Central boys, Brainerd girls win 6-AA finals

Brainerd's Miles Cothran, center, tries to keep the ball in his arms against Central's Ryan Montgomery, right, and Terron Hayes during their TSSAA District 6-AA basketball championship game Thursday, Feb. 19, 2015, at Red Bank High School in Red Bank.
Brainerd's Miles Cothran, center, tries to keep the ball in his arms against Central's Ryan Montgomery, right, and Terron Hayes during their TSSAA District 6-AA basketball championship game Thursday, Feb. 19, 2015, at Red Bank High School in Red Bank.

Central boys' basketball coach Rick Rogers turned to his bench in the third quarter and stated the obvious.

"We're turning it over and they're not," he said, "and we're down by five."

So with a look to point guard Terron Hayes, the Purple Pounders changed their defense -- and the game, leading to a 60-59 win over top-seeded Brainerd in the District 6-AA tournament final played at Red Bank.

Both teams will host Region 3-AA quarterfinals Tuesday night.

"We had stuff in our game plan that we hadn't used against them all season," Rogers said. "When we got down five, we had to change then or never. That was the difference -- doing something that they hadn't seen."

The adjustment resulted in a five-minute scoring drought and six turnovers for the Panthers, who went from up 36-31 with five minutes to play in the third quarter to being down 44-41 heading to the fourth quarter.

"Every day we work on going against every press you can throw at us," Brainerd coach Levar Brown said. "It's very disappointing to see it happen today at this point of the season."

Ryan Montgomery led the Pounders with 18 points, including 11 in the second half. Hayes and Jamichael Poole each scored 13 for Central (18-4). Marques Tipton led the Panthers (19-6) with 18 points, and Da'V Moore added 11.

"They didn't know what to do," Hayes said of the Panthers in the third quarter. "It got us turnovers, it got us pumped up and we wanted to keep it going."

The Brainerd girls defeated the Lady Pounders 46-44 by making three free throws in the final minute and getting an outstanding block by Ebony Calloway on Central's final possession.

"That's the biggest play of the year," Lady Panthers coach Tyrus Ward said. "It was absolutely great."

Jumeka Brown led Brainerd with 17 points, including 13 in the second half. Calloway scored 12 points and Keniah Watkins added 10 for the Lady Panthers, who will have a region playoff game at home Monday or Tuesday.

Sandra Sylman and Rebekah Hill each scored 15 point to lead the Lady Pounders, who also will host early next week.

Brainerd led 19-18 at halftime and 30-29 after three questers but trailed 42-38 with 2:59 to play. Yet Central could muster only one more basket the rest of the game.

Jamee Ward hit a 3-pointer to pull Brainerd within one with 90 seconds left. Brown hit two free throws following a Central miss. Then Calloway jumped out from the low post to swat a midrange jumper on the left side of the lane.

"Our team motto is, 'Devour, kill win,'" Brown said. "Even though we were losing, we stayed calm. Coach told us what to do and we did it."

Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP.

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