BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Three nights after routing preseason Upper Lakes Conference favorite Unicoi County on the road, the Tennessee High boys basketball team appeared to be ripe for the picking.
And Sullivan East’s Drake Fisher picked it apart.
Fisher poured in 27 points, including a 14-foot floater that gave the Patriots a 75-74 lead with 26 seconds remaining, and East held on for a 76-74 victory.
Tennessee High’s Brandon Dufore had a contested shot from the inside the right block rattle out in the closing seconds and East’s Corbin Laisure was fouled with 0.6 seconds left after grabbing the rebound. He made the first free throw, and then after a timeout, missed the second one on purpose. But the ball only hit the bottom of the net on its way out of bounds, and Tennessee High suddenly had the ball 94 feet away.
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Alas, Creed Musick’s 60-footer was way off at the buzzer.
East (9-10, 1-1) also got 21 points from Tyler Cross and 13 from Laisure.
“I thought we came out and played our butts off,” East coach Dillon Faver said. “We played hard. We played together. I’m just proud of ‘em. I told ‘em, ‘We’re here for a purpose.’ Every night we’re gonna come out and play and we’re gonna fight.”
Fisher was at his best when tension was highest. After Colin Brown’s steal and lay-in gave Tennessee High a 72-67 lead with 3:23 to go, Fisher answered with a deep, contested 3-pointer from the right wing with 2:57 left.
And he tied the score at 72 with a coast-to-coast drive and floater from near the left block with 1:53 remaining. The game-winner appeared to come with the proverbial ice water flowing through the veins.
“Drake’s calm, he’s collected,” Faver said. “He’s had great practices. He enjoys competition. He enjoys having the basketball in his hand. In practice, I mean, he’s just been shooting the lights out.”
Fisher hit two 3-pointers and 9 of 10 free throw attempts.
“I could tell before the game that we just had our minds right,” Fisher said. “I could see it in our eyes. We were ready to play.”
Cross hit two 3-pointers in a 2:09 span of the fourth quarter. His second one, on a kick-out to the left corner from Laisure, cut the Vikings’ lead to 68-67 with 4:19 to go.
“T-Cross gives you everything,” Faver said. “I love that guy. He gives you absolutely everything he has for however long he’s in the game. He leads our team in back-tips. When we press he’s on the head of our press and then sprinting back.
“I’m so proud of him. He’s worked on his shot. His shot’s tremendously better than what it was when he got here as a freshman.”
Tennessee High (15-5, 1-1) got 31 points from Creed Musick and 15 apiece from Dufore and Brown.
East ended the first half on a 10-0 run to take a 39-28 halftime lead. But Musick scored 16 points in the third quarter, a period during which the Vikings outscored East, 34-20.
But Tennessee High appeared to exhale again.
“We just didn’t play defense,” Tennessee High coach Michael McMeans said. “It was our fault, and I’ll take the blame. I let up on ’em in practice this week to try and save their legs. I probably should’ve killed ’em the last couple of days.
“We got the big head [after winning at Unicoi County]. I think we got feeling really good about ourselves and just didn’t think we’d have to really show up to win. And it was like that the whole game. When we cut it back down, we just thought they would go away.”
East hosts Unaka today at 4:30 p.m.
GIRLS
Tennessee High 64, Sullivan East 55
Kendall Cross scored 25 points and the Vikings pulled away for a 64-55 victory in the earlier girls game.
“Kendall played amazing,” THS coach Amanda Vance said. “She had great passes and she was locked in. Man, she played really really well.”
Tennessee High (10-10, 2-0) led by double digits much of the fourth quarter, but Jenna Hare scored 12 of her 29 points in the fourth for East (6-15, 0-2).
The Vikings also got 16 points from Anna Kate Kinch and nine from post Janel Tabor.
“The progress that we’ve made from the beginning of the season is tremendous,” Cross said.