A Word from the Outlaw 005


 

The middle of February in the TSSAA means one thing for the sports world.

It’s district tournament time in Tennessee.

While Dyer County and Dyersburg head over to Newbern later this week, one of the Lake County teams has already been in action and the other is waiting to see how long this snowfall from Tuesday night hangs around before they can get onto the court.

On Monday night, Dyer County assured itself that its two teams would play at least three more games with wins over the Obion County Central girls and the Crockett County boys.

In looking back, you couldn’t have gotten two more opposite games than had you wrote it out like a Hollywood script. Even a WWE writer couldn’t have came up with two more different games for the night’s doubleheader of win-or-go-home games.
The opening game of the night was close throughout the entire four quarters of regulation. Each team had multiple chances to get away from the other one and prolong their season.

Towards the end of regulation, Dyer County freshman Julie Cogdill hit the biggest shot of her career, a three-pointer with about 30 seconds left to put her team on top. But, the game was nearly decided on a chance foul which saw some contact near midcourt following a late long inbounds pass. A 1-of-2 performance from the line sent the game into overtime and saved the Lady Choctaw season.

I said the first four quarters were close – the overtime was not. While the Dyer County defense kept the Lady Rebels off the board through the entire four-minute extra frame, the Lady Choctaws scored eight points – despite missing their first six free throws. Yeah, an 8-0 quarter by the orange and white girls could have been as bad as 14-0.

Regardless, Dyer County will play Dyersburg on Friday night (weather permitting always sounds odd with an indoor sport but that was a lot of snow I saw out there when I just looked out) at 7:30 p.m. in Newbern. For both girls teams who are part of good old JP’s coverage net, the ultimate goal of getting to the state tournament is still in play.

Meanwhile, a close boys game for about a half, turned lopsided in the second half thanks in large part to a strong third quarter by Dyer County and a bad shooting performance by the Cavaliers. Dyer county won handily to earn a Saturday night matchup with top-seeded Obion County Central.

I did see some chatter online about the difference in the amount of fouls called in the boys game. Without doing a deep dive into this, it’s easier to say that having multiple technical fouls in the second half can lead to something like that happening. This isn’t the first time I have seen physical and chippy games in this district and, I would bet my paycheck this week that Monday night’s won’t be the last.

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