By Jason Williams
Eads, TN – With their backs against the wall, some unlikely heroes stepped up for Briarcrest to rally the Saints past Montgomery Bell Academy and into the state tournament with a 55-45 hard-fought victory.
Adam Pike was a perfect 5-of-5 from behind the three-point line against the Big Red.
Junior Adam Pike brought his team back from a nine-point
deficit with 17 points, including three three-pointers during a 9-2 run to end the third quarter. Pike made all five of his three-point attempts in the victory and brought life to his team and the home crowd.
“It was just a good night,” Pike said. “My teammates were finding me, and everybody was looking to get me open.”
Briarcrest (19-9) trailed 31-24 at halftime and gave up the opening bucket of the third quarter to Jermaine Francis. But sophomore Maceo Woodard started the comeback with the Saints’ first seven points of the third quarter.
With its two leading scorers – sophomores Micah Thomas (13.7 points per game) and Mark French (10.7 ppg) – totaling only two points, the Saints were forced to find different sources of offense. Woodard and Pike led Briarcrest to a 16-8 advantage in the third quarter.
“Coach (Harrington) got onto us,” Woodard said. “Everybody else just had to pick it up and carry their weight.”
Maceo Woodard was challenged by his head coach at halftime and responded with the his team’s first seven points of the third quarter.
MBA (17-8) jumped out to an early lead on the shoulders of Alex Bars, a 6-foot-6, 309-pound offensive tackle who has signed with the University of Notre Dame. Bars buried defenders on the block and scored 11 points in the first half.
Briarcrest changed its defense at halftime to front Bars in the post and have the 6-foot-7 Thomas on help side to prevent easy baskets.
“The second half, the only adjustment we made is we told (Gus Gran and Will Hrubes) to front him,” Harrington said. “We left Micah at the rim a little bit more. We told our guys to get on help side and then sprint to close out, the way you’re supposed to play defense. We quit trying to be too smart and just played regular defense.”
With Thomas struggling on offense, Hrubes earned more playing time in the middle for the Saints. Hrubes, a 6-foot-4 sophomore, has been a consistent spark off the bench this season, averaging 5.9 points per game.
“I just go in and make the most of my minutes,” Hrubes said. “I try to do my assignments right and just try to make the easy play. I just gotta win it for my teammates. That’s all that really matters.”
Hrubes didn’t expect to play in the post this season, but he stepped up against the big men of MBA and scored 12 points. He opened the fourth quarter with back-to-back buckets to give the Saints a two-point lead and closed it with three free throws in the closing minute.
“Will can score,” Harrington said. “He hit a few baskets down the stretch that were really big. He caught the ball and made a few little spinning lay-ups.”
The Saints will now travel to Nashville for the state semi-finals on Friday. Harrington wasn’t shy in saying he didn’t know if this team could return to Nashville after losing over a dozen key players from the past two teams that made the state championship.
“There’s no way I thought we’d be here right now,” Harrington said. “There’s no way. This team is not the best talent-wise or the best team record-wise, but as far as coming from where they started and where they ended, that’s the best team.”
With only four teams remaining in the state tournament, Hrubes believes the key to returning to the state championship game is each player stepping up and doing his part.
“I’ve got to play my assignment, and we all gotta play our roles,” Hrubes said. “If we put all that together, we’re going to be a hard team to beat. If we execute and play well on defense, we’ll make the state championship.”
The Big Red was led by Bars and Joe McKinney with 11 points. Jermaine Francis also added 10 points. Elliott Morrissey entered the game as the team’s leading scorer at 11.2 points per game but did not score.
State tournament preview:
MUS traveled to Chattanooga for a battle with the No. 1 team in the East/Middle region and defeated McCallie 56-33. The Owls and the Saints will play Friday at 2:45 p.m., at Allen Arena on the campus of Lipscomb University.
Christian Brothers defeated Chattanooga Baylor 51-38 to advance to the state semi-finals. Their opponent will be the Ensworth, who has won three straight state titles and four of the last five.
Unofficial box score:
| No. | BCS Player | Pts. | Reb. | Ast. | TO | Blk. | Stl. | FG | 3P | FT |
| 11 | Adam Pike | 17 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6-7 | 5-5 | 0-0 |
| 20 | Will Hrubes | 12 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4-7 | 1-4 | 3-4 |
| 4 | Gus Gran* | 10 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3-3 | 1-1 | 3-4 |
| 21 | Maceo Woodard* | 9 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3-7 | 1-3 | 2-3 |
| 15 | KeShun Pinkney* | 5 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1-2 | 1-2 | 2-2 |
| 10 | Mark French* | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0-6 | 0-3 | 2-2 |
| 2 | Marc Wilhite | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 32 | Will Carter | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 35 | Micah Thomas* | 0 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0-3 | 0-1 | 0-0 |
| – | TEAM | – | 1 | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | – |
| Totals | 55 | 24 | 13 | 10 | 3 | 3 | 17-35 | 9-19 | 12-15 | |
| No. | MBA Player | Pts. | Reb. | Ast. | TO | Blk. | Stl. | FG | 3P | FT |
| 20 | Joe McKinney | 11 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4-9 | 3-7 | 0-0 |
| 44 | Alex Bars* | 11 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5-6 | 0-0 | 1-4 |
| 22 | Jermaine Francis* | 10 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5-8 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 21 | John Hazen | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2-4 | 1-2 | 0-0 |
| 11 | Duncan Smith* | 3 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1-5 | 1-1 | 0-0 |
| 12 | Jonah Rappuhn | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1-3 | 1-1 | 0-0 |
| 40 | Parker Bryan | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1-4 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 4 | Elliott Morrissey* | 0 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0-3 | 0-2 | 0-0 |
| 10 | Vinny Gaglione* | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 24 | Greg Quesinberry | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 32 | Charlie Hawkins | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| 33 | Jordan Wilson | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| – | TEAM | – | 8 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
| Totals | 45 | 23 | 12 | 9 | 1 | 5 | 19-43 | 6-13 | 1-4 | |
J-Will Sports 