Center Hill, Olive Branch glad to play title games before delays
With the TSSAA Division I boys and girls basketball tournaments postponed due to coronavirus concerns, seven Memphis-area teams have been left with their seasons up in the air.
Whitehaven and Arlington are in the semifinals of the girls tournament. Whitehaven, Houston, Wooddale, B. T. Washington and MAHS are in the quarterfinals of the boys tournament.
But a pair of teams from Desoto County got the chance to play their state basketball championship games March 7 before coronavirus shut down the sports world.
Olive Branch won the Mississippi Class 6A girls basketball state title with a 75-51 win over Clinton.
Olive Branch's En'dya Buford, a 5foot-7 Memphis signee, ended her high school career with a 40-point performance in the title game.
“I'm thankful we had the opportunity to play our game because not everybody got the chance to play theirs,” Buford said. “It was big for me, playing at Olive Branch because we got to win three out of four (state championships) and go back to back and have a chance to end it on the floor. That game meant a lot to me.”
Center Hill, which won last year's state title in boys basketball, fell 78-62 to Callaway in the Class 5A state title game.
“If we were in limbo, I don't know what would be more agonizing,” Center Hill coach Newton Mealer said. “Losing in the state championship
“I’m thankful we had the opportunity to play our game because not everybody got the chance to play theirs. It was big for me, playing at Olive Branch because we got to win three out of four (state championships) and go back to back and have a chance to end it on the floor. That game meant a lot to me.”
game and having the opportunity to play in it, or sitting here waiting to defend our title and not know if we’d have the opportunity to do that. I don’t know how I’d feel as a coach, but in reality it was a blessing for our program and our school and our state that we got to play that game before all of this took place.”
Center Hill’s Decorian Payton, a senior forward, had a 12-point, 16-rebound performance in his final high school game.
“Even though we lost, I still count it as a blessing because I got to end my career playing in a state championship game,” Payton said. “I don’t know how guys like (Whitehaven senior guard) Jesse (Payne) and them are feeling because their season might be over, but I’m really happy that we got to play and didn’t have to wait this out.”