How Creek Wood made history with first TSSAA basketball state tournament win

MURFREESBORO – It was as emotional of a win as Creek Wood boys basketball coach Charles Taylor can remember.

Creek Wood, located in Charlotte inside Dickson County, won its first ever TSSAA boys basketball state tournament game on Thursday, defeating Red Bank 50-34 in the Class 3A quarterfinals.

“I'm a lifelong Dickson County resident," Taylor said. "I played at Dickson County High School. I lost a sectional and watched multiple teams lose sectionals. And, you know, we broke through nine years ago to get here.

“We talked to (the team), they won their first (regional tournament) in our school history this year and I challenged them, ‘Can you make history again (Thursday)?’ For me it's a childhood dream, honestly, come true,” said Taylor, holding back tears.

Jamison Ford led all scorers in the game with 14 points while Carter Thomason added 11 for the Red Hawks. Kendrick Lloyd finished the game with 10 points for Red Bank (28-8).

Creek Wood (23-8) plays Ridgeway (26-5) at 7:15 pm. Friday at MTSU's Murphy Center.

Taylor has coached at Creek Wood since the school opened 22 years ago. He coached the Red Hawks to their only other state tournament appearance in 2015, falling in the quarterfinals to Knoxville Fulton.

Taylor said he tried to keep Creek Wood's game day as normal as possible for his players, despite the added pressure of playing in a state tournament. That doesn't mean there weren't jitters.

“Walking in, just surrounded by the big lights, I mean yeah, everybody's going to be nervous coming in,” Creek Wood senior Jamison Ford said. “But like, once we withstand the first few minutes of the game, then everything settled up.”

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Creek Wood basketball fueled by fan support

Creek Wood players were put at ease by the presence of hundreds of supporters, with whom they celebrated after the final buzzer sounded.

But the fan support on game day came much earlier than in Murphy Center.

“My assistant coach (Tim) Decker looked at me today (as) we're on the bus coming through town and he said, ‘I don't remember being this much excitement today,’” Taylor said. “We drove by the elementary school in White Bluff. The middle school was out at the highway, everybody was honking and it was just amazing to see the community support and the outpouring that we had before we ever even got out of the city limits of White Bluff. It was awesome.”