By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Union City, Tenn.–Winning never gets old.
“I told the kids before the game, don’t ever take opportunities like this for granted,” Union City head coach Shane Sisco said after his Golden Tornadoes won the program’s 39th district tournament championship with a 56-34 triumph over Bradford in the 13A finals Monday night at UT Martin.
“This program has won a lot, but it’s not a given that you’ll be in this situation every year.
“This particular group is very deserving, though, and I’m really proud of them and for them.”
Tyler Walton, one of just two seniors on the team and the regular season district Most Valuable Player, scored his 1,000th career point with 4:52 left in the contest, highlighting Union City’s third lopsided win in as many meetings with Bradford this season.
The district title was Sisco’s eighth in 20 seasons on the UC bench and capped a season that saw the Purple and Gold sail unbeaten and basically unchallenged through league play, winning 12 regular season games by an average of more than 27 points-per-game.
The Twisters (23-8), who’ll now host the fourth-place finisher from District 14A (Middleton or Madison Academic) in Friday’s regional quarterfinals, won their two postseason tourney games by 18 and 22 points.
Union City methodically put away the Red Devils in Monday’s championship game.
After a slow first half in which there were just 20 possessions total between the two teams, UC built on a 19-11 lead – building its lead to double-figure status for the first time on a Kaler Bobo 3-pointer.
Ben McMillan drained a triple and Neil Brown, who closed the first half with a pair of buckets inside, powered home another deuce to make it 29-14 halftime through the third stanza.
Another Bobo trey to begin the stretch run and a two-pointer by McMillan stretched the gap even further before Walton then reached his individual milestone to highlight a quarter in which the Tornadoes nearly matched their output of the first three segments.
Needing just six points to reach the magical 1,000-point mark, Walton had struggled with just two points over the first three quarters.
He made a pair of free throws with 5:28 showing to make it 39-21, then bottomed a 3-pointer from just left of the key to set off a celebration of fans and teammates.
“Real proud of Tyler,” Sisco said. “He’s a great kid and it’s really nice for him to have left his mark in the program.”
The UC coach emptied his bench with three minutes to play and his club comfortably ahead.
“The pace was slow in the first half and I thought we were impatient,” Sisco added. “We were much more patient in the second half and we did a much better job of playing inside-out.
“I thought Neil (Brown) was effective again in the post and that opened up some things on the perimeter.”
McMillan led a trio of double figure scorers with 14 points, two more than Brown, with Walton finishing with 10.
Walton was joined on the all-district team by McMillan and Bobo, while Walton, McMillan, Brown and Nick Sanders were chosen for the all-tournament squad.
Brown was picked for the all-defensive team.
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