A dominant performance by Central forward Ryan Montgomery not only led the Purple Pounders to an 83-45 victory over Marion County on Saturday in the Best of Preps tournament but also had fans at Chattanooga State on their feet screaming.
Montgomery flushed down five dunks and scored 29 points in the win. He had 13 of Central’s 20 points in the first quarter and shot 83 percent from the free-throw line for the game.
The Purple Pounders (8-0) will play Baylor at 5:30 p.m. Monday in a semifinal. Marion (3-1) will face Ooltewah at 11:30 a.m.
“Ryan’s been working really hard in practice to become a better player,” Central coach Rick Rogers said. “We look for him to play above the rim. He gets the crowd into it and gets us emotionally charged. He kept us in the game early and got the lead for us with his back-to-back dunks.”
Rodney Benford and Terron Hayes added 16 and 14 points for Central. The Pounders played without starting point guard Emmanuel Lane, who has become a major factor in their offense and defense.
“Emmanuel brings a lot of energy to the team,” Montgomery said. “He gets steals, deflections and he’s usually the one who throws me the ball off the backboard for the alley-oop. Once we knew he was not coming, we knew we had to pick up the defense.”
Saturday’s game was the first time Central could use transfer McClendon Curtis (6-foot-7, 293 pounds). In his first game since early last season for McCallie, Curtis scored 10 points, making all four of his attempts.
Marion County held the deficit to eight at halftime, 40-32, but the Warriors could not hold on for long and Central outscored them 33-6 in the third quarter. Logan Walters had 17 points for Marion.
Contact Garrett Tumlin at sports@timesfreepress.com