Lions claw way to region berth

FAYETTEVILLE — Playing without two senior starters, against a team that had swept their regular-season series, Columbia Central bombed Franklin County early and held on late for a 72-65 District 8-AAA tournament quarterfinal victory Monday night at Lincoln County, assuring the fifth-seeded Lions of at least three more postseason games.

The win clinches a spot in Thursday's district tourney semifinals against top-seed and regular-season titlist Coffee County. The four semifinalists from each district advance, following either their championship or consolation contests, to the region quarterfinals.

“We talked about 'do or die' — lose, we go home; win, we keep going,” said sophomore guard Omari Franklin, who came off the bench and scored 10 first-quarter points to help stabilize Central (9-17) early. “We didn't want to go home. We played as hard as we could.”

Offensively, the Lions' starting lineup of Keshawn Frierson, DQ Mitchell, Cam Johnson, Q Martin and A.J. Pillow struggled at the game's onset, managing just just one field goal in the first three minutes. Franklin, who entered the game along with Meach McCoy at the 5:34 mark as Johnson and Pillow came out, stroked a pair of 3-pointers on consecutive possessions, then added a floater in the paint and a stickback of his own miss in the final 34 seconds of the period to leave his team trailing 18-17 at the end of the quarter.

“I had to create some energy, come in and make plays,” he said. “My teammates believed in me to hit shots and make plays.”

Frierson, tabbed by the district's coaches and media as the preseason player of the year after earning tourney most valuable player honors a year ago, came on in the second quarter with 10 of his game-high 23 points — including a trey just before the break to make it a 39-37 game in favor of Central, which lost 74-57 to the visiting Rebels on Jan. 7 and 53-48 in Winchester on Jan. 31.

“We never gave up,” Frierson said. “We were down two starters, but we played with confidence. We knew we weren't guaranteed another game, so we played like it was our last game.

“We knew we could beat them. We hadn't played a full four quarters in either game. We played a full four quarters and we played together.”

Neither forward Eli McCoy nor guard Devin Reynolds made the trip Monday, as they were suffering from “flu-like symptoms”, according to second-year coach Nick Campbell — who was unaware the pair would be unavailable when he guaranteed a victory during the radio broadcast of the Central girls' play-in loss Saturday at Shelbyville.

“If we play like we're supposed to, I like our chances against anybody,” Campbell said. “It's a tournament sport. We put everything behind us.”

The Lions finally managed to put some distance between themselves and Franklin County (13-15) in the third period. Frierson scored seven of the team's nine points in a two-minute stretch, capping one possession with a 3 after Mitchell grabbed a pair of offensive rebounds and giving Central a 52-43 cushion. But the Rebels closed the quarter with seven straight points, and kept the contest close over the final eight minutes. Going five-for-seven from the foul line over the last 1:11 helped Columbia Central hang on.

“They did a good job hitting 3s in the first half,” Franklin County coach Mike Holt said, as Central hit seven of its eight 3s for the game in the opening two quarters. “When they hit those, they're pretty good. And then we didn't do a very good job defending the drive (in the second half). They had a good game plan, and we just didn't execute like we could or should.”

Martin finished with 18 points and Mitchell 10 for the Lions, who lost six of their final eight regular-season games. Surrlo Scaife led Franklin County with 20 points, with Kane Reed adding 19 off the bench.

“Since last Thursday, I've been letting them know — we win, we've got three more games guaranteed,” Campbell said. “We came out and played well. We still have to do a better job down the stretch of not turning the ball over, and making free throws (9-18 for the game). But it was a total team effort.

“If we play our basketball for four quarters, I like our chances against anybody here.”

In the late game Monday, third-seeded host Lincoln County overcame a six-point halftime deficit to defeat No. 6 seed Shelbyville 61-55 in overtime. The Falcons will face second seed Tullahoma in Thursday's 7:30 p.m. semifinal, following the 6 p.m. game between Central and Coffee County.

Columbia Central boys 72, Franklin Co. 65

C 17 22 19 14 — 72

F 18 19 19 9 — 65

Columbia Central (72) — Keshawn Frierson 23, DQ Mitchell 10, Cam Johnson 7, Meach McCoy 4, Q Martin 18, Omari Franklin 10

Franklin Co. (65) — Surrlo Scaife 20, Aydan Yates 5, Jamal Blackwell 4, Devean Shockley 5, Kane Reed 19, Mason Mitchell 2, Ke'Andre Johnson 10

3-pointers — Columbia Central 8 (Frierson 4, Johnson, Martin, Franklin 2), Franklin Co. 6 (Scaife 2, Yates, Reed, Johnson 2)