East Hamilton hosted Stone Memorial in a Region 3-AAA boys' high school basketball quarterfinal Saturday. It turned out to be more like "Stone Cold" Memorial.
Not only did the Panthers from Crossville struggle to get shots to fall, they didn't even score in the first quarter. The Hurricanes took a 13-point lead to the second, continued to build on it and eventually won 62-38.
East Hamilton (22-10) will play White County on Tuesday at 7:45 p.m. at Cleveland. Walker Valley plays Cleveland in the first semifinal at 6.
Stone Memorial's first points came 1:20 into the second quarter when Christian Velker hit a 3-point shot from the left wing. The Panthers finally reached double figures when Tristan Norman cut backdoor for a layup and his first field goal to start the second-half scoring.
"We had a couple of days to look at video of them. They do some really, really good stuff, but it all goes through number 10," East Hamilton coach Rodney English said of Norman, who ultimately led Stone Memorial (14-16) with 18 points, including 9-of-10 free-throw shooting and their other 3-pointer. "We thought if we could take number 10 out, they'd have a tough time offensively, and they did."
The Hurricanes' lead was 12 at that point, but they expanded it to 46-18 by the end of the third quarter. Making matters worse for the Panthers, when they did miss a shot rarely were they able to come up with an offensive rebound.
"We did a whole lot of breaking things down and we saw that when they played teams comparable to us, teams with an athletic advantage, they had lots of trouble on the boards," English said. "We just made that a point of emphasis."
All 12 East Hamilton players who dressed out got to play, and its leading scorer was Vandrele Wilson with 14 points off the bench. Starting post player DaVae Hughley had 11 and another reserve, Sam Randolph, scored 10.
"We've got a lot of young kids," said English, who starts one senior, Noah Fager. "This is our first time being here. There's really not much experience in postseason. Getting to play as many as we did could only benefit us."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.