Region 4-2A Notebook

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Can the Cobras of Whites Creek make it back to the State Tournament? In a word, yes. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Consider the returning players at Whites Creek High in this edition of the <strong>Region 4-2A Notebook</strong>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Cobra Continuation</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Whites Creek played two games at the 2A State Tournament. First, they defeated Hickman County easily. In the state semifinal they became the 35th victim of Douglass High.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p> They graduate just two players: <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2372999' first='Tyrone' last='Robertson']</strong>, <strong>Darron Jenning</strong>. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>They can really return to the tournament again thanks to their non-senior starters: <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2077813' first='Eric' last='Bryson Jr.']</strong>, <strong>Ke'montea Daly</strong>, <strong>Kevin Wiggins</strong>, <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2046290' first='Isaiah' last='Eubanks']</strong>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Malachi Benton </strong>is certainly an impact player. He scored 10 points with 4 rebounds in the state quarterfinal win over Hickman County.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Rebuilt East Nashville</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>A big story in Region 4-2A next year will be the continued ascendance of East Nashville. After losing Mr. Basketball Jaylen Jones to graduation, East Nashville Head Coach Avery Patton needed to bring along an entirely new pack of cub scouts.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>"Well, they came along late in the year," said Coach Patton when reached by phone March 20th to summarize the season. "At the beginning of the year, it was hard to get them to adapt to win the East way. Late in the year they started to catch on and play together." </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>It was not the opening day lineup, but eventually Coach Patton settled on a group of four sophomores! </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>"I had all of the sophomores in and out," said Coach Patton. "The last 8-9 games that was the lineup."</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Together they advanced past Pearl-Cohn and White House Heritage all the way to the 2A State Tournament. Their sectional win at Heritage High was a high point.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The four sophomore Eagle starters were: <strong>Cortez Murphy</strong>, <strong>JR Graham</strong>, <strong>Jaylan McMillian</strong>,<strong> Je'von Carter</strong>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading {"level":3} --> <h3 class="wp-block-heading">East Nashville HC Avery Patton Interview Snippet (3/20)</h3> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>How did Cortez develop?</strong><br><em>[<strong>Cortez Murphy</strong>] developed more as a scorer. He was the guy we went to get buckets when we needed it. He ended up averaging about 13 ppg, as well.</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em><strong>JR Graham</strong> was the leader of the team. He began to be the leader of the team about the last seven games.</em> 8p, 5r, 3s</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>How did JR Graham demonstrate he was a leader?</strong><br><em>He started being vocal. I didn't have a guy that was vocal at first. Everybody was looking to me. I took JR aside and told him we needed him to take charge. The last several years I had <strong>Jaylen Jones</strong> to run the show for me. None of these guys had varsity experience.</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>When you are friends at that age you are scared to tell your friends that they are doing it wrong. But JR ended up doing. He was the vocal leader. He was like, 'Let's go.' He started the drills. </em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline">District 7</span></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>East Nashville Magnet School&nbsp;(Nashville, TN)<br>KIPP Nashville Collegiate School&nbsp;(Nashville, TN)<br>RePublic High School&nbsp;(Nashville, TN)<br>Stratford High School&nbsp;(Nashville, TN)<br>Whites Creek High School&nbsp;(Whites Creek, TN)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><span style="text-decoration: underline">District 8</span></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Independence Academy High School&nbsp;(Antioch, TN)<br>LEAD Academy&nbsp;(Nashville, TN)<br>Pearl Cohn High School&nbsp;(Nashville, TN)<br>STEM Prep Academy&nbsp;(Nashville, TN)</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->