South Side basketball avenges 2022 TSSAA championship loss with pressure defense

MURFREESBORO – Jackson South Side girls basketball coach Brent McNeal saw the TSSAA BlueCross Girls Basketball State Championships pairings around 6 a.m. Sunday.

He was later in church that morning, still jittery thinking about the Lady Hawks' Class 3A quarterfinal opponent: Upperman — the team that beat them in the 2022 state championship game.

Well South Side collected revenge a year later, beating the Lady Bees 44-31 to advance to a state semifinal. South Side (32-0) plays Elizabethton (30-4) at 6 p.m. Thursday. Elizabethton disposed of Dyersburg 46-29 in their quarterfinal.

Upperman finished 32-4. The quarterfinal was billed as a potential championship-caliber game being played on the opening day of the state tournament.

"I guess you have to knock out the best to win everything," said Albany Collins, who finished with eight points with a pair of 3-pointers. "If it was first round, last round, second round, it doesn't matter. I was ready."

South Side's pressure defense caused 19 Upperman turnovers. The Lady Hawks played tight against Upperman, preventing the Lady Bees from running their offense effectively. Upperman's Abigail Johnson, a Miss Basketball finalist, was held to just six points on 3-of-6 shooting and grabbed 11 rebounds.

"Everybody knows if you follow West Tennessee basketball, you know defense is what we do," McNeal said. "That's how we make our offense on what we do defensively."

TSSAA STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS:How South Gibson coach Catie Embrey's tough approach is producing wins for Lady Hornets

BOYS TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE:TSSAA basketball championships boys state tournament schedule

GIRLS TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE:TSSAA basketball girls state tournament schedule 2023

Ti'mia Lawson — South Side's Miss Basketball finalist — had a game-high 16 points with 8-of-10 from the free throw line and grabbed seven rebounds.

"I knew it was going to come down to free throws because the game was a very low-scoring game," Lawson said. "I knew they weren't going to let up."

South Side's defense held Upperman to its season low — seven points below the Lady Bees' previous low set in losses to White County and Livingston Academy. Upperman attempted just 27 shots and scored just 16 points in the second half after being held to 15 the previous 16 minutes.

"That was probably the most physical game we've been in for sure, without a doubt," Upperman coach Dana McWilliams said. "You try to adjust, and that's what you try. It was so physical out there. Maybe that's something we're going to teach a little more on our end, a little more physical for us so we can match that a little bit."

Reach Tom Kreager a tkreager@gannett.com and on Twitter @Kreager.