By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
The ‘every possession matters’ mantra of the postseason was unfortunately on full display for Union City Monday night.
Leading favored Ripley 38-34 with just over four minutes to play, the Tornadoes went scoreless on six straight offensive trips, allowing the Tigers to rally for a 49-41 victory in the District 14-2A consolation game at Martin.
The loss sends UC (11-17) to District 13 champion Jackson Central-Merry (13-9) for Saturday night’s Region 7 quarterfinal game. The remainder of the tourney (semifinals and championship) will be played at Westview on Tuesday and Thursday of next week after the Chargers earned the tourney host role by beating Trenton 51-41 in the 14-2A title game.
Union City, which has struggled at times to put together a complete four-quarter game this season with a youthful lineup, again saw that play out Monday vs. Ripley.
The Twisters committed three costly turnovers and missed four shots from the field while the Tigers took full advantage of UC’s aforementioned untimely dry spell with 13 unanswered points.
“We were loose with the ball and then couldn’t get a shot to go down when we did get a look at the basket during that three or four minutes,” Tornado head coach Bill Kail said afterward. “Part of tournament basketball is having good possessions and taking care of the ball when the stakes are the highest.
“That’s the second game in a row where we didn’t do that in the fourth quarter, and it cost us.”
The Twisters played the Tigers (19-9) on almost even terms in the first half before getting a Hollister Johnson traditional 3-point play and a triple by Kobe Maddox to take a 32-30 lead at the end of the third period.
UC then took its largest lead of the night – 38-34 – on a Will Kail trifecta with 4:35 to go before Ripley went on its telling run while the Twisters went nearly four minutes between baskets. Antoine Arnold and T.J. Jones knocked down 3-pointers to key the Tigers’ run.
Ripley outscored Union City 19-9 over that final eight minutes with treys by Kail and Johnson representing the Tornadoes’ only field goals.
“We gave them a different look defensively with our zone in the second half after they made four three-pointers in the first half, and it worked for a while,” added Kail, whose team gave up just five points in the third stanza. “Then, they hit another one to cut the lead to one (in the fourth quarter), and we seemed to panic a little, even though we still had the lead.
“The only way to get better and get over the hump in these situations, though, is to keep putting ourselves in similar positions. We still have some growing to do, but we have to continue to put ourselves in the moment and get the job done.”
Johnson, who was named to the All-District and All-Tournament teams, led UC with 16 points. Kail had nine and Thompson – the latter also a member of the two glitter units – chipped in with eight markers. Tayshun Gentry was named to the All-Academic team, an honor reserved for seniors with a GPA of 3.0 or higher.