#3 Ravenwood 51 #2 Brentwood 44
For the first time since 2012, the Ravenwood High School boys basketball team will play for the District 11-AAA championship. The Raptors produced a gritty performance on the road and muscled past rival Brentwood 51-44 in the district semifinals on Tuesday night. “We talked about toughness a lot this week,” Ravenwood coach Patrick Whitlock said. “Jay Bilas put out an article a few years ago and he said toughness isn’t just going out and putting guys on the floor, it’s running the floor, it’s blocking out on defense, it’s diving on the floor, it’s taking a charge, it’s supporting your teammates. And so in practice this week, every time we had a kid make a toughness play, everybody else on the team would yell, ‘Toughness.’ “We just really focused on those little things coming in and showing a little bit of grit. This is a huge win for us.” Beyond taking the Raptors to the district title game Wednesday night at top-seeded and No. 4-ranked Franklin, Ravenwood earned a home game Saturday in the first round of the Region 6-AAA tournament thanks to those toughness-style plays. “Our energy was there from the beginning,” said Raptors junior Noah Clifford, who scored 12 points and dished out a variety of nifty passes from the post all night. “My teammates found me a lot better today and with their cutting, they made me look good. "We were just fired up and we switched up our defense and really used that to our advantage." Alex English and Jake Mulder each added eight points, while Ben Bonga and Matt Williams contributed six apiece in the balanced scoring effort for Ravenwood. The Raptors gained some separation early and staked a 19-14 lead at halftime in a chess match affair. Both teams struggled to find much offense, but Ravenwood had the breakthrough with Clifford in the middle and Nick Dang handling the ball. A Williams 3 pushed the lead to its biggest at 30-18 with 2:49 to play in the third. Brentwood scored the next five points on three free throws and a Davis White steal and layup, but Connor English slipped behind the defense and Clifford hit his open teammate for a layup to end the frame with Raptors on top 32-23. “As a coach, I was really embarrassed by our effort last time we were here about 20 days ago and it was in the back of our minds,” Whitlock said. “We used that to try and get better and we adjusted our game plan.” That game plan revolved around containing Brentwood standouts John Windley and Griffin Burke. Dang shadowed Windley most of the night in a physical battle, while the longer Lee Molette harassed Burke. “They still stepped up and made some shots and they've got some really good personnel around them, but, you know, we stuck to the plan and did our best to stop them,” Whitlock said. Windley closed with 11, while Burke had 11 as well, including a couple deep fourth-quarter 3-pointers as the Bruins made one last stand. “We definitely put ourselves in a hole early and kind of made it tough on ourselves,” Burke said. “Our shots weren't falling like usual and really, it just wasn’t our night.” After Ravenwood scored on back-to-back possessions on a Clifford feed to Mulder and a Clifford spin on the block, Ravenwood’s sold-out section of fans ignited and didn’t let up – all 150 of them. The Raptors led 38-36 with 5:03 remaining. The slightly larger crowd has been allowed in Williamson County because of new attendance limitations and made a difference. “I noticed it when I couldn’t hear any of coach Shirley’s play calls,” Burke said of the atmosphere. “It’s great having some of the students back,” Whitlock added. “Our fans, our community were fantastic tonight.” Burke responded to the early surge by Ravenwood in the fourth with a deep 3-pointer from in front of the Brentwood bench. The Raptors tacked on two more free throws, but Jake Brock nailed another triple after a Daniel Cochran offensive rebound to lift the home team within 40-32 at the 3:27 mark. The lead pushed back to 10 twice, including on a Trevor Andrews breakaway with 2:03 left that made it 45-35, but the Bruins didn’t go away. Cochran hit two at the line and Burke drilled another long-range bomb to make it 45-40 with 93 seconds left in the contest. “The one thing I know for sure about these young men is the character and pride they have,” Brentwood coach Greg Shirley said. “This is where those tough lessons are learned. It was a tough one out there, but we remained resilient.” Dang scored his only points of the night on two free throws six seconds after Burke’s big 3, and after Ravenwood came away empty on three looks, Cochran added another free throw to make it 47-41 with under a minute to play, but Brentwood got no closer. Bonga’s freebies with 31 seconds remaining sealed the win. The victory avenged a 50-47 loss in early January and a 61-48 setback at Brentwood just under three weeks ago for the Raptors. They split the regular season series with Franklin and were the last team to top the Admirals, who are riding a 22-game win streak after downing Page 65-43 Tuesday. Just three points have decided the two meetings between the district finalists with Franklin winning the last 69-68 at home on Jan. 22. “I’m just excited,” Clifford said. “It’s my first district championship game. We wouldn’t be here without all the hard work from everyone.” Brentwood hosts Page Wednesday night for third place. Both teams will be on the road to open region play.
