Walking onto the court after halftime, his team well in control with a 22-point lead, Central basketball coach Rick Rogers was the picture of calm confidence. Midway through the third quarter, however, his shirt was untucked, his tie was loosened and he even yanked off his sport coat and threw it over his head, turning to watch it sail into the first row behind him after an air ball on a wide-open jump shot.
If he still had hair, Rogers likely would've begun pulling it out in chunks as he watched his team's comfortable lead trimmed to one point by the start of the fourth quarter.
The second-seeded Purple Pounders eventually restored order and held off Hixson for a 68-60 win in the District 6-AA tournament semifinals Saturday at Red Bank. Central will play top-seeded Brainerd for the district championship Tuesday night.
The Panthers beat Red Bank 69-56 in Saturday's other semifinal and have beaten Central in two of their three meetings this season.
"I've never done that before," Rogers said afterward, referring to tossing his jacket in frustration. "But that was the worst quarter of basketball we've played all year. Give credit to Hixson -- they were playing well -- and we didn't respond to their pressure.
"Our kids seem to respond to my craziness."
Rogers called time out early in the fourth but never said a word to his team during the break. Instead he simply stared at each of his players until they grew so uncomfortable they began to fidget in their chairs, then responded with a 7-1 scoring spurt that included a steal and fastbreak layup and a lob dunk by Ryan Montgomery off an inbounds pass.
Thanks to JaMichael Poole scoring seven of his 12 points in the final quarter, Central rebuilt its lead to 11 midway through. But again Hixson answered, this time with a 7-0 run, and eventually whittled the deficit to two with 1:28 remaining. A 7-0 scoring run by the Pounders from that point put the game away.
Although Hixson came into the tournament with a 2-10 regular-season district record, it had won two games in as many days to reach the semis, including an upset of third-seeded Tyner on Friday.
"I'm really proud of the way our kids fought for the entire game, especially having to play three straight games just to get there," Wildcats coach Lawanza Crutcher said. "We've worked to get better as the season has gone, and we're playing pretty good right now."
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293.