HIGH-SCHOOL

Warriors pull off second stunner

MAURICE PATTON
Landon Andrews scored a game-high 21 points Monday night, including this basket with less than five seconds remaining to give Culleoka a 57-55 victory over host Mt. Pleasant in the championship game of the District 10-A Tournament.

MT. PLEASANT — One postseason upset wasn't enough for Culleoka.

Advancing unexpectedly into Monday's District 10-A Tournament title game with a semifinal victory over regular-season co-champion Santa Fe, the fourth-seeded Warriors made themselves at home against host Mt. Pleasant.

Landon Andrews scored with four seconds left to put his team ahead, and the Tigers’ desperation 3-pointer was off the mark to end a 57-55 battle — giving Culleoka its first district tournament championship since the 2008-09 team swept regular-season and tourney top honors — in which the Warriors never appeared overwhelmed despite two regular-season losses to its finals foe.

“That's a great team — crazy athletes,” Andrews said after scoring a game-high 21 points and earning tourney most valuable player honors. “We got blown out the first time we played them; the second time, we hung with them.

“We just gave it all we had. We knew we had to be as intense as we could be, not let them get open shots, not let them get to the rim.”

Culleoka (15-10), which lost to visiting Mt. Pleasant 76-38 on Jan. 17 and 46-40 on the Tigers' floor three weeks ago, was the aggressor Monday. All five of its starters scored in the opening quarter, en route to a seven-point cushion before the second-seeded hosts scored the final five points of the period and made it a 12-10 game.

Mt. Pleasant (20-9) seemed to have righted itself in the early moments of the second quarter, putting together a 9-0 run for a seven-point lead. But the Tigers couldn't sustain it, and Culleoka answered with eight straight points.

“It was definitely fuel for these guys; they had never beaten Mt. Pleasant in their entire career,” said third-year Warriors coach Mike Lovett. “We knew it was a big game, but we tried not to put that in our head. We just wanted to go play quarter by quarter.”

The Tigers managed a narrow 23-21 lead by halftime, and extended the margin back out to six points on three different occasions in the third quarter. Each time, though, Culleoka had an answer, and an Andrews 3-pointer late in the period kept his team within one before Preston Bagsby opened the fourth with a trey to spark a a 12-2 run.

“I think Mike's done a great job of putting his guys in places and spots to be successful,” Mt. Pleasant first-year coach Chris Carney said. “They're playing to their strengths, offensively and defensively, and playing with a high IQ.”

Down nine with three minutes to play, Mt. Pleasant scrambled back behind 3s from Kentra Frierson and Kayne Forest, and — after a Cooper Parks free throw with 22. 9 seconds remaining gave Culleoka a 55-53 advantage — tied the game on a Tip Marlow low-post basket.

“They caught back up, but we fought,” Andrews said. “It definitely was not an easy win. They're a great team.”

Out of a timeout with 10.2 ticks left, Culleoka bobbled the ball in the frontcourt but it eventually wound up in the hands of Andrews, who converted at the rim. Mt. Pleasant's attempt at a late score yielded a 3-point try by Frierson from the left corner that was off the mark.

“That wasn't what we wanted,” Carney said.

“I thought we had some good looks (throughout the night) for some of our guys, good shooters. Guys have got to make shots, make plays. We looked like deer in headlights at times.”

Parks finished with 13 points and Ethan Hardison 10 for Culleoka. Frierson scored 15 points to lead Mt. Pleasant, with Keshawn Hudson scoring 13 and Forest 11.

Culleoka will host Jo Byrns, the No. 4 seed out of District 9-A, in Saturday's Region 5-A tourney quarterfinals, while Mt. Pleasant will face visiting McEwen. The Tigers are on the same side of the bracket as East Robertson, the District 9-A tournament champion.

“We obviously wanted to win, but our team can beat anybody if we're in the right mindframe and playing with the right effort,” Carney said. “We'll spend the next four days fixing what went wrong and flushing that.”

Co-champs finish fourth: Another night of offensive struggles resulted in another tourney loss for Santa Fe, as the Wildcats fell 72-58 to Richland in Monday's consolation game.

The defeat sends Santa Fe (14-10), the top districct tournament seed, to East Robertson for Saturday's region quarterfinal. Richland (17-11) will play at Houston County.

“Momentum's a funny thing,” Wildcats coach Brad Slaughter said. “We struggled defensively, and we were getting one shot at the goal. We weren't doing the things we'd done all year long. It's tough to pinpoint, other than momentum — not getting in rhythm.”

A disjointed attack early wasn't helped when Jeremy Dotson had to sit with foul issues.

“That's the biggest thing these last two games,” Slaughter said. “A guy that averages 20 (points) a game has four the other night and (12 Monday). Then, guys that don't take as many shots are taking more shots. Some teams came out and said 'Andy (Slaughter) and Jeremy aren't going to beat us, and we had other guys step up. We were gun shy.”

Colton Steward's 13 points led Santa Fe offensively, with Slaughter and Tanner Bryan scoring 10 each. Logan Helton finished with a game-high 24 to lead Richland; Trey Luna added 17 and Daniel Nicholson 14.

Culleoka boys 57, Mt. Pleasant 55

C 12 9 19 17 — 57

M 10 13 18 14 — 55

Culleoka (57) — Ethan Hardison 10, Preston Bagsby 4, Landon Andrews 21, Erik Mick 2, Cooper Parks 13, Chris Hutcherson 7

Mt. Pleasant (55) — Kentra Frierson 15, Tip Marlow 4, Keshawn Hudson 13, Kayne Forest 11, Jakob Smith 6, Chris Andrews 6

3-pointers — Culleoka 5 (Hardison, Bagsby, Andrews 2, Hutcherson), Mt. Pleasant 7 (Frierson 3, Hudson 3, Forest)

Richland boys 72, Santa Fe 58

R 22 16 19 15 — 72

S 15 14 10 19 — 28

Richland (72) — Tyrell Randolph 4, Logan Helton 24, Daniel Nicholson 14, Trey Luna 17, Brennon Angus 2, Jase Derryberry 3, Stevie Ballinger 8

Santa Fe (58) — Logan Wilkins 2, Sammy Caudle 2, Colton Steward 13, Jeremy Dotson 12, Andy Slaughter 10, Will Monhollen 6, Tanner Bryan 10, Josh Martin 3

3-pointers — Richland 8 (Helton 3, Nicholson, Luna 3, Derryberry), Santa Fe 4 (Steward, Monhollen 2, Martin)

All-District 10-A

Kendra Frierson, Keshawn Hudson, Jakob Smith (Mt. Pleasant); Jeremy Dotson, Andy Slaughter, Colton Steward (Santa Fe); Montel Bobbitt, Daniel Nicholson (Richland); Landon Andrews, Cooper Parks (Culleoka); Hunter Jones (Hampshire)

All-Tournament

Landon Andrews*, Preston Bagsby, Ethan Hardison (Culleoka); Keshawn Hudson, Jakob Smith (Mt. Pleasant); Logan Helton (Richland); Colton Steward (Santa Fe); Hunter Jones (Hampshire)

(*Most Valuable Player)