Tennessee State Tournament: AAA Final Four Recaps and Analysis

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We got to watch a AAA Final Four of late night Friday matchups involving powerhouse Dyersburg, suprise Cocke County, Upperman and South Gibson.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:separator --> <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" /> <!-- /wp:separator --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Dyersburg (30-4) 74</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Cocke County (29-9) 51</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Cocke County's 1st state tournment run since 1988 is over.....but it was an awesome ride for the school, community, parents, coaches, and players. Dyersburg just had too much high level offensive individual talent and a really tough defense that held Cocke County to 40% shooting and only 3 made threes. Cocke County also turned the ball over 23 times, compared to 11 turnovers for Dyersburg....and thats a recipe for an undesirable outcome.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Dyersburg was up 17-10 after the first, and 47-24 at the half. It was never really in doubt.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Cocke County has always employed a "score by committee" approach with their top few kids just as likely to lead them in scoring as another. Freshman [player_tooltip player_id='821821' first='Karmine' last='Carmichael'] was superb: 10 points, 9 rebounds, 3 assists and two blocks. For a freshman in the Final Four....that's big time.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Blakelyn Clevenger was held to only 5 shots. She finished with 8 points and 2 assists.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='804755' first='Halle' last='Kitchen'] had 8 points on 3-5 shootin, and two made threes. She also added two blocks as she an extremely good defender.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Shakyra Reed finished with 8 points and 6 rebounds with two assists.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='878320' first='Destiny' last='Reese'] had 7 points on 3-4 shooting.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>For Dyersburg, it was a much different tale. To start.....Dyersburg has a pretty good guard named Joya Crawford. She was simply dominant. She scored 27 points on 11-23 shooting, 2-5 from three, nine rebounds, two assists, and 4 steals. She's one of the better guards in the state, and I don't get to watch her enough as she's in West TN. She put on a show!!!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='593347' first='Chelby' last='Jordan'] also poured in 20 points on 7-10 shooting and 2-3 from three. She also added 4 steals, and turning Cocke County over was certainly effective.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Netala Dixon finished with 11 points on 3-7 shooting. She added 4 rebounds and steal.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Kayleigh Strayhorn, the super impressive freshman, had 8 points, with 4 rebounds and 3 assists.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Dyersburg is so dangerous as they advance to the championship game as they have a great mixture of high level individual scorers, role players that know their jobs, a great team defense, and they are starting to hit the three ball a bit more consistently. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:separator --> <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity" /> <!-- /wp:separator --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Upperman (30-6) 44</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>South Gibson (21-16) 14</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>South Gibson won their way into a moving train in Upperman. The score was actually really close after the 1st quarter with Upperman leading 12-8. But, Upperman pitched a shutout in the 2nd quarter outscoring them 9-0. South Gibson was then outscored 23-6 in the second half.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>So fun factoid about me: I enjoy basketball. The game is more than a game to me, and can teach little micro lessons if you'll allow it. For Upperman, they are proof positive that basketball is so much about playing your best all at the right time. There are A LOT of teams that are no longer playing, but had much better regular season than Upperman....but that doesn't matter. Once the playoffs start...everyone is 0-0.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>And now, Upperman is one game shy of being AAA state champions (and the game vs Dyersburg should be GREAT!!). </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>For South Gibson, they only scored 14 points as a team, shot 21% from the field (5-24), 18% from three and 25% from the FT line. South Gibson only had 3 players score:</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='290964' first='Hallie' last='Allen'] scored 9 of her team's 14 points. She hit 2 threes, pulled 4 rebounds, and added 3 asssits.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='636391' first='Karson' last='Dunn'] was held very quiet as she finished with 3 points and 4 rebounds.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='821818' first='Jade' last='Reed'] added 2 points and 2 rebounds.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>For Upperman, it was a must different story in this game. They shot 55% from the field, and 57 percent from three. They have the offensive firepower to strike fear in anyone, and put up points in a hurry.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='816597' first='Taylor' last='Dolente'] continued her dominant shooting display at the Glass House, as she scored 12 points on 4-4 from three. By my count, Dolente is 10-13 from three in the Glass House. That.Is.Crazy!!!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Isabella Mullins had 8 points, 5 assists, and 4 rebounds.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Bella Stiles aded 2 points, 3 assists, and 2 rebounds.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Gracie Hamilton finished with 8 points, 3 rebounds, and 2 assists.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>[player_tooltip player_id='816649' first='Gracie' last='Butler'] had 6 points and 4 rebounds.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>I cannot wait to watch the guards of Dyersburg face off versus the guards of Upperman! It should be a AAA classic!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->