The holiday season is a wonderful time of year for spending precious moments with family and friends. The holiday season also brings some quality basketball tourney to the area.
The Battle of the State commences with action on Thursday December 20 and runs through the championship rounds on Saturday the 22nd. The spacious Allen Arena on the campus of Lipscomb University will host the second year event.
Haywood County vs. Independence
Action starts with Haywood County battling Independence. The Tomcats are led by Ricky "The Truth" Taylor and Kenny Greer. These ballers will be priority one for the Eagles. Independence will be led by Travis Edington and Casey Consiglio.
Union City vs. Mt. Juliet
One of the top Class A squad in the entire state make a return trip to the Battle with a championship on their minds. M.J. Brown leads the U.C. along with a slew of helpful teammates including Tony Wilkins and Andre Coby. The Golden Bears feature talented Jonta Bowman and his running mate Antwaun Majors. Hope the bulbs in the Lipscomb scoreboards are bright and new as points will flow in this one.
Riverdale vs. Sycamore
The Warriors are slugging through a tough season but will not be a push over for the boys of Sycamore. Riverdale features tough guy Michael Young along with guard Joey Lee. The War Eagles are led by senior jumping jack Pierre Mitchell and should recieve scoring support from Travis Dempsey and Aaron Nicholson.
Livingston Academy vs. Brentwood Academy
Great finish to the evening with two tough squads taking the hardwood. Livingston is tough and hard nosed led by the incomperable Chase Dunn. The little big man runs the show and has inside help from big Deven Ramsey; as well as, outside help from a pair of Smith's Todd and T.J. The Eagles of B.A. feature one of the state's hottest scorers in Jacob Stallings. The sons of Vandy coach Kevin Stallings is headed to UNC to play baseball but is making the most of his final run with the bigger ball. He is complemented on the interior by a pair of horses in Rob Murphy and Thad McHaney.
Come to the Allen Arena and check out the action which begins again on Thursday. I will be there on Saturday for the finals. Good luck to everyone and Happy Holidays.
