Midseason Notebook: Morristown East Hurricanes

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>PICTURED: [player_tooltip player_id='2702797' first='Cory' last='Carpenter']</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Prep Hoops staff is taking a closer look inside Tennessee high school basketball programs, a month into the 2024-2025 season. Our next team feature is East High out of Morristown, TN.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Head Coach:</strong> Brice Cusick</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Morristown East graduated their all-team leading scorer Kyle Cloninger and much of their wonderful 2023-2024 team. Last spring they advanced to the State Tournament for just the second time in school history. Alas, just two players who played in the State Quarterfinal Game came back after that magical run: <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2702797' first='Cory' last='Carpenter']</strong>, <strong>Isaac Greene</strong>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph {"align":"center"} --> <p class="has-text-align-center"><span style="text-decoration: underline"><strong>Morristown East Stats</strong></span></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>State Tournament Championship Record:</strong>&nbsp;0-2<br><strong>Appearances (9):</strong>&nbsp;2024, 1979<br><br></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:heading --> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Team Roster (2024-2025)</h2> <!-- /wp:heading --> <!-- wp:table --> <figure class="wp-block-table"><table class="has-fixed-layout"><thead><tr><th>#</th><th>Name</th><th>GP</th><th>Pts</th><th>PPG</th><th>FGM</th><th>FGA</th><th>FG%</th><th>3PM</th><th>3P%</th><th>FTM</th><th>FT%</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>1</td><td>Jaxson Archer</td><td>12</td><td>144</td><td>12.0</td><td>49</td><td>111</td><td>44</td><td>20</td><td>36</td><td>18</td><td>64</td></tr><tr><td>2</td><td>[player_tooltip player_id='2702797' first='Cory' last='Carpenter']</td><td>12</td><td>139</td><td>11.6</td><td>48</td><td>111</td><td>43</td><td>23</td><td>41</td><td>16</td><td>52</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>Nathan Bal<a href="https://www.maxpreps.com/tn/morristown/morristown-hamblen-east-hurricanes/basketball/">l</a></td><td>10</td><td>110</td><td>11.0</td><td>37</td><td>75</td><td>49</td><td>34</td><td>0</td><td>2</td><td>100</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>Isaac Greene</td><td>12</td><td>128</td><td>10.7</td><td>42</td><td>131</td><td>32</td><td>25</td><td>0</td><td>19</td><td>79</td></tr><tr><td>5</td><td>Brayden Smith</td><td>11</td><td>61</td><td>5.5</td><td>23</td><td>53</td><td>43</td><td>7</td><td>41</td><td>6</td><td>60</td></tr><tr><td>6</td><td>Parker Dale</td><td>11</td><td>48</td><td>4.4</td><td>20</td><td>38</td><td>53</td><td>4</td><td>44</td><td>2</td><td>40</td></tr><tr><td>7</td><td>Anderson Noe</td><td>12</td><td>35</td><td>2.9</td><td>13</td><td>37</td><td>35</td><td>6</td><td>0</td><td>3</td><td>75</td></tr><tr><td>8</td><td>Grant Johnson</td><td>9</td><td>22</td><td>2.4</td><td>8</td><td>16</td><td>50</td><td>3</td><td>75</td><td>3</td><td>60</td></tr><tr><td>9</td><td>Demarcus Cortes</td><td>9</td><td>12</td><td>1.3</td><td>3</td><td>9</td><td>33</td><td>1</td><td>25</td><td>5</td><td>83</td></tr><tr><td>10</td><td>Chance Stokely</td><td>8</td><td>6</td><td>0.8</td><td>1</td><td>1</td><td>100</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>4</td><td>67</td></tr><tr><td>11</td><td>Brett Smith</td><td>4</td><td>2</td><td>0.5</td><td>0</td><td>1</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>0</td><td>0</td></tr></tbody></table></figure> <!-- /wp:table --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><br>This season four Hurricane players are averaging between 10.0 ppg and 12.0 ppg, including veterans <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2702797' first='Cory' last='Carpenter']</strong> and<strong> Isaac Greene</strong>. They are joined by <strong>Jaxson Archer</strong> and <strong>Nathan Ball</strong>. In addition, each of the four leading scorers made 20+ three-pointers already this young season. Cory was expected to be knocking down the deep shots again after surpassing 70 made three-pointers last season, but the well-rounded outside shooting prowess established the team's identity. Hurting them is their inability keep teams from scoring. Morristown East is allowing a bothersome number of points against.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Jaxson and Nathan are the team's best rebounders, but frankly the team needs to rebound much better up and down the lineup to battle for District Title. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:table {"hasFixedLayout":false} --> <figure class="wp-block-table"><table><thead><tr><th>School Name</th><th>*W-L</th><th>*Pct.</th><th>W-L</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><th>Morristown West</th><td>1-0</td><td>1.000</td><td>6-6</td></tr><tr><th>Sevier County</th><td>1-0</td><td>1.000</td><td>10-2</td></tr><tr><th>Jefferson County</th><td>0-1</td><td>0.000</td><td>8-5</td></tr><tr><th>Morristown East</th><td>0-1</td><td>0.000</td><td>3-9</td></tr></tbody></table><figcaption class="wp-element-caption">2023-2024 Standings</figcaption></figure> <!-- /wp:table --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><br><br><br></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->