Edward Lacy and the Fulton Falcons won 69-64 over the Scott Highlanders in a TSSAA Region 2-AA tournament semifinal at Jody Wright Arena in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Tuesday, March 3, 2020. (Photo by Danny Parker)
By DAVE LINK
Edward Lacey didn’t let a bum ankle slow him down Tuesday night.
Fulton’s senior point guard scored 24 points during a 69-64 victory over visiting Scott in the Region 2-AA elimination semifinals.
Lacey hurt his ankle during Saturday night’s region quarterfinal victory over Northview Academy.
Rather & Kittrell is a proud sponsor of 2020 postseason basketball. Learn what R&K can do for your financial status and future at RKCapital.com
“I messed it up real bad Saturday,” Lacey said. I couldn’t walk on it Sunday. I’m just trying to get back and play as hard as my team plays, and I knew my team would do its best for me.”
Lacey spent much of Sunday and Monday icing his ankle.
“We hoped that adrenalin would take over,” Fulton coach Jody Wright said. “We knew (Lacey) wouldn’t be 100 percent but he played 32 minutes and played hard. He made a few little bonehead plays there at times, but you can never fault the guy’s effort. I love the guy’s effort.”
5STAR PHOTOS: Alcoa vs. Carter, Fulton vs. Scott (2020 Region 2-AA semifinals)
Fulton (21-6) will play host to Alcoa (20-10) on Thursday night at 7 for the region title. The region champion plays host in Monday’s state sectional round, while the loser travels for its sectional. Winners of sectional games advance to the state tournament.
“I’m glad I’m playing Thursday,” Wright said. “When you’re playing Alcoa, you’re never confident, but I’m glad we’ve got a shot Thursday night. That’s the main thing.”
Fulton improved to 4-0 this season against Scott (24-7), and all games were tight. The Falcons won the four games by an average of 5.75 points per game.
“It’s hard to beat a good team four times,” Wright said. “We knew we were going to have our hands full tonight.”
Lacey made three 3-pointers and went 9 of 11 from the free-throw line.
Sophomore wing Damin Holt had 14 points for Fulton, while sophomore wing Desmir Hatchett had 11 points and junior wing Tommy Sweat had seven.
Fulton made eight 3-pointers and was 19 of 26 from the foul line.
Scott sophomore guard Trey Morrow scored 30 points – hitting three 3-pointers and 5 of 8 foul shots – and senior forward Logan Goodman had 15 points.
Scott made eight 3-pointers and went 8 of 13 from the foul line.
“I have a lot of respect for those guys (at Scott),” Wright said. “I think the world of coach (Jordan) Jeffers. He’s a class act and he’s done a great job with those kids. They’ve got nothing to be ashamed of. They took us to the wire four times, so I’ve got a lot of respect for those guys.”
Scott had a 21-16 lead after one quarter and was up 28-20 with 4 minutes, 30 seconds left in the second quarter.
The Falcons tied it at 28-all, and the Highlanders had a 35-34 halftime lead.
Fulton started the third quarter with an 8-0 run as Lacey hit two 3-pointers sandwiched by Hatchett’s fast-break layup.
“I think the difference was the start of the third quarter,” Wright said. “We were able to get some easies (baskets). We were able to get about three or four stops in a row and runouts, which gave us a cushion so they were playing behind in the second half and we could dictate tempo.”
Fulton’s biggest lead in the third quarter was eight points, and it took a 50-44 lead into the fourth quarter.
Scott cut the deficit to three on three occasions in the first 3 minutes of the fourth quarter.
Fulton built the lead to 63-54 on Dominic Holland’s fast-break layup with 1:23 to play.
Morrow made back-to-back 3-pointers and cut the deficit to five in the last minute.
Fulton staved off the Scott comeback by making 12 of 14 free throws in the fourth quarter.
“Scott’s a good offensive team,” Lacey said. “We know they’re going to hit shots. We just knew we had to keep playing defense.”
ALCOA STOPS CARTER
Nick Roberts felt something different in pregame Tuesday night.
He had a case of the nerves.
Alcoa’s 6-foot-4 senior guard didn’t show it, scoring 19 points during a 66-34 rout of Carter in the Region 2-AA elimination semifinals at Fulton.
Roberts was 8 of 14 from the floor, missed three 3-point attempts, and was 3 of 4 from the foul line. He also had seven rebounds.
“I’d never really had true nerves for a game until this one, just because I knew this could be my last one,” Roberts said. “Just really bringing the intensity every night I step out on the court is something I try to do, knowing this could be my last one.”
Carter finishes the season 25-6, while Alcoa prepares for Fulton.
“Obviously the next one’s huge, one because you’re trying to win a championship and two, you’re trying to play at home one more time,” Alcoa coach Ryan Collins said. “The biggest thing for us I think is we’ve got a group of kids that this wasn’t the top of the mountain for them. We’re looking to bring home a regional championship. That’s our goal and we’re excited for the task on Thursday.”
Alcoa’s defensive game plan Tuesday centered around slowing down guards Ty Hurst and Gabe Harper.
Hurst scored 12 points and was 4 of 12 from the field, 2 of 7 from 3-point range, and 2 of 2 from the foul line.
Harper, who fouled out early in the fourth quarter, had nine points. He was 4 of 9 from the field, missed his only 3-point shot, and went 1 of 2 from the line.
Tai Cates and Isaiah Cox-Penson split time guarding Hurst.
“The biggest deal is we wanted to deny Ty (Hurst) touches,” Collins said. “We’ve got good length and physicality we can throw at him, and on Gabe, we wanted to just try to contain and keep him in front and force tough jump shots, which I thought we did. He got in some foul trouble which obviously hurt, but if you can take those two out of the mix, it’s like the two-headed dragon, the rest of it, they’re good pieces, but they feed off those two.”
Senior point guard T.J. Martin had 11 points, six assists, and only one turnover for Alcoa.
Cates, a freshman guard, also scored 11, while junior forward Cam Burden had eight points and nine rebounds and senior forward Daunte Asbury had eight points and seven rebounds.
“I thought we did some really good things offensively,” Collins said, “and we were so good because we’re balanced across the board. Daunte was huge again for us playing big minutes. Everybody who touched the floor added value towards winning. We can be really tough because we have so many pieces we can play through offensively.”
Alcoa had a 17-10 lead after one quarter and outscored the Hornets 20-6 in the second quarter for a 37-16 halftime lead.
Carter was 3 of 7 from the floor in the second quarter, 0 of 3 from 3-point range, and committed seven turnovers.
“We held them to six points in the second quarter,” Collins said. “That’s huge in a game like this, and I think their two best players got frustrated because they couldn’t earn good looks like maybe they have all year and that’s just a lot of credit to our kids for them buying into the game plan.”
Alcoa held a 41-22 advantage for the game in rebounding.
Carter shot 23.6 percent from two-point range and was 4 of 24 from 3-point range (16.7 percent).
“The offense wasn’t there, but neither was the rebounding,” Carter coach Spencer Beaty said. “That’s where we lost the ballgame. I felt like we would be fine offensively as long as we took care of the defensive end, but they outrebounded us nine in the first half and they had nine offensive rebounds.
“That leads to very high-percentage shots for them and it keeps us from being able to get out and go and try to take advantage of our speed. We told them we needed to win the battle of the boards to be in the ballgame and we were down nine at halftime. I’m sure it doubled that by the end of the game.”