Memphis basketball signee Malcolm Dandridge of East done for season after injury

COLLIERVILLE — East is attempting to win a fourth straight Class AAA boys basketball championship, but the Mustangs will have to do it without 6-9  Memphis signee Malcolm Dandridge.

Dandridge did not play in East's 59-44 win over Houston in Tuesday's Region 8-AAA semifinals, and said he will be out for the remainder of season with a knee injury. 

"Yeah, I’m out for the season and I’m going to regroup for next year," said Dandridge. "The doctor thought it wise for me to be done with high school basketball so I just took that info and accepted it." 

Dandridge thinks that he has a tear in his meniscus but is waiting on his MRI results to be sure. 

East also has 7-footer James Wiseman, a Memphis signee who is the No. 1 player in the Class of 2019, according to the 247Sports Composite.

The Mustangs will play Whitehaven for the fourth time this season in the region championship at 7 p.m. Thursday at Collierville. Dandridge was the X factor in East's two wins over Whitehaven, averaging 18.5 points and 14.5 rebounds in the contests.

But the last time the teams played, in the district championship, Dandridge had just two points in a 60-55 loss. Dandridge says he was hurt in that game. 

"You can’t substitute one guy for Malcolm. You’ve got to do it by committee," said East coach Jevonte Holmes. "It’s going to be Tadarius (Jacobs), its going to be Nautica (Harwell), its going to be Kylan (Haywood) ... it's going to be a lot of different guys.”

James Wiseman: I've got to lead my team

With Dandridge out, Wiseman said he knows he has to step up big in Thursday's rematch of last year's state title game.

The McDonald's All-American caught fire in the fourth quarter of the district title game against Whitehaven and finished with 32 points but it wasn't enough for the win.

Wiseman said that although he anticipates needing a similar performance on Thursday he isn't feeling any extra pressure. 

"I’ve just got to go out there and lead my team," said Wiseman. "I’ve been doing this since I was little, so it ain’t no pressure."

Both teams will advance to Monday's sectionals, where spots in the state tournament will be on the line.

Matthew Murrell puts Whitehaven in region final

Whitehaven couldn't have clinched its spot in the region championship in a more dramatic fashion. Down two points with 2.1 seconds left, Matthew Murrell sank a 3-pointer at the buzzer to secure a 51-50 win over Southwind on Tuesday. 

"I don’t care if Matthew had missed every shot tonight, he was going to get the last shot and he’s always going to get the last shot if we can win or tie it," said coach Faragi Phillips. "It doesn't make any difference. He puts in the work and he’s deserving of it."

So Phillips drew up a play for him. And Murrell, who led the team with 19 points, delivered. 

"It’s a play that we usually run and he switched our positions based on how they were guarding us," said Murrell. "So he knew they would go for the initial corner shot so they switched on that and I was able to get loose and get the top of the key shot."

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