By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Union City, Tenn.–His team clinging to a one-point halftime lead over South Fulton, Union City head coach Shane Sisco had a simple two-part message to his troops at the intermission of their District 13A Tournament semifinal Friday night.
1: Get the ball inside.
2: Guard the Red Devils’ two best players (Brock Brown and Bryce McFarland) better.
Message received.
The top-seeded Golden Tornadoes dominated the interior over the final two frames and limited the effectiveness of Brown and McFarland to pull away to a 66-48 victory over SF and earn a berth in Monday’s championship game.
UC (22-8) will play third-seeded Bradford (12-17) for the tourney title at 7:30 at the Elam Center on the campus of UT Martin.
Friday’s win also secured a homecourt game in the first round of the Region 7A Tournament for Union City, that contest scheduled for next Friday.
Neil Brown keyed the Twisters’ second-half dominance against South Fulton, tallying 11 of his 13 points over the final two frames when the Purple and Gold outscored the Red Devils 35-18.
Union City regularly went inside and also attacked the basket with drives to balance out its usually-consistent 3-point shooting attack.
Tyler Walton led the Tornadoes with 17 points and Ben McMillan added 16, including four 3-pointers.
“We were very lethargic defensively in the first half, but taking nothing away from South Fulton, they played hard and shot the ball extremely well,” Sisco said afterward. “We were much more aggressive in the post and getting to the basket in the second half, and we took their two best players, Brown and McFarland – who’d scored most of their points in the first half – out of things and forced some of their others to handle the ball.
“We’ve had a lot of success in the district for a long time, but it seems like it’s a lot more important at times to the other teams when they play us. I wish we played like it was more important to us. We have to be ready every time out, or something like what we did in the first half will get us beat in the tournament.”
UC, which had beaten the Redmen by 19 and nine points, respectively, in two regular season meetings, took a lead just before the half on McMillan’s drive and never trailed again. SF (11-16) had taken its last advantage on a Rider Whitehead trey at the 12-second mark.
Brown used his superior size to score twice in the first three minutes of the third quarter when the Tornadoes went on a 10-2 run to open their lead to 41-32.
A McMillan triple with 5:09 to play gave the Twisters their first double-figure lead (52-40) and was part of a 12-2 flurry – capped by Tariq Broadway’s bucket – that put the outcome on ice.
South Fulton’s Brown fouled out during that time, and he and McFarland combined for 35 of the Devils’ 48 points.
Neither team led by more than four points in an evenly-played first half.
Walton and teammate Jaxon Moran were named to the league’s All Academic team in postgame ceremonies – an honor reserved for seniors with a 3.0 or higher grade-point-average.
SF will play Greenfield in Monday’s consolation game at 6 p.m.
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