By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Union City, Tenn.–Despite a bitter one-point loss to Gibson County in the District 12-AA boys’ semifinals, Union City is moving on.
The quicker, the better, according to head coach Shane Sisco.
“We have to turn the page (from this) and do so quickly,” Sisco insisted after his team dropped a tough 46-45 overtime decision to GC Friday night at Milan High School.
“We can’t have a hangover. We can’t have the disappointment of not winning this game keep us from preparing for the next one. There’s still plenty left in front of us, and the opportunity to advance deep in the postseason is there.”
UC (9-18) will face Westview (9-19) in Monday’s 6 p.m. consolation game before then moving on to regional play, where it will travel to either Camden or Hickman County, on Feb. 25, in a quarterfinal contest.
The Twisters just missed making it to the district title game Friday when a game-winning 3-point attempt by Joseph Lattus was barely off.
Union City had chances to win in both regulation and the extra session, but untimely turnovers, missed free throws, and Gibson County’s offensive rebounding dominance gave the final edge to the Pioneers.
Mathew Reynolds made a free throw with 41 seconds left in OT that ended up being the deciding point in the game.
“Our margin for error has been small all season, and we just didn’t make the big plays at critical times,” Sisco added. “I really liked our effort, and our execution was good much of the night. Even on the last play, D.J. (Robinson) made a good decision with the drive and dish, and we had an open shot. I liked our chances.
“The big thing is that we gave up 21 points on offensive rebounds. We just couldn’t keep (Ethan) Turner off the boards. I thought both Jack (Tully) and Joseph (Lattus) gave us good effort, but he was just a size mismatch for us. And we had only seven turnovers all night, but two of them came in overtime, and another came at the end of regulation. Of our four missed free throws, three came in the fourth quarter.
“It was bad timing for those mistakes.”
After not making a 3-pointer in the first two quarters and three minutes of the third frame, the Tornadoes found the range – making six shots from beyond the arc the rest of the way.
Triples by Lattus, Robinson and Malaki Brooks over a two-minute span helped Union City erase a six-point deficit and take a 28-27 lead at 2:38 of the stanza.
Brooks, who had 10 of his team-high 18 markers in the fourth frame, dropped in back-to-back bombs to put the Twisters up 38-37 with 3:10 left in regulation. Lattus hit from long range to make it 41-39 with 2:27 to go.
But Gibson County’s Reynolds sank a pair of charities at the 53-second mark to even things up at 41 before UC committed a turnover, and Turner misfired on two free throws with 5.7 seconds showing to force the extra session.
A pair of Robinson foul shots gave the Tornadoes a brief 43-41 lead before the Pioneers capitalized on consecutive Union City turnovers to score five straight points.
Robinson’s driving bucket shaved the difference to one at the 30-second mark before a GC turnover gave the Twisters their final chance.
“We had multiple opportunities in both regulation and in overtime,” Sisco added.
“The important thing now is that we have the experience from last year when we went on the road in the first round of the regional tournament and won. We need to lean on that and draw from it.”
Robinson (11) and Lattus (10) joined Brooke in double-digit scoring for UC.
Gibson County’s Reynolds led all point-makers with 22, while Turner pitched in with 16.