ATHENS, Tenn. — McMinn County, for the most part, has had Cleveland's number this basketball season. The Cherokees bested the Blue Raiders two out of the three times they met before Thursday night's Region 3-4A title game and continued on to dominate in the championship at McMinn County High School with a 74-55 win to claim the title.
McMinn County will host the loser of the Region 3 championship between LaVergne and Blackman. The loss did nothing to dampen the Raiders' chance at a state berth, but they will need to pull off a road win at the home of the Region 3 champ.
“When I took this job, our ultimate goal is to get to the state and nothing changed,” said Blue Raiders head coach Reggie Tucker. “We'll take off Friday and get back in the gym Saturday and Sunday to begin preparation for whoever we play. Our ultimate goal is still intact. Nothing has changed. The only thing we need to change is not turn the ball over.”
Turnovers and missed opportunities were thorns in the side of the Raiders (23-9) all night long. Cleveland booked 21 giveaways to the Cherokees (2-8) over the course of the game.
“They are fast, but we helped them. When you have a lot of turnovers and leave buckets that's what happens,” said Tucker. “In the first quarter we were getting stops then we'd turn it over. We turned it over 21 times. You're not going to beat really good teams with 21 turnovers. We've got to clean it up.”
Cleveland's led just once in the the game on a first quarter 3-pointer by Gage Leeper that made it 11-10. The lead was short lived as the Tribe lit off on a 9-0 run to make it 19-13 and closed the first eight minutes with a 22-15 lead.
The Blue Raiders put out their biggest offensive effort of the night in the second quarter. Alex Hyder and Jasen Brooks were both good from behind the arc, but the 17 point Cleveland effort came up short as McMinn piled in 24 points to hold a 46-32 advantage at halftime.
Brooks put up a huge night for the Raiders with 25 points to lead all scoring. Hyder booked 15 for Cleveland.
“Jasen Brooks, if I had four more of him we wouldn't be cutting down a net at region, we would at state,” said Tucker. “Congratulations to McMinn County. I know they're excited, but I'm proud of my guys. They didn't quit.”
Trent Peak led the Cherokees with 19 points followed by Caden Hester with 16, Hayden Smith with 15 and Reese Frazier with 10.
The Cherokees and Blue Raiders battled to a 14-14 draw in the third quarter and McMinn headed into the final eight minutes with a 60-46 cushion.
McMinn built a 20 point lead with 5:48 left in the game and and led 74-51 as the clock passed through two minutes left to play before closing out the 21 point victory.
“I thought our effort was good, but I thought we had too many mental breakdowns defensively. We weren't jamming guys off the line like we planned on and they took advantage of it. We've got to clean things up. Right now we're not being mentally tough when we need to be mentally tough,” Tucker said.
“We got it down to nine at one point (in the second quarter) then three straight turnovers. Those things can't happen. My point guard has to make better decisions with the ball in his hands. Until we clean that up we're going to continue to get beat by good teams.”
Summary
CLEVELAND 15 17 14 9 — 55
MCMINN CO. 22 24 14 14 — 74
CLEVELAND (55) — Jasen Brooks 25, Alex Hyder 15, Thomas 4, Sault 4, Gober, Leeper 7.
MCMINN CO. (74) — Trent Peak 19, Caden Hester 16, Hayden Smith 15, Reese Frazier 10, Monroe 8, Evans 6, Mullins.
3-point goals: Cleveland 4 (Hyder 2, Brooks, Leeper); McMinn County 9 (Hester 3, Monroe 2, Peak 2, Evans, Frazier).
Records: Cleveland 23-9; McMinn County 26-8.
(Email Richard Roberts at richardvol55@yahoo.com)