Dyersburg draws White County in opening round of TSSAA Class 3A Tournament

 

Jason Peevyhouse

Editor, JP Productions Sports

For the third straight season, the Dyersburg girls basketball team has advanced to the TSSAA Class 3A State Tournament where the Lady Trojans will come in as the defending state champions.

The black and gold begin their defense of their state title on Thursday at 12:45 p.m. at the Murphy Center on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreeboro. The Lady Trojans will take on White County in the state quarterfinals.

White County (31-3) ended the regular season as the top-ranked team in the state in the  Tennessee Sports Writer’s Association Girls Poll, two spots ahead of Dyersburg (27-4) in the final rankings released on Feb. 28.

Dyersburg is making its third straight trip to Murfreesboro while White County makes its first appearance since 1997. On MaxPreps, the Sparta Warriors are ranked second with the Lady Trojans coming in at No. 5.

After going into the tournament in 2023 as a relative unknown to the field then returning to the dance the next year and winning it all, the Lady Trojans now go in as the defending champion. This has not changed the way the Dyersburg girls have prepared for the opening game of the tournament, according to DHS Head Coach Tim Strayhorn.

“It’s really no big difference to us,” Strayhorn explained. “It’s another game. We’ve got to play the No. 2 team in the state to start out.

“We’ve got a tough bracket. We’ve got some of the top teams in one bracket. We’re just going to take it one game at a time.”

This statement rings true when looking at both sets of rankings. Of the four teams in Dyersburg’s bottom half of the TSSAA Class 3A Bracket, three were in the top four of the final TSWA’s final poll back in late February. Northview Academy, who plays South Side, was ranked eighth. And, when looking at MaxPreps, three of the four teams in the Lady Trojans’ part of the bracket are in the top five there as well.

Strayhorn is focusing more on the task at hand, coaching his team into a way to beat White County.

“They’re well-coached and play a lot of man-to-man defense,” the Lady Trojan head coach explained. “They’re solid. We’ve just got to go up there and be us.”

The Sparta Warriors’ defense is what Strayhorn said stands out to him when looking at White County on film.

“They do a lot of switching in their man-to-man,” he explained. “We’ve just got to go up there and play Lady Trojan basketball.

“We’ve got to go up there and guard and communicate. We’ve got to be coachable.”

Facing man-to-man defensive teams is one reason Strayhorn began to switch the Lady Trojan defensive plans during the regular season.

“We usually start the season in the zone then we start switching over,” Strayhorn recalled. “We lost a couple games switching over.

“But, I knew, to win it all, we’ve got to guard. They shoot it way too well and some of the teams in our district shoot too well for us to stay in the zone.”

Strayhorn admitted his team is not really a zone team because they get lazy in the zone.

“We’d rather not play zone and we’d rather play man,” he explained.

Strayhorn said the Lady Trojans will need a good game from the starters as well as the first couple off the bench for the Dyersburg girls.

“They’ve all got to have a big game, especially that first five and two girls coming off the bench,” Stayhorn added. “They’ve got to be big because we want to play fast.

“The court is longer and bigger and the teams are better and well-coached. So, we need a big game from everyone.”

One of the points noticed by spectators last season was the difference in fouls called at the state tournament as compared to the regular season and earlier in the postseason. This can be contributed to different officials than players, coaches and, especially, fans have seen during the course of the season. Strayhorn admitted this is just one of several different adjustments the Lady Trojans will need to make to be successful. And, not just against White County, but throughout their stay in the tournament.

“We’re going to be able to adjust because I think it all starts with the coach,” Strayhorn said. “I think if a coach whines and complains, then the team will do the same thing.

“We’ll make adjustments. And not just with the officials but with the other team. If we have to make adjustments with what gameplan we’re trying to come up with, we’ll make that adjustment. We plan on getting through them then we’ll have another tough one.”

While many could argue that Dyersburg has one of the toughest draws in the state tournament, Strayhorn is quick to point out that it is all going to be tough. After all, as shown earlier in this article, three teams in Dyersburg’s part of the bracket are in the top five of MaxPreps’ rankings. In fact, if things play out according to rankings, any team coming out of the bottom half of the bracket could see Heritage (No. 1 in TSWA, No. 2 in MP) or Cocke County (No. 1 in MP, No. 5 in TSWA). But, that’s rankings and not what can happen in the Glass House.

Either way, the team that is left standing around 7 p.m. on Saturday night is going to have to go through the best in the state to be the TSSAA Class 3A State Champions.

“And, you know, we can’t say us and South Side are not the two top teams in the state,” Strayhorn said. “It’s all point of view.

“South Side’s two losses are against us. Our schedule was tough. A couple of games we just lost trying to figure some things out. I think both of us are probably the top two teams in the state.”

Dyersburg is set to tip off with White County on Thursday afternoon at 12:45 p.m. in the Murphy Center on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University in Murfreesboro. This will be the third quarterfinal of the Class 3A bracket following Cocke County vs. South Gibson (9:30 a.m.) and Portland vs. Heritage (11 a.m.). Following the Lady Trojans and Sparta Warriors, South Side takes on Northview Academy in the final Class 3A quarterfinal beginning at 2:15 p.m.

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