RHS 11 8 13 19 – 51
BHS 10 4 9 21 – 44
RHS (51) – Matt Williams 6, Lee Molette 4, Nick Dang 2, Andrew Lamuno 1, Trevor Andrews 4, Ben Bonga 6, Alex English 8, Jake Mulder 8, Noah Clifford 12.
BHS (44) – John Windley 11, Griffin Burke 11, Jake Brock 3, Davis White 2, Macen Redner 4, Daniel Cochran 11, Dustin Bluhm 2.
3-pointers – RHS 4 (English 2, Williams 2), BHS 8 (Burke 3, Cochran 2, Windley, Brock, Redner). Total Fouls – RHS 16, BHS 18. Fouled Out – None.
Source: Williamson Herald
#1 Franklin 65 #4 Page 43
It’s a good thing the gas leak that emptied the Franklin High School campus Monday night, forcing the Admirals to move their contest with Dickson County to Independence High School at the end of the first quarter, was fixed by the start of Tuesday's game with Page. Franklin was on fire in the fourth quarter, shooting a blistering 75% from the field and torching the Patriots for 23 points as the Admirals posted their 22nd straight victory and earned the right to host Ravenwood for the District 11-AAA tournament title with a 65-43 win on Hillsboro Road. Page, coming off an intense, hard fought victory over Independence Monday night, stayed close for most of the game and appeared just one good run away from challenging the Admirals heading into the final eight minutes. However, for a three-minute stretch, Franklin was unstoppable. Connor Beavon started with a 3-pointer then missed another triple on the next possession before Matt Thurman added a deuce. Aidan Smylie scored on the next four possessions, alternating between layups and 20-footers for 10 points in two minutes. Joey Cucullo’s six points and a 3-pointer from Andres Casella were the only answers the Patriots could muster. The three-minute onslaught ended with Reed Kemp netting his 21st point, a trey from the top of the arc that ended both his scoring and his night. The senior guard pointed at a Page player as the shot went through and was immediately tagged with an unsportsmanlike conduct technical foul by officials. Kemp went to the bench to protect from a second technical that would have made the team’s leading scorer ineligible for two games. Smylie ended with 15 points and Thurman with 14 points and double-digit rebounds. Neither performance surprised Franklin coach Jason Tigert. “Aidan is a kid who puts in the work. Man, he stepped up when it mattered and he is someone we really trust when the game is on the line," Tigert said. "And Matt has led us all year in rebounding and we really challenged him today to hit the boards tonight against (Jaime) Hernandez.” Hernandez led Page with 10 points, all in the first half, in a game that was brutally physical in the paint. The Patriots struggled all night to find a shooting groove, especially from behind the 3-point line. Page shot just 44% from the floor, including 23% (3-of-13) from behind the arc. Another bright spot for the Admirals was the play off the bench of senior Mason Jones, freshmen Davis Long and Noah Magee, who were able to give much needed rest to Thurman, Kemp and Smylie. “Those three have been important to us the second half of the season," Tigert said. "Those are pieces we trust – they can come in and take care of the basketball and burn a little of the clock.” Franklin will host Ravenwood, a 51-44 winner at Brentwood, Wednesday night the for the district title. The Raptors are the last team to defeat the Admirals, 61-59 in early December in Brentwood. Franklin won the rematch 69-68 four weeks ago. Page will travel to Brentwood in the district consolation match Wednesday night. The Patriots split with Brentwood, losing by 11 points on the road before avenging the loss by seven at home three weeks ago. All four teams advance to the Region 6-AAA tournament next week.
PHS 11 9 9 14 – 43
FHS 15 13 14 23 – 65
PHS (43) – Jaime Hernandez 10, Joey Cucullo 7, Andres Casella 6, Price Bruehl 5, Grant Snider 4, Parker Burrow 3.
FHS (65) – Reed Kemp 21, Aidan Smylie 15, Matt Thurman 14, Taylor Spierto 7, Connor Beavon 6, Mason Jones 2.
3-pointers – PHS 3 (Casella, Bruehl, Burrow), FHS 11 (Kemp 4, Smylie 2, Beavon 2, Thurman 2, Spierto). Total Fouls – PHS 8, FHS 10.
Source: Williamson Herald
