Douglass basketball falls short to Alcoa in TSSAA Class 2A title for second straight season

MURFREESBORO – Douglass basketball coach Greg Williams was left speechless. Jarmon Brittman couldn’t stop looking down. Taquez Butler looked simply stunned.  

No way did Douglass’s season end just like it did last year: In the state championship game, to Alcoa, on the last day of the TSSAA basketball season.  

But it did.  

Alcoa held off a late comeback effort from Douglass to defend its Class 2A title with a 76-67 win over the Red Devils. 

“If we’re not careful, this game today will suck the life out of you if you allow it because we had so much confidence coming into the game,” Williams said. “We felt like we were going to be state champs, we felt that in our heart. ... At the end of the day, we had a great season.” 

Douglass (35-1) dedicated its entire 2024 season to avenge last season’s one-point loss to the Tornadoes (26-13) in the title game.  

Winning a gold ball was the only thing that mattered to Douglass' players. So much so, they deemed this season a championship or bust season.  

They doubled down on that after Saturday’s loss. 

"Yes, this season was a bust,” said Butler, who had a team-high 25 points.

Brittman added 12 points and 14 rebounds in the loss. 

Williams wanted to provide more perspective on the season, even if it didn’t end the way it was supposed to in their eyes.  

"I beg to differ with that,” Williams said after his players answered. “We didn’t win the gold ball but how many teams in the state of Tennessee can say they were one of the last two teams playing? ... Yes it hurts, but we’ve got a lot to be proud of.” 

Douglass trailed by 21 points midway through the third quarter.

But Douglass' confidence didn't flinch. Part of why Douglass was able to comeback against Alcoa was because it wasn’t unfamiliar territory. Despite not having a loss, Williams said the 21-point deficit wasn’t the largest this season.  

Douglass wasn’t frazzled trailing early. And they didn’t think the moment was too big or there was any pressure that caused them to not play as well to start.  

It was simply Alcoa being the better team.  

"It just wasn’t our day,” Williams said. “That’s a good way to put it.” 

That’s what makes finishing runner-up to the same team nearly a year apart hard to accept right now.  

Douglass has plenty of silver with three second place finishes since 2018. They thought this season they were finally trading silver for gold.  

They’ll have to wait at least one more year to do that. And it may take some divine intervention.  

"I’m a Christian man,” Williams said. “It wasn’t our time; if (God) wants us to have it, we’ll get it. When that might be, I don’t know. All we can do is come out and give it our all, every time.” 

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