Overton beats Germantown reserves for its first city title
The Memphis-shelby County Schools boys basketball city championship on Saturday was supposed to determine the best team in the city.
While it had no implications on the state playoffs and is looked at by the TSSAA as nothing more than an exhibition game, it still means something to win the game.
There was a twist in Overton’s 80-35 win over Germantown, the school’s first-ever city championship.
Germantown coach Retushas Spears opted to play only his reserves against Overton because the Red Devils also had a district game scheduled later Saturday against Collierville.
“We really thought about not playing in it,” Spears said. “... This is the city championship, but it’s for bragging rights. The district tonight, (if) we lose, we could fall.”
It was supposed to be the game that decided who was the better team this season and the best 4A school in Memphis after Germantown (18-7) and Overton (22-10) split the two prior meetings.
Overton, however, wasn’t going to give up a chance to win the program’s first city championship, regardless of the circumstances.
“It feels very earned,” said Overton’s Jordan Frison, who finished with 36 points and was named the MVP of the game.
Spears said he mulled over what to do all week when he found out a make-up district game and the city championship were going to be on the same day. The Red Devils have two remaining district games, which were make-up games from the ice storm a week ago.
Southwind nor Cordova, the replacement teams, couldn’t play because they also played Saturday night.
So, the Red Devils had to play the game.
Spears decided to make the most of it, using it as a chance for his reserves to get some game experience with the postseason starting next week.
Regardless of the lineup used by Germantown, the Wolverines celebrated. And coming off a loss to Whitehaven on Friday, it was some consolation ahead of the district tournament.
“We didn’t just win it for us,” Frison said. “We won it for the school, the athletic program, the students. It was bigger than us.”
Reach Wynston Wilcox at wwilcox@gannett.com and on Twitter @wynstonw__.