Fulton repeats as Class AA champions (Knoxville News-Sentinel)
MURFREESBORO - Fulton High School coach Jody Wright didn't tell his players before Saturday's Class AA state championship that no Knox County school had won back-to-back boys' basketball titles.
He wanted to avoid any unnecessary pressure.
Smart move. Booker T. Washington (29-3) did enough of that.
Fulton built a 20-point lead early in the fourth quarter at Middle Tennessee State University and held on for a 56-55 win, as Booker T. Washington scored 29 points in the final five minutes, 22 seconds with a suffocating press that nudged the Falcons to the brink of a meltdown.
But like last year's final, Fulton (30-6) showed an icy nerve at the free-throw line, making seven of 10 down the stretch to end the Warriors' 15-game win streak.
"To do something like win it back to back, to my knowledge, has never been done in the city of Knoxville," said Wright. "That makes it pretty special."
Fulton shot 51.3 percent from the floor. Courtland Styles had 17 points and nine rebounds. Jalen Steele, the tournament's MVP, led the way with 22 points on 5-for-15 shooting. He made nine of 12 free throws.
Steele got going in the second half for the second night in a row. He scored 12 points - including three 3-pointers - in a significant 18-5 third-quarter run that put Fulton ahead 39-17 with 1:20 left.
His halftime shooting tuneup under Wright's watchful eye had an effect.
"He said, 'Have confidence in your shot,' " said Steele. "I was shooting with no confidence in the beginning. He said, 'Shoot straight up and down. Shoot in the same spot you jump off of. ' ''
Fulton led 41-21 starting the fourth quarter. James Gallman's nifty layup with 5:42 to play kept the lead at 20. But in the next 2:12, Booker T. Washington forced four turnovers and outscored Fulton 14-1 to close to 47-40 on layups, jumpers and easy transition scores.
Steele hit two free throws with 1:55 to go for a 51-42 lead. But Fulton turnovers on its next two possessions led to Booker T. Washington closing the gap to 51-48 with 51.2 seconds left. The Warriors then twice trimmed the lead to two, but Styles and Steele hit pairs of free throws to preserve the win.
Larry McGhaughey (22 points) banked in a 3-pointer with 0.3 seconds left. Styles, barely escaping a five-second call, threw a deep inbounds pass that was intercepted too far down the court for a game-winning attempt.
"What a comeback by Booker T.," said Wright. "They made us earn it."
Steele wasn't in foul trouble during the first half like he was Friday. His shot just was sailing too long. He reached the half with two points on 1-for-9 shooting. Still, his dribble-drive move to the hoop gave Fulton its 21-8 halftime lead.
Fulton's role players provided the offensive relief. Robert Boyd scored four points in the second quarter. Micah Pitchford and Reggie Garrett pitched in two points apiece. Styles had seven first-half points.
Booker T. Washington was 4-for-23 shooting through 16 minutes and 0-for-10 on 3-pointers. Fulton prevented the Warriors' trademark putbacks and easy transition buckets - that was, until the fourth quarter.
"It was kind of weird," said Steele of the halftime score. "I was like, 'This game ain't gonna be normal. Something is going to happen. They're going to come back.'
"We just had to keep our heads and our poise."
Falcons flock together for another title (Knoxville News-Sentinel):
MURFREESBORO - After losing three starters from last year's Class AA boys' basketball state championship team, not many gave Fulton High School a chance of getting back to the state tournament - let alone win the whole thing.
But Saturday, there were the Falcons, celebrating in the middle of center court as they held off No. 7 Booker T. Washington 56-55 for a second consecutive state title.
Fulton (30-6) also made Knoxville history becoming the first team to win back-to-back state titles.
"Memphis gets all the credit for winning a lot of titles, but you have to give Knoxville some credit now," said tournament MVP Jalen Steele, who finished with 22 points and passed Terry Russell for third place in school history with 1,628 points.
The Falcons also improved their record to 4-3 against Memphis schools in the state tournament.
Most had Austin-East as the pick to be in Murfreesboro to compete for a state title, but the Roadrunners lost to Carter in the region semifinals.
Meanwhile, Fulton continued to gut out wins and prove critics wrong.
