Shane Cherry scored 28 points, and Austin-East won a key District 2-2A game, 73-67, on Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, in Alcoa, Tenn. (Photo by Charles Mays Media).
BY JESSE SMITHEY
The schedule that the Austin-East boys basketball team endured during the first half of the season was not only beefed up but also intentionally done so.
Just because the Roadrunners were dropping from Class 3A down to 2A for the 2023-24 season didn’t mean the competition would be easier.
Knowing that A-E would face the likes of defending state champion Alcoa and back-to-back state sectionalist Gatlinburg-Pittman in District 2-2A play and most likely in critical postseason games, Roadrunners head coach Denard Bertram wanted his promising group to face some early season fires.
They won some. They lost some.
But those challenges against the likes of Webb, Oak Ridge, Catholic, Sevier County, Hardin Valley, Central, and West, refined Austin-East into a unit that held up under the intense spotlight of Friday night’s league opener at Alcoa.
Junior point guard Shane Cherry scored 27 of his game-high 28 points through the first three quarters, but it turned out to be his teammates who weathered the storm in the fourth quarter while he battled foul trouble so that A-E could post the 73-67 win over the Tornadoes.
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