The football team's success had left Meigs County's basketball team shorthanded to begin the season, and the result was a dismal start. But now with a full roster - including three starters who were late to join the team after the football Tigers' run to the state semifinals - the results are starting to turn in their favor.
Meigs County registered its second win of the week Friday night, pulling away from Arts & Sciences for a 43-33 victory in the Chatt-Town Classic at Chattanooga State.
"We're a different team with those guys back out after football season ended, and they're starting to get in basketball shape now, too," said Tigers coach Sammy Perkinson, whose team began the season with 10 straight losses. "We've been solid the past couple of weeks. We've won our last two, and the two before that we lost to a pair of really good teams by two points each.
"Tonight's win is big for us because anytime you can come into Chattanooga and get a win it's good for the confidence. Things are starting to turn back in a good direction now. It would have been easy to go in the other direction after the way we started the season, but we're getting good effort and that's a good sign."
Meigs County took the lead late in the second quarter and maintained a narrow advantage throughout the second half. Brantley Baker's 3-pointer just before the third-quarter buzzer pushed the lead to six, and his fast-break layup late in the fourth gave his team its first double-digit lead.
Baker and 6-foot-7 senior post Caleb Newman each finished with 18 points to lead the Tigers, who will play Soddy-Daisy today in the final day of the tournament. Arts & Sciences was led by Cahlib Edwards' 14 points, including two 3-pointers. The Patriots will face Central tonight at 7.
Central held off Soddy-Daisy 55-53 on Friday.
Cleveland, which was without three starters and another player who were suspended earlier in the week, raced out to a 9-0 lead, then held off a second-half rally to defeat Sonoraville 43-35 in a later game Friday. Jacob Wood led all scorers with 16 points for the Blue Raiders, and Grant Hurst added 12.
"We had good energy to start the game, but you could tell there was some fatigue, and the guys we've got playing right now are still trying to get used to playing together," said Cleveland coach Jason McCowan. "We had guys who aren't used to playing extended minutes having to play a lot more. It felt like going back to preseason camp, which is not something you want to say this time of year, but the effort was good and this win should give us some confidence moving forward."
The Blue Raiders will take on Red Bank tonight at 8:30 in the final game of the event. Red Bank lost 51-48 to a Walker Valley comeback in Friday's nightcap.
In Chatt-Town girls' games Friday, Heritage rallied to edge Red Bank 50-46, Tyner beat South Pittsburg 58-35, Arts & Sciences topped Soddy-Daisy 59-44 and Meigs County defeated Walker Valley 48-42.
The tournament picks back up today at 10 a.m. with Tyner's girls taking on Soddy-Daisy, followed by the Arts & Sciences girls versus South Pittsburg, Walker Valley girls versus Heritage and Red Bank versus Meigs County. After the Meigs boys take on Soddy-Daisy at 4, three other boys' games will follow: Walker Valley versus Sonoraville, Central versus Arts & Sciences and Cleveland versus Red Bank.
Contact Stephen Hargis at shargis@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6293. Follow him on Twitter @StephenHargis.