The McMinn County Cherokees faced the Memphis Overton Wolverines in a TSSAA Class 4A state tournament quarterfinal in Monte Hale Arena at the Murphy Center on Tuesday, March 14, 2023, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. (Photo by Danny Parker)
BY JESSE SMITHEY
MURFREESBORO — The standard has changed with McMinn County High School boys’ basketball.
No longer is it just trying to get the better of Cleveland. No more is it just beating Bradley Central.
Nope. Expectations have changed.
The Cherokees won the regular-season District 5-4A title, the District 5-4A Tournament, the Region 3-4A Tournament and a state sectional game in the same season for the first time in program history.
And while the four seniors — Hayden Smith, Caden Hester, Davion Evans and Tucker Monroe — who helped catapult the program into this stratosphere had their prep careers conclude Tuesday in a 74-55 state quarterfinal loss at MTSU to Memphis Overton, they still set a new bar for following classes to reach for, meet or exceed.
The next step will include all those to-do list items but also win the program’s first state tournament game since 1991.
McMinn County (27-8) could not do that Tuesday in the Murphy Center and had its season’s 11-game win streak conclude. The 27 wins were a program best.
“These seniors have established McMinn County, in my opinion, as the gold standard in our district and our region. That’s my opinion and that’s debatable with some people. But I’ll debate it all day,” said McMinn County coach Randy Casey, who was hired late in the spring of 2021. “This is probably the most connected group of young men that I’ve ever coached.
“These guys play for each other. They play for me. They play for our community. They brought out school together. They brought our city together. And they brought our county together, as evidenced by our crowds.”
The final margin of victory didn’t really tell the story for McMinn’s first state appearance since 2011.
Stopping Memphis Overton’s Big Three was imperative for McMinn County on Tuesday if the Cherokees wanted to reach the state semifinals.
The Cherokees did not do that.
Jordan Frison, a 6-0 senior guard who averages 27.4 points per game with six assists and four rebounds per contest, nearly got a triple-double. He had 27 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists.
Xavier Alexander averages 17.2 points per game — and he got 16 with four made 3s on Tuesday.
And 6-8, 240-pound Jailen Hardaway, a double-double machine, got 21 points — nine more than his average — with eight rebounds. He went 8-for-8 from the floor and even buried a 3. And that perimeter make gave Overton its first double-digit lead of the game, 23-13, with 6 minutes, 18 seconds, left in the second quarter.
“This is the best game he’s played for me all season,” said Memphis Overton coach Shelvie Rose.
All told, Memphis Overton (31-11) shot 56 percent from the floor in its first state appearance since 1963. Moreover, it out-rebounded McMinn County, 32-19.
But McMinn County didn’t let Overton race away in the first half, though, following Hardaway’s 3. Trent Peak made a layup roughly two minutes later that trimmed the Cherokees’ deficit to five. Cayden Hester made a foul shot with 2:25 left before the break to make Overton’s leads just 29-25.
Overton, though, closed on an 8-0 run to lead 38-26 with 16 minutes to play.
McMinn County fought back again, constructing a 10-0 run out of the half thanks to six points by Reese Frazier during the spurt. He finished with a team-high 15. Hester had 12 and Peak 11.
“I felt like early, we allowed them to get us out of the things that we do,” said Casey. “And, whether that was nerves, or whether that was what they were doing to us in the first half, I didn’t feel like we were us.”
The Cherokees couldn’t completely close the gap, however. Less than 2 minutes after they had sliced their deficit to 38-36, McMinn County let Overton surge back ahead by 10. Frison capped the 9-1 run with a dunk.
Peak’s 3-point play at the 6:39 mark of the fourth quarter made McMinn County’s deficit 56-48 with just 6:39 to play. The Cherokees went 1-for-6 from the floor, though, over the next 4:32. Davion Evans ended that field-goal drought with a score at the 2:07 mark of the fourth.
But by that time, Overton led 67-54.
McMinn County shot a respectable 43.2 percent from the floor and made 7 of 18 from 3. But free-throw struggles (10 of 18) and only five second-chance points in 32 minutes played a role in McMinn County not being able to fully complete a comeback.
Overton led the final 31:57 of the contest. It’ll play Hillsboro (28-4) in a state semifinal Friday.
“We knew they shoot a bunch of 3s, just like we do,” said Rose about McMinn County. “So we wanted to extend our defense and try to take away that 3-point threat. They have about four guys that can really shoot.
“So we wanted to extend them and make them put the ball on the floor.”
5STAR PHOTOS: McMinn County Cherokees vs. Memphis Overton Wolverines – 2023 Class 4A Quarterfinals