Reid Murray ’22
March 1, 2022
Going on the road to face a number one seed may seem like a daunting task to many fourth-seeded teams. However, the challenge was not too big for the USN Boys’ Basketball team. The Tigers beat the Christian Academy of Knoxville Warriors for the second time this season on Saturday, February 26, this time in a win-or-go-home State quarterfinal.
The Tigers gave the Warriors trouble early in the game — after being tied at 13-13 at the end of the first quarter, Mahoney Daunic knocked down three three-pointers in the second quarter to help his team to a 37-25 lead at the half.
Josh Scretchen ‘22 spoke about the importance of USN’s shooting efficiency.
“We’re a team [where] if we get hot, then [there’s] not really much the other team can do,” Scretchen said. “Against ECS, we weren’t hitting that many shots, [but] we were still able to win by a solid amount. Against CAK, when we were hitting, it’s hard for the other team to guard us.”
Once the second half started, the Tigers continued to punish the Warriors with their shooting, as Adam Miller ‘22 and Scretchen each hit three-pointers in the first 1:02 of the third quarter.
USN held a double-digit lead for the majority of the remaining time in the game, and won by a final score of 73-52. Scretchen said the Tigers’ prior experience against CAK allowed them to be successful.
“It helped us a lot, especially with the game plan,” he said. “We really just wanted to make their point guard shoot and … make other guys make plays.”
USN’s next game will be in the State Final Four on Friday, March 4 against Goodpasture at Tennessee Tech University’s Hooper Eblen Center. In addition to eliminating USN from the 2021 district tournament, the Cougars knocked off the Tigers in this year’s region semifinal by a score of 70-51.
“We just gotta go back to the drawing board, stick to the game plan coach gives us, and really just give it our all,” Scretchen said.
Scretchen also spoke about Goodpasture’s strengths and how his team plans on limiting them.
“Their post presence [was their strongest aspect], for sure. I think it was pretty obvious,” he said. “They got like 15 offensive rebounds [in the region semifinal] … I think they scored 14 points off of offensive rebounds … so it’s sort of self-explanatory.”
Although the game is approximately one and a half hours away from USN, Scretchen expects the crowd to be lively due to USN’s early dismissal and spirit bus for students.
“I’m expecting it to be crazy,” Scretchen said. “I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
