NASHVILLE, TN — In March, college basketball takes center stage with their postseason tournaments. For years they have called it “March Madness” because of some major teams being upset by lower seeds. Last week, Metro High School district tournaments started and some upsets were in order.
At the District 10AA tournament hosted by Stratford, a plethora of former stars like former NFL players: Corey Fleming Larry Howse and Nate Simpson along wih other metro stars Odell Bradley and Dontae Jones were in the building. Probably the biggest upset happened this past Saturday when third seeded East Nashville (23-7 overall, 14-5 metro) defeated regular season co-champion Maplewood (22-6, 15-2) 72-61. Maplewood was tied with Whites Creek (24-4, 13-2) but lost a coin flip so they became the second seed setting up Saturday’s game. This past Tuesday, East matched up with Whites Creek to determine the district championship.
“Our guys have worked extremely hard all year,” said East head coach Jim Fey. “We learned a lot by falling to a couple of teams. We put them through a grueling schedule to prepare them for this. We are a junior heavy team but a couple of seniors really stepped up. That may have been our best game of the year.”
Maplewood made up for their loss by taking the third place game 70-46 over Pearl-Cohn (11-17, 7-11). Pearl-Cohn made it to the regional by defeating higher seed Martin Luther King (12-14, 5-9) 69-46 on Friday. This Saturday East and Whites Creek will host regional games while Maplewood and Pearl-Cohn will be on the road. All of the games will be against District 9AA teams.
In 12AAA boys, head coach Marlin Simms’ Cane Ridge Ravens (25-5, 18-1) overcame their only district loss of the season by defeating Antioch (22-5, 15-4) 63-59 to take the district championship. They will go on to host Centennial. Antioch will host Summit as well. In the consolation game, Hillsboro (17-10, 11-8) held off upset minded Overton (13-17, 7-13) 55-42. Hillsboro will have to travel to Brentwood while Overton will be at Independence.
“I have a great group of kids that like each other and work well together,” said Simms. Coming into the season we had one returning starter in Damien Baugh so it was important for them to work well together. Getting our quarterback DJ Thorpe to play brought us added toughness. We hole to continue to play well against a well-coached team in Centennial and hopefully advance.”
Girls action was equally hot and heavy. In 12AAA, the Hillsboro Lady Burros (17-9, 14-3) took the title by defeating Cane Ridge (19-7, 11-4) 61-46. Hillsboro will host Franklin while Cane Ridge will welcome Ravenwood in region play. In the consolation game, Antioch (19-6, 15-4) defeated Hunters Lane (6-18, 6-8) 45-27 to take third place. Both teams will be on the road with Antioch traveling to Centennial and Hunters Lane playing AAA powerhouse Dickson County.
In 10AA play, the Pearl-Cohn Lady Firebirds (20-3, 13-1) and East Nashville Lady Eagles (24-5, 15-2) will met for the rubber match of the season this past Tuesday. Both teams have defeated each other at home. East winning the first game in overtime and the Lady Firebirds winning on a late free throw by post Youbryon Chambers. In the consolation game this past Monday, non-metro member Lipscomb Academy defeated the Maplewood Lady Panthers (16-9, 12-5) 41-36 to take third place. On Friday, Pearl-Cohn and East will host District 9AA teams while Maplewood and Lipscomb we go up against 9AA teams on the road.
