Melrose at Raleigh Egypt ...... Liberty at White Station

[terop]

Hats off to an extremely undersized and scrappy bunch from Liberty. The Crusaders came into the game tonight against a much bigger much more talked about team and gave them all they wanted. Liberty started the game shooting very well and they attacked White Station inside instead of staying away from the large advantage that White Station had inside. Liberty lead by as much as 10 and possibly 12 as late as 3:00 to go in the 3rd quarter. White Station cut the deficit to 39-34 after at the end of 3 quarters. White Station then opened the 4th with a 6-2 run before Dexter Williams took a time out with 6:50 to go. After that it seemed that White Station just wouldn't relax and allow Liberty to get to the rim shooting layups like they had the rest of the game. White Station realized that in order to play the style of basketball that Liberty forces you to play they would have to play small with Joe Jackson, Patrick Coleman, Harry Green, Andre Hollis and forgive me #10 the other 6'2 player's name escapes me at the moment. This lineup allowed the Spartans to keep the game close. At about the 3:50 mark Harry Green hit a monster 3 for the first tie of the game at 46-46. One would think that this would break Liberty's back after having a big lead and control of the whole game but Williams' team was resiliant. Liberty promptly responded opening a 4 point lead until Jesus Patino took a timeout with the score 50-46. Harry Green hit another big 3 to pull the Spartans within 1. Both teams began attacking inside and Liberty seemed to start to turn over the ball while White Station started to convert as well as hit free throws. White Station regained the lead at the .50 mark with an Andre Hollis' inside shot who then stepped to the line and converted the 3 point play to give White Station a 53-51 lead that it wouldn't relinquish. This play proved to be the straw that broke the camel's back because along with losing their final lead Liberty's best player Ricky Williams fouled out. Liberty turned the ball over and then Andre Hollis stepped to the line again to give White Station a 55-51 lead with 30.5 to go. Liberty then drove down the floor and threw the ball into the waiting arms of a Spartan wearing none other than #1. Ironically Joe Jackson only hit one of two at the line and had several seconds earlier missed the front end of a one and one. Liberty then made a layup closing the game to 56-53 then fouled Hollis who made two more pushing the lead to 5 at 58-53. A crusaders' layup concluded the scoring at 58-55. One of the keys of the game seemed to be the unheralded defense that was provided off the bench by Patrick Coleman.

 

Congratulations to Dexter Williams and the Liberty Crusaders for an excellent gameplan and never going away when it would have been easy to mail it in and call it a game. It's extremely impressive how much Williams' gets out of his teams year in and year out.

 

Congrats to Jesus Patino and White Station for hanging in on the superb play of Joe Jackson for making another state tournament appearance.

 

Just an interesting side note... University of Tennessee Men's Head Coach Bruce Pearl and Assistant Coach Steve Forbes were in attendance.

 

Just going from memory and sent text messages so some of the info could be a little off here and there.

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You're right on...similar to what I stated just more detail. Could you believe how terrible Hall played. He dominated Melrose's 6'8 guys last week but went scoreless against Liberty's frontline. They played extremely hard and out rebounded White Station pretty much the whole game..

[eridbro1]

You're absolutely correct. Johnson absolutely abused Hall in the first half and Williams just looked like he wasn't atheletic enough to play in that style of game. Liberty played a lot harder and bigger than they were inside and thats something you have to admire about Dexter's teams. Hall was only semi effective later in the game when Liberty was only looking to penetrate and draw contact but even then he wasn't that much of a factor. Not to knock Hall and Williams because they are both fine players but that just wasn't their style of game. Liberty was a nightmare of a matchup for the starting lineup White Station went with. I was surprised when after halftime Patino put them all back out there together. It was also good to see Julian Burton get some minutes though it's obvious he's not anywhere close to where he was.

[Dragonmaster]

What happened with RE MELROSE

[eridbro1]

What happened with RE MELROSE

 

 

All I know is it was a very lopsided score of 68-45 Raleigh Egypt. Would love to hear some info from someone who was in attendance.

[terop]

You're absolutely correct. Johnson absolutely abused Hall in the first half and Williams just looked like he wasn't atheletic enough to play in that style of game. Liberty played a lot harder and bigger than they were inside and thats something you have to admire about Dexter's teams. Hall was only semi effective later in the game when Liberty was only looking to penetrate and draw contact but even then he wasn't that much of a factor. Not to knock Hall and Williams because they are both fine players but that just wasn't their style of game. Liberty was a nightmare of a matchup for the starting lineup White Station went with. I was surprised when after halftime Patino put them all back out there together. It was also good to see Julian Burton get some minutes though it's obvious he's not anywhere close to where he was.

