Mavs sights set on district tourney
By virtue of its District 4-AAA regular-season championship, the Anderson County High School boys basketball team has a first-round bye in this week’s postseason tournament.
The Mavericks will be back in action Friday night in the semifinals at Scott County.
They now can take a much-needed break before beginning preparations for the postseason after a busy past two weeks.
“I’m looking forward to getting some time off,” said second-year ACHS Cach Jordan Jeffers.
“I’m giving the guys a couple of days off and then we’re going to get back to the basics, get back to some fundamental stuff.”
The Mavs (19-9 overall, 8-2 in the district) have already qualified for the Region 2-AAA tournament.
But Jeffers said he knows that his team still has plenty of work to do.
“If we win the district tournament, we’ll get to host the region tournament, and that’s really a big deal,” he said.
In the region tournament, defending Class AAA state champion Fulton will be waiting, and the Falcons return several players from last year’s squad that won it all in Murfreesboro last season.
Getting to the region championship game would land Anderson County in the state sectional round.
“I think on our side, everybody wants to stay away from Fulton for as long as they can,” Jeffers said.
The Mavericks closed out the regular season with three road games.
They came out on top in two of those three contests, and won their last two games.
Anderson County won its regular-season finale by the slimmest of margins, edging Knoxville Halls 63-62.
Brandon Dake had 20 points against the Red Devils, while Hayden Craig added 13 and Daylen Cole finished with nine.
On Thursday, the Mavericks ran past Northview Academy 67-48 as they had four players score 10-plus points in the contest.
ACHS got 20 points from Hayden Craig. Cam Lawson, Ryan McGhee and Dake scored 11 each.
The Mavs opened the week on Tuesday, Feb. 6, with a 61-48 loss to crosstown rival Clinton in the league finale for both schools.
With the win, the Dragons (10-14, 7-3) clinched second place and a first-round bye in the district tournament.
McGhee scored 13 points against Clinton. Cole added 11, and Craig finished with nine.