Cameron-led Tennessee tops Georgia stars 95-67

Newly hired Notre Dame High School boys’ basketball coach Jonathan Adams ran his first two practices recently, and within the confines of the gymnasium he’ll be calling home. And he can claim he guided a team to victory — sort of.

Adams coached the Tennessee team Tuesday in the 14th Tennessee-Georgia high school all-star game, and his group defeated the Georgia team 95-67.

It won’t officially make his career record 1-0, but he’ll take it.

“I hope my season goes just like it,” said Adams, who came from McCallie, where he was an assistant coach under John Shulman. “It was a lot of fun, getting to coach all these star players that you’ve seen around for the last few years.”

Tyner’s Kevin Cameron, who recently accepted a scholarship offer from Walters State, scored 19 points and was chosen the most valuable player for the Tennessee team. He delighted the crowd with a few dunks, and not just when he won the dunk contest between the girls’ and boys’ games.

“Some of us knew each other; some of us didn’t,” Cameron said. “At practice we just worked on passing the ball around and getting to know each other’s names. All of it was pretty fun.”

East Hamilton’s Noah Fager topped the Tennessee team with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Bledsoe County’s Riley Meloncon added 14 points, and Brainerd point guard Kentrell Evans and Chattanooga Christian wing Ryan Rhodes contributed nine apiece.

“Kentrell set the attitude for our team,” Adams said. “Him being a point guard, he could spot the open shooters. His type of game had us all sharing the ball. It was contagious.”

Armuchee’s Drew Cummings had 19 points and seven rebounds and was chosen the Georgia squad’s MVP. Dalton’s Nick Hurt totaled 10 points.

Calhoun’s Chase Rierson, Chattooga’s Isaac Foster and Armuchee’s Seth Stanley scored nine points each for Georgia. Rierson set a record in the series, which Tennessee now leads 10-4, by grabbing 12 rebounds. Rierson also won the 3-point shooting contest at halftime with a total score of 16 points.

“The thing is, we wanted to let them know to have fun,” Dade County and Georgia allstar coach Jared Hawkins said. “We all had a great time. Yeah, the score got out of hand. It’s June and everybody’s a little out of shape. We started coming back some in the fourth quarter. Maybe if we had had another quarter, we might could’ve made it a little more competitive.”

Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.