Home-court advantage proved to be the difference for Chattanooga-area boys’ basketball teams in Monday night’s state sectional round. The three area host teams all won to advance to next week’s state tournament, while all three road teams saw their season come to an end.
Besides Walker Valley losing on the road at Murfreesboro Oakland in Class AAA, the road victims included Tyner in Class AA, which fell 69-58 at Macon County, and Arts & Sciences in Class A, which lost at Clay County 55-38. Meanwhile, Van Buren County won 71-44 at home over Pickett County to reach the Class A state tournament for a third straight season.
The Eagles (27-6) join Brainerd and East Hamilton as the teams representing the area at next week’s state tournament at Middle Tennessee State University’s Murphy Center. The state tournament draw will be held next Tuesday to determine bracket matchups.
Tyner (25-5), which had won the District 6 tournament title but lost the region championship to Brainerd, fell behind by double digits early, then rallied to begin the second half before Macon County pulled away late.
CSAS struggled to keep up in the second quarter, with a scoring run by Clay County extending a two-point lead to nine by halftime. Senior guard Darius Graves led the Patriots (23-10) with 18 points and Cahlib Edwards added 12. Clay County (30-4) made 11 of 14 free throws, 10 more attempts than CSAS. It was the third win this season for Clay County over CSAS.