Chattanooga Prep Gets First State Tournament Win

Derrick Roberson Leads 57-49 Win Over Fayetteville

  • Wednesday, March 15, 2023
  • John Hunt

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – A magical basketball season continues for the Chattanooga Prep Sentinels.

It’s been a remarkable journey for these young men as they have now fielded a high school team for two years.  And now after advancing to the Bluecross Basketball Championships for the first time, they also now have their first state tournament win.

Facing the Fayetteville Tigers here at MTSU’s Murphy Center on Wednesday afternoon in the first game of the 1A bracket, the Sentinels were able to pull away late for an impressive 57-49 victory.

Chattanooga Prep improves to 29-8 with Wednesday’s win while the Tigers finish their season at 19-9.

It’s really interesting to watch these young men at work.  Their roster includes five sophomores, four freshmen and two eighth graders, so none of them are actually old enough to be nervous and they’re totally unaware that this is Tennessee’s biggest stage for prep basketball.

They just go out and do their job to the best of their ability and have a lot of fun along the way, very rarely showing any emotion of any kind and just doing what coach Christoffer Collins suggests.

Collins can be quite animated at times as he’s a little kid at heart just like his players, so you can imagine the happiness and satisfaction he felt when the final horn sounded in their first state tournament contest.

“This doesn’t surprise me at all as I know these young men better than my own children,” Collins said in the post-game interview room.

“Believing is a trust process, but these guys have bought into what we’re trying to teach.  We felt like we needed to contain their big post player as we just wanted to disrupt their offense and we needed to do that without fouling.

“I thought we played well for the most part, but we’ve worked on free throws all season as they really do matter.  We try to shoot them with purpose as we know they can mean the difference between winning and losing.  It’s hard to make them down the stretch when the pressure is on,” Collins added, knowing that his team sank 10 of 15 in the fourth quarter alone and ended the game by making 17 of 28 for 60.7 percent.

Fayetteville coach Chris Murdock felt like his team played well for the most part, but there were a couple of swing moments in the second half that ultimately made the difference in the outcome.

“It was an intense game and I felt like we responded and made runs when we had to.  Unfortunately, we just came up a little bit short,” he said afterward.

“They made four straight free throws late in the game when I got called for a technical foul I still don’t know why, but that totally changed the game.

“I thought we were pretty good on defense and I was proud of how we rebounded, but we just needed to be a bit better offensively.

“There were a lot of swings in this game, but I feel like this team came together at the right time and played the game the right way.  I’m extremely proud of the way we played today,” he added.

It was a close game from the start as there were six ties and nine lead changes.

Latral Brown sank a 3 to open the game before the Sentinels scored nine straight points that included 3s from Joel Bulis and Derrick Roberson.

The Tigers got a 3 from Aljarea Johnson and a drive down the lane from Bryson Johnson in the final minute for a 14-12 lead when the first quarter ended.

The Sentinels then got back-to-back buckets from Ta’Suade Williams and Roberson and two free throws from Bulis for an 18-14 lead with 5:24 left in the second.

Fayetteville knotted the score at 18 on a layup by Johnson before the Sentinels scored 10 of the final 15 points for a 28-23 lead at intermission.

A free throw by Bulis with 4:26 left in the third gave Prep its biggest lead of the game at 35-27, but Fayetteville kept battling and trimmed that lead to 39-35 with one quarter remaining.

The Tigers scored seven unanswered points to start the final stanza for a 42-39 lead before the Sentinels regained the lead on back-to-back buckets from Roberson and Bulis with 5:10 play.

Johnson sank a 3 about 30 seconds later to give Fayetteville a 45-43 lead and he added a steal and layup with 2:45 to play for his team’s last lead at 47-46.

The technical foul was called 14 seconds later, leading to four straight free throws, two by Williams and two more from Roberson.  The first of two charity tosses by Williams with 1:12 left gave Prep a 51-47 lead.

The Sentinels then got four free throws in the final minute to prevent any kind of comeback from Fayetteville while a layup from Williams at the end gave Prep its final eight point margin of victory.

Roberson scored 21 points to lead the winners while Williams and Bulis were also in double figures with 13 and 10 points, respectively.

Eli Gaines picked up his third foul late in the first quarter and didn’t play the rest of the half, but finished the game with eight points.

Johnson scored 15 points to lead the Tigers while Isaiah Thomison added 11.  Fayetteville finished with a 39-24 rebounding advantage as Thomason grabbed 15 to lead his team and Bulis nine to lead the Sentinels.

Chattanooga Prep will now face the Hampton Bulldogs in Friday’s semifinal at 1:15 local time after the Bulldogs defeated Humboldt, 71-48.

CHATTANOOGA PREP  12  16  11  18  --  57

FAYETTEVILLE  14  9  12  14  --  49

PREP (57) – Turnbow 3, Joel Bulis 10, Gaines 8, Randolph 2, Derrick Roberson 21, Green, Ta’Suade Williams 13, Jones, Tucker.

FAYETTEVILLE (49) – Taylor 3, Brown 5, Bryson Johnson 15, Isaiah Thomison 11,  A. Johnson 3, Willoughby 8, Love 2, Henderson 2.

3-POINT GOALS: Chattanooga Prep 4 of 12 for 33.3 percent (Bulis, Gaines, Roberson, Williams); Fayetteville 4 of 16 for 25.0 percent (Taylor, Brown, B. Johnson, A. Johnson).

(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)

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