Cumberland County’s dominance of District 7AA boys basketball was continued Saturday night as the Jets won their second consecutive district championship in front of an electric crowd by defeating Grundy County 59-49 at CCHS.

“Our kids played really good,” said Jets coach Will Foster. “We came out a little flat in the first half, but stepped it up in the third and fourth quarters. Defense wins championships.”

“We didn’t let the crowd under our skin,” said Jet point guard Reese Dykes. “If they’re running their mouths, we just play our game.”

The Jets started hot, taking a 7-0 lead in the first period before Grundy County got settled in to tie the contest at 11 in the second period. Grundy County took a 19-17 lead late in the second period before the Jets rallied to lead 26-23 at halftime. Mason Wyatt had eight first-half points for CCHS.

“We just played really good defense,” said Jet senior Kyle Spieles. “If something bad happened on offense, we didn’t let that affect us on defense. The crowd was really loud, and we didn’t let that get to us.”

The third period saw Cumberland County put on one of the most dominant defense performances in recent memory as the Jets held Grundy County scoreless for the first 7:24 of the second half. CCHS poured in 16 points in the third quarter while holding Grundy to two, giving the Jets a 42-25 lead going into the fourth period.

Grundy County would never cut the game back to single digits as Cumberland County cruised to a 58-43 District 7AA championship victory.

“It feels good to go back-to-back, especially after losing everybody from last year,” added Wyatt.

CCHS seniors Ben Patton, Kyle Spieles and Hunter Hutson have now won two district championships, with 56 wins in their careers to date.

“We came in as an underdog this year, but we knew we weren’t going to be that,” added Spieles. “We didn’t let that get to our head. We survived and advanced.”

Cumberland County will take the court again on Saturday in the Region 4AA tournament hosted at CCHS.

“We celebrate this until Tuesday, then forget it and play as hard as we do every other game,” said Wyatt.

Cumberland County (58): Mason Wyatt 19, Kyle Spieles 16, Reese Dykes 8, Ben Patton 6, Trevor Parsons 4, Andre Flores 3, Trystan Miller 2

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