Red Bank's boys may have come into Thursday's District 6-AA high school basketball tournament elimination game as the road team, as well as the No. 6 seed going against the No. 3 seed. But it was clear from the start the Lions looked sharp and ready to play, while counterpart and host Central was busy trying to shake off the rust of not having played in a week.
That the Purple Pounders twice beat Red Bank by 11 points during the regular season had no effect in this game, one in which the Lions never trailed on the way to a 71-59 victory.
Red Bank (11-17) advances to a Saturday semifinal at Howard, where it will take on Signal Mountain at 4:30 p.m. The win also assures the Lions of a berth in the Region 3 tournament.
Red Bank coach Nick Fike knew his team was capable of doing good things because of the way it performed at times against tough competition during the season. He thought defeating Hixson the night before in the tournament opener may have been just the tonic his players needed.
"Potential has a shelf life," Fike said of a saying the team has embraced this season. "This team has all the potential. They're not ready to put it on the shelf yet."
The Lions' lead was 19-6 after one quarter, and they increased it to 40-22 by halftime. The margin grew to 21 early in the second half before Central (6-10) chipped away and got it down to 48-39 with a little less than 2:30 to go in the third quarter.
Then it took Red Bank 11 seconds to regain the double-digit lead it kept the rest of the way.
"We talked about how good teams will make a run," Fike said. "I told them, 'We need to withstand that run and come back with one of our own,' and we did that."
Central was within 11 six times after getting it down to nine. The last was at 65-54.
"Every time there was a 50-50 ball or a rebound or a loose ball, they'd get it," Central coach Rick Rogers said. "We could not get the breaks, but Red Bank had a lot to do with that. They were really aggressive.
"We're not really a high-powered offensive team. We kind of play station to station. But you can't play station to station and make a lot of 15-point runs on somebody."
Tory Sewell led the Lions with 20 points. Jamel Davis and Mike Porter added 12 apiece, and Ivan Young totaled 10.
Brett Abshire, one of the Pounders' two seniors along with Julius Jackson, scored his 15 points after halftime. Davon Reid had 13 and Trey Owten scored 10, with eight coming in the second half.
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.