The Red Bank Lions are the champions of the Region 3-AAA boys basketball.
The Lions improved to 27-7 overall with another solid performance as they basically ran away from the South Doyle Cherokees in the second half en route to an impressive 68-44 victory.
The win, Red Bank’s first region title since 2008, allows the Lions to host a sectional game on Monday night at 7 with the winner advancing to the TSSAA State tournament in two weeks.
Red Bank coach Nick Fike, who got doused by sprays from water bottles thanks to his players when he entered the dressing room, was happier than a kid at Christmas for several reasons. First, his Lions followed the game play to near perfection, their defensive pressure created all kinds of problems for the Cherokees and most importantly, they play at home on Monday for a berth in the state tournament at MTSU’s Murphy Center.
“We just had to be us and to play our style of basketball. That’s basically what we did to win this game,” he began before going into the dressing room.
“People just don’t realize how hard it is to get to this point, but this is a result of a lot of hard work and total dedication by these guys. They bought in from the very first day and our season isn’t over,” he told his kids afterward.
“Defense has been the key for us all year and we were solid the entire game. We were behind early because our shots weren’t falling, but I knew they eventually would if we kept playing hard. We love to outrun the other team and we’re used to that as we run a set of sprints at the end of every practice, but we have to get ready for Monday for the chance to go to Murfreesboro,” he concluded.
The Cherokees are now 19-11 following Thursday’s loss. They got off to a great start, but just couldn’t maintain it as Red Bank turned up the heat on both ends and the Cherokees had a tough time keeping pace.
South Doyle coach James Jones just knows that his team will play again on Monday.
“Things didn’t turn out the way we would have liked, but my guys just weren’t ready for the physical style of game that Red Bank played. It was a tough game and really physical on both ends. We couldn’t get a whistle and the game sort of got away from us,” Jones nodded while the All-Tournament team was being announced.
“We could have played so much better, but we allowed way too many offensive rebounds and Red Bank just turned them into layups. The good news is that we’re still playing on Monday,” he added.
Nate Thompson scored the first five points of the game in the first 90 seconds to put South Doyle up early. They maintained the lead until Jaylen Rice got a steal and layup with 1:32 to play in the first quarter for Red Bank’s first lead at 14-13, but the Cherokees scored the next six points for a 19-14 lead when the first stanza ended.
Buckets from Kendrick Lloyd and Malik Rizer to start the second got the Lions within one at 19-18 before Thompson scored on a layup for a 21-18 lead with 7:05 showing in the half.
Red Bank then got six points from Lloyd and two from Anthony Bonner for a 26-21 with 4:42 left, leading to a 27-23 advantage for the Lions at intermission.
The Cherokees scored six of the first eight points in the third quarter to tie the game at 29-29 with 7:05 showing, but the Lions finished the quarter on a 16-6 run for a 45-35 lead at the end of three as Red Bank had all the momentum on its side while the Cherokees were still trying to regain some sort of control.
A 15-2 run by the Lions in the first half of the fourth quarter extended the lead to 60-37 and it never got any closer as subs from both teams played out the final few minutes.
Bonner finished with 22 points and five rebounds to earn MVP honors for the tournament while teammates Lloyd and Landon Crutcher were also in double figures with 17 and 10 points, respectively.
Lloyd also led with 10 rebounds as Red Bank had an unofficial 26-22 advantage on the boards.
Thompson was the leading scorer for the Cherokees as he finished with 17 points and six rebounds. Mikkelsen, an exchange student from Denmark, was next with nine points while Troit Patterson added eight.
SOUTH DOYLE 19 4 12 9 -- 44
RED BANK 14 13 18 23 -- 68
SOUTH DOYLE (44) – Wilkerson, Lowe, Niyongabo, Mikkelsen 9, Patterson 8, Henderson, D. Elder 2, Tipton 5, M. Elder, Smith 3, Cozart, Nate Thompson 17.
RED BANK (68) – Tanner, Collier, Anthony Bonner 22, Rice 6, Johnson 7, Kendrick Lloyd 17, Stewart, Rizer 2, Landon Crutcher 10, Alex 2, Mitchell 2, Wilbur, Hambrick.
3-Point Goals: South Doyle 4 (Mikkelsen 2, Smith, Thompson); Red Bank 3 (Crutcher 2, Johnson).
BOYS ALL-REGION TOURNAMENT TEAM: Andrew Matukewicz and Christopher Kennedy (Signal Mountain); Eli Williams and Gaven French (Heritage); Nate Thompson, Eigel Mikkelsen and T.J. Tipson (South Doyle); Kendrick Lloyd, Jaylen Rice and MVP Anthony Bonner (Red Bank).
(Email John Hunt at nomarathonmoose@gmail.com)