Hillsboro basketball is TSSAA state title contender but coach Rodney Thweatt isn't satisfied

GALLATIN — Even before Hillsboro lost to Memphis Overton in the TSSAA boys basketball state semifinals last season, the cracks had begun to show.

Coach Rodney Thweatt said as much when he admitted after the season-ending defeat that the 2022-23 Burros never maxed out their potential. Their 28-5 record said otherwise, but it's the losses that stick. One of them was the Region 6-4A championship game, in which Hillsboro held a nine-point second-half lead over Independence before losing 54-50.

But with a similar lead at a similar juncture in Thursday's region championship game against Beech, Hillsboro didn't flinch. The Burros stayed steady, playing "one possession at a time" in Thweatt's words, and outscored the Buccaneers 19-4 in the fourth quarter on their way to a 67-44 win.

Hillsboro (24-3) will host Brentwood (19-12) in Monday's sectional with a chance for a third state tournament berth in the last five seasons, and sixth under Thweatt. TSSAA boys basketball sectional winners will compete March 13-16 at MTSU's Murphy Center in Murfreesboro.

But don't be mistaken: while the 2023-24 Burros are closer than they were at this point a year ago, they don't feel they've peaked, or even come all that close.

"We're 70 percent there," said junior Cortez Graham-Howard, who led all scorers with 21 points. "You might see (the other 30 percent) Monday, you might see it in the state tournament. It just depends."

When it comes to defense, depth, shooting, cutting and offensive fluidity, few teams in the Nashville area can match Hillsboro. Perimeter players Graham-Howard, Arnez Anderson and Xavier Washington all average over 12 points per game, while 6-foot-5 Tyren Fisher averages a team-high 6.8 rebounds, 1.9 steals and 1.2 blocks. But Thweatt still sees areas ripe for fine-tuning.

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"Honestly, they got so much more," he said. "Don't get me wrong, I'm proud of them, I'm very excited about their ability to come in and win this game the way that they did, but there's some meat left on the bone, so to speak, on the glass and taking care of the ball."

Thweatt thought the Burros depended a bit too much on 3-pointers early in the season. Against Beech (25-8), they not only hit nine threes, but controlled the glass and got inside as well, continuing trends they've shown in winning 20 of their last 21 games.

"You can't even give them an inch," Thweatt said. "We try not to. We stay on them all the time to create habits."

With just three seniors last season, Hillsboro was a quiet team, according to Washington. Maturity has made the Burros more vocal, among this season's biggest changes. It's helped them win games like Thursday's region final.

"I see it a lot," Graham-Howard said. "(Washington) has come out of his shell a bit. His freshman year, he played a lot of JV. ... Now that he's played a season and went through a summer with it, he got his confidence. You keep giving it to him. Let him know, just be him.

"We know we put in the work to be in these moments, so when the moment comes, we just flow through it."

Jacob Shames can be reached by email at jshames@gannett.com and on Twitter @Jacob_Shames.