Before the season began, first-year Howard basketball coach James Talley asked each player to write down his team goals. Every Hustlin' Tigers player came up with the same answer - to reach the state tournament.
Monday night Howard raced out to a commanding lead on the road, then held off a late rally to defeat Watertown 64-56 in a Class AA sectional. With the win the Hustlin' Tigers achieved their goal and will return to the state tournament for the first time since 2013.
"To be honest, I'm still kind of numb," Talley said after the game. "All we want to do is teach our kids to set goals so they can understand how good it feels to reach them after you work for it. This is a big lesson for our kids. It's another step toward understanding what manhood is.
"They played hard for it, and now they've achieved that goal. Going on the road to do it, in a place where their crowd was looking for any reason to be in the game, that says a lot about how strong our senior leadership is. Every time they made a run at us, we answered. Our seniors refused to lose."
Howard (24-8) jumped out to a six-point lead early, then expanded it to double digits by halftime and pulled ahead by 21 in the fourth before Watertown, which had won three straight postseason games to earn the right to host, rallied.
However, Howard had built too much of a cushion as four players finished in double-figure scoring, led by Meechie Bowens with 17 points. Point guard Marquez Williams added 14, Calvin James 13 and Kerrick Thorne 10 for the Hustlin' Tigers, who will learn their state-tournament opening matchup when the TSSAA holds its bracket draw this afternoon.
East Hamilton lost its bid to return to the Class AAA state tournament for the first time in two years with a 61-59 defeat at Murfreesboro Oakland on Monday night.