Whitehaven boys basketball wins first district title since 2019-20 season

Kody Hickerson didn’t come to Whitehaven expecting to be a basketball star.

In Wednesday night’s District 16-4A championship game, he made 3-pointers on consecutive possessions, helping the Tigers defeat Memphis Central 72-62 for the program’s first district title since the 2019-20 season.  

"(The) whole team was locked in from the beginning,” Hickerson said. “We all just want to win.” 

When Dickerson joined the program a month ago after transferring from Bartlett, the only goal was to win.

“This is what we’ve been needing before he got here,” junior guard Cameron Brown said. “When he got here, we put that together.” 

Despite Whitehaven’s youth, the Tigers are the No. 1 seed in the region tournament and will play Houston in Saturday’s quarterfinal game.  

Here’s what we learned after Whitehaven's District 16-4A title win.  

Whitehaven is owning its youth 

The Tigers are not ashamed of being a young team.  

They played a loaded, regular season scheduled that featured Montverde Academy, AZ Compass Prep and Camden High School. Yet, coach Willie Kemp believes Whitehaven isn’t defined by its youth.

"We’ve been able to compete with some really good teams,” Kemp said. “... I know next year we’re going to be a team to be reckoned with.” 

The Tigers’ next test against Houston (18-15) won’t be easy. The Mustangs took Camden to overtime earlier in the season, did the same against Cordova in the District 15-4A semifinals and beat Briarcrest in December. 

High expectations for the TSSAA playoffs 

Kemp, Cameron Brown and Hickerson are all confident the Tigers can go on a playoff run. And they'll get to do it in the region tournament with homecourt advantage.  

"We’re going to have a lot of ups and a lot of downs,” Kemp said. “But if we can come out, be ourselves and play basketball, I don’t think anybody can beat us.” 

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Kemp didn’t expect to see success this early. But as the Tigers keep winning, they’re hopeful to return to the state tournament for the first time since reaching the semifinals.  

"I put this team together to win some ball games and they’ve been playing their best basketball toward the end of the season and it’s just great,” Kemp said. 

Reach Wynston Wilcox at wwilcox@gannett.com and on the X platform, formerly known as Twitter, @wynstonw__.