By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Union City, Tenn.–From start to finish, Union City was the class of District 14A this season.
The second-ranked and top-seeded Golden Tornadoes put an exclamation point on their unbeaten league run through the regular season and tournament play with a 76-45 rout of Gleason in Monday’s 14A title game.
UC’s 13th straight victory netted the Purple and Gold the 42nd district title in the illustrious history of the program. The Twisters (25-5) will now host District 14 fourth-place finisher West Carroll (10-18) Saturday night at 7 in a first-round regional game.
The semifinals of that event are scheduled for Tuesday (Feb. 27) at UT Martin, with the tournament championship set for Thursday (Feb. 29) at Dresden High School due to a conflict at UTM on that date. The tourney bracket will be finalized on Wednesday.
Having won eight of its 10 regular season 14A games by 25 or more points and with a 47-point romp over Lake County in the district semifinals, Union City made another emphatic statement of its supremacy by overwhelming Gleason for the third time in as many meetings Monday.
The Tornadoes bolted to a 19-4 lead in the first six minutes, then expanded their 39-26 halftime lead by wearing down the Bulldogs with their suffocating waves of defensive pressure that produced a 37-19 flurry over the final two quarters.
Regular season and tournament Most Valuable Player Malaki Brooks rocked Gleason with a game-high 37 points on a variety of athletic twists to the basket and five 3-pointers. The Class A Mr. Basketball finalist, who was also named to the All-Defensive team, was near-perfect from the foul line, too, going 12-of-13.
Joseph Lattus knocked down four triples to finish with 16 points for UC, which denied the Bulldogs their first district title in 55 seasons.
Twister head coach Shane Sisco, who has directed Union City to 11 district titles now, savored the latest of those accomplishments afterward.
“Winning district championships never gets old – even with a program like ours that has a lot of history,” Sisco said afterward. “This group has had a lot of adversity over the last couple of years and really hasn’t had its chances because of injuries and other things. They’re very deserving.
“And we’d talked once the tournament started that the regular season didn’t mean anything. It didn’t matter what we’d done against Gleason and Lake County in the earlier meetings. I thought our kids were very focused early, especially on the defensive end. Then, the start in the third quarter when Malaki (Brooks) made a couple of shots, and we forced turnovers on their first two or three possessions allowed us to get it (the lead) back over 20 and in a good spot.”
Brooks hit for 15 of his markers in the opening frame when the Twisters built a 26-8 cushion. Lattus and DeAngelo Monroe also connected from long distance.
The feisty Bulldogs did make some noise in the first five minutes of the second stanza, getting within 31-22 before Ben Kail bottomed back-to-back 3-pointers to build the difference back to double digits.
Lattus hit three times from the perimeter, and Brooks tacked on another 10 points in the third period when UC surged to a 25-point lead (57-32). The Tornado starters took a seat with just over five minutes to play, with the count standing at 71-41.
Lattus and Kail joined Brooks on the All-District Team. Lattus and C.J. Davis were picked for the All-Tournament squad, along with Brooks, and Davis was named Defensive Player of the Year in the league.
Jack Tully and Lattus earned spots on the All-Academic Team – an honor reserved for seniors with a minimum 3.0 grade point average.
Sisco said his troops would immediately turn their attention to the regional tournament, where more formidable foes await the Tornadoes.
“The region will be totally different competition-wise from what we’ve seen the last 13 or 14 games,” the coach claimed. “We must remain consistent with our approach and our preparation.
“We know what’s in front of us, but we can’t get caught looking at what’s ahead after Saturday.”