Tourney has been a roller coaster

Tourney has been a roller coaster
By JIMMY TRODGLEN
The Leaf-Chronicle

MURFREESBORO — For the first 32 minutes, the noise echoing around the Murphy Center came from the Clarksville High and Oakland fans hanging on to every bounce of the ball, while collectively holding their breath with each shot taken.

By the beginning of the third overtime, those neutral fans watching the semifinals of Friday's TSSAA Class AAA boys state tournament, were drawn into the intensity and emotion of what some called afterwards the greatest game played in tournament history.

Clarksville High will play for its first state championship since 1964 when it meets Maryville today at 7 p.m. for the Class AAA title. Maryville is making its first appearance in the title game after shocking Whites Creek 65-55 in Friday's other semifinal game.

For the players and fans living on each possession, the ebb-and-flow was enough to keep fans standing for the three overtime periods, and they stayed around long enough to see the Wildcats jump into the stands to celebrate the win with their fans.

Oakland's Chaisson Allen scored 36 points, hitting seven 3-pointers. He hit a 3-pointer and added two free throws to force overtime, then converted a four-point play in double overtime to force a third overtime.

"I thought we were playing great defense all the time, it was just No. 12 (Chaisson Allen) was ridiculously good and kept hitting all these pull-up 3s," said Clarksville guard Ryne Harper, who has 10 3-pointers in Clarksville's two state tournament games. "The guy was amazing."

For the second time in as many nights, Harper had his share of dramatics, finishing with 20 points while hitting four 3-pointers.

With Clarksville erasing Oakland's lead in the second quarter, Harper stole the ball at midcourt and threw a perfect pass to Adam Barnes for a layup. Harper had another steal that led to a Caldwell layup in the third quarter, and then he hit a driving layup with 1:46 left in regulation to give the Wildcats a three-point lead. The basket ultimately proved to be critical when Allen hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key less than a minute later.

And if that wasn't enough. Harper also had eight defensive rebounds.

"I should've been doing it the whole year," said Harper, referring to his defensive rebounding effort. "I want to get in there to get the defensive rebounds and help Shaun (Merriweather) and Lavonte (Henderson). To do what they can down low, they need help sometimes."

Harper's biggest play, however, didn't show up in the scorebook. At the beginning of the third overtime, Harper shot an air ball from the free-throw line, but followed his shot, saving the ball from going out of bounds and finding an open Barnes. Seconds later Barnes hit a 3-pointer that proved to be the demise of Oakland.

The start of Clarksville's semifinal game was eerily similar to how it started against Ridgeway in the tournament quarterfinals. Clarksville trailed by 14 at one point before coming back to beat Ridgeway. Against Oakland, the Wildcats trailed by 11 in the first quarter, but were down by one only at halftime.

"We felt like we can battle back from a deficit, but we don't like being there," Harper said. "We do not need to take that approach in any game. You never want to get behind, but I'm glad we battled back both times."

Clarksville led by as many as four points in each of the first two overtimes, only to watch Oakland come back.

Jimmy Trodglen is sports editor of The Leaf-Chronicle and can be reached by e-mail at jimmytrodglen@theleafchronicle.com or by phone at 245-0261.