East Hamilton boys defeat Stone Memorial 76-45 in Region 3-AAA final
EVENSVILLE, Tenn. — East Hamilton’s boys went through some turmoil this high school basketball season when head coach Rodney English was first suspended then later resigned in late January.
But that’s all behind them now, and they’re Region 3-AAA champions after beating Stone Memorial 76-45 Thursday night at Rhea County.
The Hurricanes managed to beat Bradley Central on Jan. 23 in the first game without English. But the next three games, during which they made the adjustment to being guided by assistant coach Zach Roddenberry, were all losses.
The ’Canes did not win their district’s regular-season championship, nor did they reach the final in their district tournament. But on Thursday night, they posed for pictures as region champions.
“Our guys have worked so hard,” Roddenberry said. “We really wanted to host a sectional. We wanted these seniors to have one more home game. That’s just what we wanted to do from day one.”
East Hamilton (25-7) will get the chance to play its sectional at home against Riverdale at 7 p.m. Monday. The ’Canes played at home last year in the sectional round, defeated Blackman 72-68 and advanced to the state tournament for the first time.
DaVae Hughley, who was selected the region tournament’s MVP after his 21-point performance in the title game, said the experience several of the players gained in last year’s postseason has proven valuable this time of year.
“It was a huge factor,” Hughley said. “We knew we’d been here before. We knew what to do and how we wanted to do things to get the win.”
The key stretch that got things going East Hamilton’s way came late in the first quarter, starting with the ’Canes leading by two. In a stretch from the 2:30 mark of the period until slightly less than a minute remained, Cam Montgomery made two 3-pointers and Morell Schramm and Vandrele Wilson made one each, pushing the advantage to 23-9.
The Panthers cut the lead to 31-26 midway through the second quarter, but East Hamilton had its edge back at 12 by halftime. With the score 41-29 early in the third quarter, Hughley started a 13-0 run with a turnaround jumper in the low post followed by back-to-back 3s, and it was just a matter of finishing the job.
“He’s not only just a phenomenal player, he’s the emotional leader for us — the energy guy,” Roddenberry said of Hughley. “He’s the big communicator on the team, him and Vandrele. We decided we’d unleash him, not put any restraints on him, and he’s just blossomed.”
Justin Dozier ran the show for the ’Canes and also contributed 16 points, Drew Williams scored 13 and Montgomery had 11.
“We had doubters,” Hughley said. “We had a couple of them in our own building. When all that went down, we all came together and had a team meeting, and our goal was to go out and prove the doubters wrong. After we had those couple of losses, we’ve really come together.”
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.