ECS and MBA are heading to Cookeville

<p>Evangelical Christian School slid past Notre Dame, 32-31, Saturday afternoon to clinch a spot in the final four in next week’s Division II-A Boys State Tournament.</p> <p>This is the second-consecutive season the Eagles have advanced to the final four.</p> <p>Here are two takeaways from the game.</p> <p><strong>Shropshire and Brown won the game for ECS</strong></p> <p>For the entire fourth quarter, the Eagles held the lead and held on to the basketball to eat up some clock. The goal was to force the Fighting Irish to foul. Notre Dame didn’t have to foul and stop the clock until late in the fourth quarter. The Fighting Irish committed five fouls in a span of two minutes, putting ECS at the free throw line.</p> <p>Junior point guard <strong>Mason Shropshire</strong> made two free throws to put the Eagles up 30-25. Senior guard <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="775647" first="Dominic" last="Brown"]</strong> sealed the win with his two free throws in the waning seconds.</p> <p>Head coach Willie Jenkins wasn’t thinking about a quick score. Instead, he wanted Notre Dame to start panicking and get out of its 2-3 zone.</p> <p>Jenkins’ plan worked.</p> <p>"We were up. We saw they didn’t have many fouls. We wanted to get where they had to foul us to put us in one and ones," Jenkins said. "So, yeah, we got that layup down there but if we kicked that ball back out, that’s another 20 seconds gone. At some point, he’s going to have to foul.</p> <p>"So, we wanted to move the ball around. Possession and time. Possession and time, that’s it."</p> <p>Shropshire led ECS with nine points. Senior wing <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="775614" first="Thomas" last="Kizer"]</strong>, who made a huge 3 early in the fourth quarter, finished with seven points. Brown added five. The school’s all-time leading scorer <strong>Kameron</strong> <strong>Jones</strong> scored only three points.</p> <p><strong>Price kept the Fighting Irish in the game</strong></p> <p>Each time the Eagles started to separate themselves from Notre Dame, senior wing <strong>Cal</strong> <strong>Price</strong> made timely shots to keep his team in striking distance. He made two big 3s in the second quarter to get the Fighting Irish within two after trailing 12-5. Price got his team within two late (30-28) in the fourth quarter after Shropshire’s two crucial free throws.</p> <p>Price was Notre Dame’s offense. His team-high 16 points were very important since no one else on the roster could buy a basket.</p> <p>"Watching film on him, we knew he was a big part of their team. They have a great team over there," Jenkins said. "When you have games like this, big players step up. So he made big shots. We decided to crowd him a little more. Let’s put a quicker guy on him and let’s see if he can score over the top of us.</p> <p>"I think Dom did an amazing job on him. Two great players going at one another. It was an amazing thing to watch."</p> <p><strong>DII-AA </strong></p> <p>Montgomery Bell Academy defeated MUS, 48-47, on the road to advance to the semifinals round of the DII-AA Boys State Tournament.</p> <p>Here’s the biggest takeaway from the game.</p> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id="537275" first="Miles" last="Versa"] made the biggest shot of the game</strong></p> <p>Senior wing [player_tooltip player_id="537297" first="Gavin" last="Murrey"]’s 3-point play gave the Owls a 45-44 lead in the fourth quarter with under two minutes to play. It was the team’s first lead since the second quarter when MUS led 14-12.</p> <p>Two key players for the Big Red, senior wing <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="537240" first="Will" last="Montana"]</strong> and junior forward <strong>Grayson</strong> <strong>Morgan</strong>, were in foul trouble, so MBA needed a timely basket from someone else. Senior point guard [player_tooltip player_id="537275" first="Miles" last="Versa"] answered the call on the team’s next possession. He drained a deep 3 from the left wing to give the Big Red a 47-45 lead, and they never trailed again.</p> <p>Freshman forward <strong>R’Chaun</strong> <strong>King</strong> (13 points and six rebounds) missed two crucial free throws that could have tied the game. Versa split free throws in the final seconds to seal the win and push MBA into the next round.</p> <p>Versa knew his team needed a shot, and he was comfortable in being the person to take the dagger.</p> <p>"It was a good look. The ball came my way, and I just had to knock it down," said Versa, who led the Big Red win 17 points on 6 of 12 shooting. "It could have been any of us. We have a team full of capable players. Anybody can hit that shot, and it just happened to be me tonight."</p> <p>Junior guard <strong>Jackson Francis</strong> had a productive game for MBA, finishing the night with 14 points and five rebounds on 7 of 11 shooting.</p> <p><strong>Big Red’s defense closed out on the opposing team’s shooters</strong></p> <p>MBA didn’t allow <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="1121405" first="Henry" last="Nickey"]</strong>, <strong>Jack</strong> <strong>Jabbour</strong> and <strong>Ayman</strong> <strong>McGowan</strong> to get a lot of greats looks from 3-point range.</p> <p>Nickey, Jabbour and McGowan each made a 3 in the first half. Junior wing <strong>James</strong> <strong>Barton</strong> also made one, but in the second half, MUS didn’t make a shot from deep.</p> <p>The Big Red played man-to-man defense and face guarded the Owls’ 3-point specialists. MUS went 4 for 10 from 3 for the game.</p> <p>"The idea was to try to make them one dimensional," head coach Kevin Anglin said. "We were willing to live with the bigs making post moves two at a time. We were trying not to live three at a time. We did a ton of switching. Sometimes, you get some mismatches down there, and you just fight as hard as you can.</p> <p>"I think they did a good job today with what we asked them to do."</p> <p>Here’s the updated bracket for the DII Boys State Tournaments.</p> <p><strong>DII-A</strong></p> <p>Goodpasture vs. ECS</p> <p>Tipton-Rosemark Academy vs. CPA</p> <p><strong>DII-AA</strong></p> <p>Christian Brothers vs. Brentwood Academy</p> <p>Knoxville Catholic vs. MBA</p>