Notre Dame first-year boys’ basketball coach Jonathan Adams had what he called a “super-teachable moment” earlier this season. But he doesn’t seem interested in having another, especially this time of year. The Fighting Irish ended up the No. 2-seeded team in the Division II-A East District 2 tournament, which begins tonight with St. Andrew’s-Sewanee’s teams playing at Silverdale Baptist Academy at 6 and 7:30 and Grace Academy’s boys hosting Boyd-Buchanan at 7. Adams’ lesson came on Dec. 7 when a late foul led to Hunter Lewis of Grace, the No. 4-seeded team, making two free throws to nip the Irish by a point. Chattanooga Christian is top-seeded with its one league loss being at home to Notre Dame. “The biggest thing I’m looking for is consistency,” said Adams, whose team is 20-10. “When you don’t have that, it drives you crazy as a coach. We played well at CCS, but we lose a heartbreaker at Grace. Plus there was everything else in between.” Boyd-Buchanan’s girls host Grace at 6 p.m. Tuesday, and then play shifts to Notre Dame for Thursday’s semifinals starting at 4. Third-place games are Friday at 4 and 5:30 with the girls’ championship contest at 7 and the boys’ final at 8:30. The top four teams advance to the East Region tournament, which Notre Dame also is hosting. TSSAA Division I teams are still playing regular-season games this week.
» Sewanee won a Southern Athletic Association doubleheader Sunday at Birmingham-Southern, 57-43 in the women’s game and 71-59 in the men’s. Bella Taylor had 22 points and three assists and Hannah McCormack and Allison Hitchcock each scored 14 points for the female Tigers (9-12, 4-7), McCormack with 19 rebounds. For the Sewanee men (12-9, 8-3), Adrian Thomas and Hunter Buescher each had 18 points and four assists, Thomas with nine rebounds and Buescher with six steals, while Cam Caldwell had 13 points and seven rebounds and Luke Smith scored 12. The Sewanee and Oglethorpe men are tied for second in the SAA behind Centre and will face each other Friday night at Sewanee.
» Georgia Northwestern’s teams lost 76-37 to the Florida College women (17-8) and 94-62 to the FC men (19-5) on Saturday in Rossville. Daniel Parrish hit six 3s and scored 20 points and Cole McKeehan scored 18 for the Bobcats (3-17), who got nine rebounds with 10 points from Traydal Autry. Tori Harvey had 16 points and 12 rebounds and Madison Lewis 10 points and 11 rebounds for the Lady Bobcats (9-7).
Baseball
» Cleveland State begins its baseball season today at Roane State with a good mix of sophomores and freshmen. Returning starters from coach Mike Policastro’s 2017 team that went 33-18 and finished fifth in the TCCAA at 13-14 are second baseman Noah Hill, shortstop Trey Vanderpool, outfielders Cameron Payne and Brandon Mason and left-handed pitchers Hooper Mills and Ryan Lloyd, and righty closer Greg Tye also is back. First baseman Joey Roberson and third baseman Trey Martin also played some last year, and sophomore transfers Hunter Oliver (from Northwest Florida State, after Cleveland High) and Cameron Hankins (from Georgia Southern) are at catcher and in center field. Freshmen Noah Peterson from Gordon Lee and Rhett Baldwin from Ringgold are likely to play quite a bit, Policastro said, and the other starting pitcher possibilities are lefties Ryan Inches and Corey Linz and right-handers Jackson Etter (Signal Mountain) and Collin Grove, with Gunnar Norwood (Cleveland) and Tyler Zak likely in relief roles.