 

Yea Burton looked like he was at 40%. He had no lateral movement but you have to give it up to him for the effort. I figured Liberty would have had to make some adjustments, but Liberty made White Station adjust their line up and game plan

[AP_JonB218]

All I know is it was a very lopsided score of 68-45 Raleigh Egypt. Would love to hear some info from someone who was in attendance.

 

 

Yeah, this was a great win for Coach Adams! This Sub-State game the last two years was painful losing to Ridgeway in 2007 and White Station in 2008. Raleigh-Egypt went up by about 20-5 in the first quarter and never looked back. The controlled the whole game. SG Anthony Jones Jr. finished with 16 and PG Gentry Hines finished with 11. Gentry threw a nice lob to A.J. with about 1:20 to go that he caught with one hand and put down hard. We'll see how the state tournament draw comes out.

[terop]

Yeah, this was a great win for Coach Adams! This Sub-State game the last two years was painful losing to Ridgeway in 2007 and White Station in 2008. Raleigh-Egypt went up by about 20-5 in the first quarter and never looked back. The controlled the whole game. SG Anthony Jones Jr. finished with 16 and PG Gentry Hines finished with 11. Gentry threw a nice lob to A.J. with about 1:20 to go that he caught with one hand and put down hard. We'll see how the state tournament draw comes out.

 

Never thought that game would have turned out like that...big ups to RE they will be tough to beat

[FirestoneTigers]

What happened with RE MELROSE

 

Pretty much what TraderB said would happen. Melrose came out with NO fire. It looked like two middle school teams playing. Other than Chris Jones and #23, they showed no effort at all. They were sleep-walking, and Raleigh-Egypt could still barely put them away. I couldn't believe those were the two teams from the AAA City Championship. Anthony Jones played with fire. Chris Jones showed heart. Other than that, it was pitiful, on both sides.

[Dragonmaster]

Pretty much what TraderB said would happen. Melrose came out with NO fire. It looked like two middle school teams playing. Other than Chris Jones and #23, they showed no effort at all. They were sleep-walking, and Raleigh-Egypt could still barely put them away. I couldn't believe those were the two teams from the AAA City Championship. Anthony Jones played with fire. Chris Jones showed heart. Other than that, it was pitiful, on both sides.

 

 

 

 

Firestone you have yet to make a positive comment other than Central will roll through AAA girls and that was tongue in cheek I believe.

I think we have a middle TN invader trying to cause trouble..

[AP_JonB218]

Pretty much what TraderB said would happen. Melrose came out with NO fire. It looked like two middle school teams playing. Other than Chris Jones and #23, they showed no effort at all. They were sleep-walking, and Raleigh-Egypt could still barely put them away. I couldn't believe those were the two teams from the AAA City Championship. Anthony Jones played with fire. Chris Jones showed heart. Other than that, it was pitiful, on both sides.

 

 

Dude, what game were you watching? Raleigh-Egypt had the game in control.

[FirestoneTigers]

Dude, what game were you watching? Raleigh-Egypt had the game in control.

 

I just said that Melrose didn't show up. But in reality, the game was still in doubt until about halfway through the 4th quarter. There was no State contender on the floor in that game on either side. Both teams have played MUCH better this season. But, honestly, other than 3 spectacular dunks by Anthony Jones, I could've taken a nap and seen more excitement. I assume Egypt will surely play better and more focused next week, but in this particular game, they were average at best. That point guard(Holmes) has nerves of noodles. I've seen him multiple times this year. He and Brady might cost them a State title. Hines needs to be handling the ball. I say feed Jones until he's full. He'll carry em to the top.

[AP_JonB218]

I just said that Melrose didn't show up. But in reality, the game was still in doubt until about halfway through the 4th quarter. There was no State contender on the floor in that game on either side. Both teams have played MUCH better this season. But, honestly, other than 3 spectacular dunks by Anthony Jones, I could've taken a nap and seen more excitement. I assume Egypt will surely play better and more focused next week, but in this particular game, they were average at best. That point guard(Holmes) has nerves of noodles. I've seen him multiple times this year. He and Brady might cost them a State title. Hines needs to be handling the ball. I say feed Jones until he's full. He'll carry em to the top.

 

 

Now that's true about Holmes. He can get real shaky at times but that's when Coach Adams puts the ball into Gentry's hands.