Douglass falls to Loretto in Class A final
MURFREESBORO — Greg Williams made it clear on Saturday. Despite a disheartening defeat at the hands of Loretto in the TSSAA BlueCross Class A championship game at the Murphy Center, his Douglass Red Devils are worth celebrating.
"We came up here to get the gold ball but hey, we ended up with the silver ball," he said. "We were in AA last year and we lost the Mr. Basketball runnerup (Parrish Hewitt, now at TennesseeMartin). And everybody around put us down to the bottom.
"But I thought with what we had coming in, we'd have a better team. You can't take anything away from these guys; these are some of the best ballplayers in Memphis ... (and) I'm very proud of what we accomplished."
Douglass did indeed make its mark on the city in 2018, ending the season with a 32-2 record and advancing to the state tournament for the first time in school history. But it ended with a thud as Loretto dominated the Red Devils on the board and came away with a 74-67 victory.
"This is the best team I've had so far," said Jordan Smith, one of 11 senior on the roster. "We just play ... I'm glad I got to gel with these guys."
As it has all season — which featured a 30-game winning streak that ended Saturday — Douglass kept the pressure at a fever pitch all-game long. And it worked to a point; the Red Devils forced 27 turnovers and committed only five.
But Loretto grabbed 21 offensive rebounds and won the overall battle by an astounding 62-29 margin.
"Man, 62 rebounds to 29 rebounds," Williams said. "You're not going to win if you can't rebound the ball ... we're a nice-sized team but we've been on our bigs about hitting the boards."
Trailing by seven at the end of three quarters, Devyn Payne and Antavious Buford hit consecutive 3-pointers to bring the Red Devils to within one at 49-48. But Loretto (29-5) kept its poise while Douglass' rushed some 3s down the stretch.
Payne scored 17 to lead Douglass while Buford and Smith each finished with 15. Douglass attempted 42 3pointers, six short of the state singlegame record set by Obion County against Gallatin in 1991. The Red Devils were 22 of 77 from the floor overall (28.6 percent).
Ryan Weathers, a Vanderbilt baseball commitment, had 25 points and seven rebounds to lead Loretto. Jacob James had 12 points and 18 rebounds while Kirkland Surratt finished with 15 and 10.
Reach John Varlas at john.varlas@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @johnvarlas