Gardner Leads Team Brown to Title Game

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Round 1 of the Pilot Rocky Top High School Fall League
playoffs saw two down to the wire games to determine the championship series
which will be held next week at Maryville
College.

 

Team Brown 63

Team Stewart 62

 

Austin Gardner
(Morristown East)
scored 23 points including some huge threes down the
stretch to lead Team Brown in the championship game with a 63-62 victory over
Team Stewart on Saturday.

 

A tight game throughout saw Team Brown take a 52-51 lead
with just under 6:00 minutes left on the clock on a lay-up by Skylar Brown (Seymour).  

 

Dylan Powers (Lenoir City)
knotted the score up at 3:05 with a deep three before Cory Billingsly (Sweetwater) put Team Stewart ahead 57-55 with a
tough twisting bucket in traffic.

 

Gardner knocked down a deep
three to get the lead back before C.J.
Alred (Clinton),
who led Team Stewart with 22, knocked down a three of his own to put them
back up 60-58 with 1:36 left in the game.

 

Mykal Titlow (Greenback)
increased the Team Stewart advantage to 62-58 with a short jumper before
another Gardner
bomb cut the leads to one with under a minute to go.

 

Gardner launched another
contested shot that caromed off but he corralled the rebound and dished to Jeramie Haney (Cocke County)
who was fouled and held the game in his game with 11.5 seconds on the
clock.

 

Haney made the shots and Team Brown escaped a classic. McKinley Maples (Gatlinburg-Pittman) finished
with 11 for Team Brown while Ben Cave (Pigeon Forge) added 10 in the win.

 

David Lee Haskins
(Loudon)
added 11 for Team Stewart.

 

The win sets up a 2:00 showdown with Team Kimber for the
title next Saturday.

 

 

Team Kimber 68

Team Pierson 66

 

Jalen Steele (Fulton) was simply magnificent scoring 33 points and
helping lead Team Kimber past Team Pierson 68-66 and a date with Team Brown for
the ‘ship next Saturday at Maryville
College.

 

Another see-saw battle that had lead changes at every
juncture. Lester Wilson (Carter) converted
a tip-in to push Team Pierson into the lead at 64-63 with 1:43 remaining on the
game clock.

 

Recent Lipscomb commitment Robert Boyd (Fulton) scored a breakaway to give Team Kimber the
lead back at 65-64 before JuJuan
Williams (Knoxville West)
converted a difficult reverse lay-in to give his
squad the lead again at 66-65 with .30 left on the clock.

 

Steele, who would finish with a game high 33 points, used
his other skill the deft pass to hit a cutting TaShawn Kelly (Knoxville
Central)
for a bucket to give them the lead they would never relinquish.

 

Steele would convert foul shots to close it out at 68-66. Phillip "Tookie" Stanford (Knoxville West) finished with 15 points
for Team Kimber.

 

Wilson
led Pierson with 21 followed by Jaeland
Lawson (Bearden)
who dropped 15 and kept Team Pierson in the game with a
wonderful floor game from the point guard position. Brett Wade (Knoxville
Central)
finished with 10 in the loss.

 

 

Team Benjamin 68

Team Laverdiere 52

 

Tyler Vittetoe (Union County)
scored a game high 26 points but it would not be enough as Team Benjamin
behind 17 large from Lonnie McClanahan (Oak Ridge) defeated
Team Laverdiere 68-52 to set up a date with Team Hunley in the 9th and
10th place game.

 

Lucas Tarver (Oliver Springs)
was scorching from outside finishing with 11 points and Zach Sherrill (Stone Memorial) added 10
in the win.

 

 

 

Team Hunley 88

Team Johnson 78

 

JuJuan Williams
(Knoxville West)
had to take on double duty filling in for some missing
players and scoring 27 points to lead Team Hunley past Team Johnson 88-78.

 

Brett Wade (Knoxville Central) also
took on the task and finished with 20. Landon
Hunley (Farragut) and Blake Williams (Farragut)
each finished with 16 for
the victors.

 

Caleb Barrett (Knoxville West) exploded
for a game high 30 points on a variety of short jumpers and tough put backs. A
trio of 11 point scorers closed out the numbers for Team Johnson those include Ben Arnold (Cumberland Gap), Devin Jackson
(Knoxville
West) and Tres Palmer (Powell).

 

 

Team McNeeley 79

Team Buckner 56

 

Micah Ballard
(William Blount)
scored 13 points leading Team McNeeley into the 5th
and 6th place game next Saturday against Team Naler with a 79-56 win
over Team Buckner.

 

Balanced team scoring was the norm for the Blount County
crew with Ty McBrayer (William Blount)
and Logan Sharp (Alcoa)
finishing with 10 each in the win.

 

Tyler Smith (Anderson County) and Dennis Ramsey (Claiborne) scored
14 each for Team Buckner and Dustin
Clarke
added 10.

 

 

Team Naler 63

Team Watts 60

 

Everyone on the roster found the bucket led by Jon McCroskey (Gatlinburg-Pittman) with
12 and Dre Matthieu (Knoxville Central) with 11 as Team Naler
escaped with a 63-60 win over Team Watts.

 

Galen Campbell (Fulton) finished with 18 points while Dwight Tarwater (Knoxville Webb) added 13 and Emery Naler (CAK) finished with 11 in
the loss.