team that was out there definitely showed a lot of grit and talent too. Congratulations to them on a great season and we might just see them again in the Region Tournament. But how much does it suck that it's in Cumberland? Who wants to drive 2 hours?

Did Curtis not start last year? I thought I remember him doing so, maybe not though.

Wow, what a game, only thing that can possible top this was the win over Central last year, but this still was probably the most emotional game I've experienced. So many ups and downs. First of all, I think we should realize this team came in after losing three starters from last year. We have our good players, but this season was a team effort and everyone deserves our congratulations and praise. As far as the Championship game, you gotta give props to Curtis Porter. He may not have finished with the most points, but he played a tough, physical game with foul trouble for a lot of it and still came up with some huge plays down the stretch. Another huge part was Chris Foster. He fouled out in the 4th, and was held scoreless by Re Bank, but he was hitting 3's left and right and forced the Brainerd D to keep honest, which helped everyone else. He showed great hustle and effort. You can't leave out Brandon. Even though it seemed the refs were letting Brainerd get away with murder when covering him, he played a tight game, and his usual lane floaters weren't landing either, so he adjusted and came up with some huge plays and at one point had taken the game over. Nobody was quicker on the floor. And, of course, the backbone of Ooltewah, Courtney. Seeing him improve over the years has been great, and this game was the culmination of all his work and talent. He definitely showed he is a rare talent and played well all over the floor. Not to mention C-Daddy. He has lifted this team to who they are and given them the plan they need to win. Brainerd had tons of backdoor layups in the first half, and whatever Baker did during halftime turned it around.

I don't think homecourt advantage is that great for the Panthers. They don't have much of a crowd to get into the game (at least at all the ones I've been to) and they nearly lost to Soddy-Daisy, a team they beat handily during the regular season, just a couple of nights ago. If Sanders was playing, I'd be much more hesitant, but I also still don't think we've seen a fully motivated Owls squad, which I think the team tonight should be.

Ooltewah, 82-69 I better see some activity from Ooltewah's fans tonight. They let Red Bank's fans outclass them last game.

Wow, I was afraid the fact that Cleveland lost would put them as an early opponent for the winner, but if that's the case, both teams have a lot to play for tomorrow night. I hope Ooltewah realizes the implications and comes to play.