"We heard about how good Austin-East was and that they would be at the state tournament and we would be at home," said senior forward Courtland Styles, who had 17 points on 7-for-8 shooting from the field. "We used it as motivation day in and day out and played hard and now we are back-to-back state champions."
The Falcons lost point guard Shannon Hollingsworth, post player Will Bryant and guard Dominique Minor from last year's 28-4 team.
Fulton coach Jody Wright juggled his lineup all season as Middle Tennessee State signee James Gallman was switched from shooting guard to point guard, while Steele was put at shooting guard from small forward in 2008.
"Coach always preaches that team comes first and as a leader I had to embrace the move because you can't be selfish," Gallman said.
Add junior guard Robert Boyd, junior post Lemar Gibson, sophomore Micah Pitchford plus transfers Styles from Central and Reggie Garrett from Alcoa and Wright had a recipe for success. It just took a while for the Falcons to mesh.
"I knew we could be good but how good I didn't have the answer to that," Wright said "But the guys bought into the system and we got some great leadership from James Gallman and Jalen Steele.
"Players change all the time but our expectations never do. We always want to be in contention for a state title."
Steele, Gallman, Boyd and Styles made the All-Tournament team. For Styles it was really special. He never saw himself playing basketball for Fulton.
"I transferred over here to play football and get a football scholarship," Styles said. "But (Gallman) stayed on me to play basketball so I did and I got a football scholarship to Cumberland and a state title in basketball. Nothing can beat this feeling right now."
Washington falls in AA final (Commercial Appeal):
MURFREESBORO -- With his team trailing by 20 points heading into the fourth quarter of their TSSAA Class AA state championship game against Fulton Saturday, Booker T. Washington coach Fred Horton didn't have any master strategy he could share with his players on how to get back in the game.
He simply told them the only thing he knew to tell them.
"I told the kids to give yourself a gut-check and play your hearts out,'' Horton said. "We don't have time to run no offense. Just keep pressing and get after them. As the game went on, I saw things were turning in our favor. We had the momentum.''
His tactic nearly made for a dramatic, made-for-television finish, including a last second 3-pointer that banked in from the top of the key. Unfortunately, that shot by Larry McGaughey with three-10ths of a second remaining left the Warriors one point shy as Fulton held on, 56-55, to win its second consecutive state championship.
"I don't like losing, but that's one loss I think I can digest,'' Horton said. "They played their hearts out in that fourth quarter.''
That they did. For three quarters, BTW shot about as poorly as a team could shoot. In the first quarter, they made just 1 of 12 shots (that's 8.3 percent), including 0 for 8 from 3-point range, and trailed 8-2.
By halftime, the Warriors trailed 21-8 after increasing their shooting percentage to 17.4 percent (4 of 23, 0-10 from 3-point range). Finally, in the third quarter, BTW made just 3 of 10 shots, 1 of 4 from 3-point range, and trailed 41-21.
"In the first half, when you shoot 17 percent, that's not too good for anybody,'' Horton said. "That didn't help us at all.''
Then, it was if Horton's words woke his team up. The Warriors made a couple of shots, which finally allowed them to get into the fullcourt press Horton had been wanting to use, but couldn't because Fulton rarely had to take the ball out.
The press exposed Fulton's one weakness, which was ballhandling. The Falcons turned the ball over 10 times in the final period, which fueled BTW's furious rally, one that saw it outscore Fulton, 34-15.
"They found our weakness,'' Fulton senior James Gallman said. "We're not good at running the ball. We're good a slowing the ball up. They pressured us, and we just turned the ball over, and they came back off of layups. They showed our weakness.''
The Falcons used five free throws in the final 42 seconds to hold the Warriors off. BTW, looking for its first state title since 2001, was led by MgGaughey's 22 points. Travis Bridges added 10 points. The Falcons were paced by tournament MVP Jalen Steele, who scored 22. Courtland Styles had 17.
Fulton survives rally by B.T. Washington (Tennessean):
MURFREESBORO — For Fulton, the clock couldn’t tick fast enough.
The Falcons withstood a furious rally from B.T. Washington to escape with a 56-55 victory and its second consecutive Class AA boys basketball title Saturday night at MTSU.
