Big Men Will McCrary and Avery Coles Headline Region 3-2A Tourney

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><em>PICTURED: White House Heritage</em></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Monday evening White House Heritage Head Coach Carl Miller shared his time with @PrepHoopsTN. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>PrepHoopsTN:</strong> How is your season going overall?<br><strong>WH Heritage HC Carl Miller:</strong> We are currently 22-6. We played Trousdale Saturday night. Westmoreland upset Liberty Creek after us. We play Westmoreland Tuesday night. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>PrepHoopsTN:</strong> How do you approach playoff games? Any differently as a leader?<br><strong>WH Heritage HC Carl Miller:</strong> Not necessarily. It is business as usual. Practice was business as usual today. Last year our expectations were not as high as this year. Last year we didn't get really hot until the tournament. Ended up winning District and winning the Region. I had a sophomore step up. His name is <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2456024' first='Jeffrey' last='Whittaker']</strong>. We expected to have a good year and we have so far.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We have played 12 games against 3a or 4a teams.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We played White House twice. They are playing for Distrixt Championship. We played Beech. We played Hendersonville. We tried </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>PrepHoopsTN:</strong> Who are your starters?<br><strong>WH Heritage HC Carl Miller:</strong> I am starting 3 seniors, 1 junior, 1 sophomore. <strong>Aric Lopez</strong>. <strong>Pryce Payne</strong>. They both started last year. My 4-man is <strong>Noah Green</strong>. He started for me last year. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2139567' first='Avery' last='Coles']</strong>. <strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2456024' first='Jeffrey' last='Whittaker']</strong>.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>PrepHoopsTN:</strong> Do players play differently when the pressure is ramped up?<br><strong>WH Heritage HC Carl Miller:</strong> We have had some meltdowns in close games. Where we didn't make very good decisions. We have tried to work on that and fix it. We will find out down the road. Like Gallatin. We were tried. Ball screen. My sophomore got downhill, but a kid stepped over and took a charge. Right before that we turned the ball over. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Against Hendersonville we were up 4 and lost by 13.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>PrepHoopsTN:</strong> How has Avery developed in the last year?<br><strong>WH Heritage HC Carl Miller:</strong> He is very skilled. He shoots the three pretty decent. He doesn't shoot a lot of them. He has to work on his perimeter defense. A lot of teams will start five out.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>He has always had really tight hip flexors, so we have had to change defenses some. And really let him be a rim-protector and protect the paint for us. He can play some college ball. Our offense is based on getting him the ball to him. You are just not going to stop him if he catches the ball high.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>This school has never been to the State Tournament. We think we have a chance this year. It is going to be a hard road.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph {"fontSize":"medium"} --> <p class="has-medium-font-size"><strong>Regional 3AA Tournament</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Trousdale County at Jackson County (24-2)</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Between the last two regular seasons and two tournaments Jackson County Blue Devil<strong> [player_tooltip player_id='2364080' first='Will' last='McCrary']</strong> won every MVP. "I am hoping we get a matchup with [Jackson County].," said WH heritage Head Coach Carl Miller. "That is who we beat for Regional Tournament last year."</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>York Institute (8-12) at Westmoreland (15-12)</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>[player_tooltip player_id='2733131' first='Matthew' last='Henderson']</strong> is Westmoreland's key player. Though they finished third Westmoreland and Head Coach Cheri Abner shocked Liberty Creek in the District Tournament to make the District Championship.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Watertown (9-20) at White House Heritage (23-6)</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>D6AA Player of the Year [player_tooltip player_id='2139567' first='Avery' last='Coles'] scored 16.4 points per game during the regular season. Teammates Noah Green, Pryce Payne, and [player_tooltip player_id='2456024' first='Jeffrey' last='Whittaker'] each made All-District Team too. Sophomore Whittaker averages 4.4 rpg and 3.5 apg. He does need to cut down his 2.1 turnovers per game. <strong>Pryce Payne</strong> averages 5.6 ppg. Aric Lopez' leads the team at 3.7 apg.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Liberty Creek (23-7) at Smith County (9-17)</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>WHH's coach sees Liberty Creek as a gigantic roadblock that he hopes his team can overcome. Liberty Creek won 83.3% of their district games.</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->