Fulton became the first Knox County team to claim titles in back-to-back seasons.
Fulton (30-6) was up 41-21 to start the fourth quarter, but watched that lead erode as the press of B.T. Washington (29-3) forced 10 turnovers.
“We panicked a little,” said Fulton senior James Gallman, an MTSU signee. “I was like, ‘Come on. Get this game over with. Don’t look at the clock or it may go slower.’
“When it was over it felt so good, like I just got out of the shower. You get out feeling great, feeling fresh.”
Junior wing Jalen Steele’s two free throws with 13 seconds left gave Fulton a 56-52 lead, which held up after Douglas Rosser’s deep 3-pointer banked in for the Warriors with 0.3 seconds left.
Steele, named the tournament MVP, finished with 22 points. B.T. Washington’s Larry McGhaughey also had 22.
Courtland Styles added 17 points for Fulton, which committed 22 turnovers — 16 in the second half. Martavious Newby had eight of B.T. Washington’s 15 steals.
“I told the kids to give yourself a gut check and play your hearts out,” B.T. Washington Coach Fred T. Horton said. “As the game went on I saw things turning in our favor. We had momentum.
“From the scouting report I knew the press would bother them a great deal. Austin-East (which beat Fulton three times) pressed them. I don’t like losing, but that’s one loss I can digest.”
Fulton led 21-8 at halftime as B.T. Washington endured a miserable stretch of shooting, going 4 of 23 from the field.
Steele, who scored 48 of his 58 tournament points in the second half, got hot in the third quarter for 12 points and pushed the Falcons’ lead to 22 on two occasions.
“We got to rubbing that gold ball a little too early,” Fulton Coach Jody Wright said.
B.T. Washington wasn’t done. The suffocating defense gave Fulton problems getting the ball beyond midcourt in the fourth quarter, and those turnovers produced Warriors’ layups in bunches.
“I’m thinking, ‘Man, don’t let this slip away,’” Steele said. “We have to win. Just keep your poise, try and get fouled and make your free throws.”
Box Score:
FULTON 56, B.T. WASHINGTON 55
B.T. WASHINGTON (29-3)
McGhaughey, Larry 10-21 0-0 22; Bridges, Travis 2-8 5-6 10; Rosser, Douglas 4-8 1-2 9; Newby, Martavious 4-12 0-0 8; Anthony, Lacorwyn 3-13 0-1 6; Duffie, James 0-0 0-2 0; Love, Kerry 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 23-62 6-11 55.
FULTON (30-6)
Steele, Jalen 5-15 9-12 22; Styles, Courtland 7-8 3-3 17; Gallman, James 3-5 0-0 6; Boyd, Robert 3-6 0-1 6; Pitchford, Micah 1-3 1-2 3; Garrett, Reggie 1-1 0-0 2; Gibson, Lemar 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-39 13-18 56.
B.T. Washington 2 6 13 34 — 55
Fulton 8 13 20 15 — 56
Defending Champion Fulton Edges BTW For AA Title (The Chattanoogan):
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- Defending champion Knox Fulton defeated Booker T. Washington, 56-55, in the Class AA state championship game Saturday night at the boys state basketball tournament at Murphy Center.
Second-half shooter: Junior Jalen Steele scored just two points during the first half of Fulton’s Class AA semifinals and final. But in the second half, he had 40 points — 20 in each game.
“I get back in the locker room and get my head straight,” Steele said. “I know the speed of the game. After that I come back out and starting making shots.”
All Tournament Team:
Lester Wilson-Carter,Ricky Tisdale-Bolivar Central,Fred Sturdivant-Brainerd,Larry McGhaughey-BT Washington, James Gallman-Fulton, Douglas Rosser-BT Washington, Courtland Styles-Fulton, Martavious Newby-BT Washington,Robert Boyd-Fulton, Jalen Steele-Fulton (MVP)
PrepXtra Game Blog: Class AA Championship: Fulton (29-6) vs. B.T. Washington (29-2) (Jesse Smithey)
TSSAA Official Boxscore
Sweat Repeat! WVLT coverage
Fulton wins second straight state championship (WATE coverage)
Back to Back: Fulton Falcons AA Champs (WBIR coverage)
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