The WCMS Pioneers are storming into the CTC Tournament as the No. 1 seed after finishing with a 10-2 conference record during the regular season.
The tournament is set to begin this week at Franklin South. The Pioneers get a first-round bye and are scheduled to play Thursday at 5:45 p.m. against the winner of the Shelbyville Harris/ Franklin County game.
The Pioneers put an exclamation point on their regular season when they went on the road and dismantled Coffee County on Monday night behind 20 points from star player Carter Simpson.
WCMS won 41-19 as Simpson outscored Coffee County on his own.
“Carter is one of the most competitive players I’ve ever coached,” said WCMS coach Kevin Burnett. “He’s really receptive to coaching and when you combine that with his athleticism and his competitiveness, you have something to work with.”
In addition to its 10-2 conference record, WCMS finished the regular season 13-6 overall. That included a big win against Rockvale.
“Even though we’re the No. 1 seed, every game from here on out will be tough,” said Burnett. “There’s not a lot of
room for error. By this point in the season you’ve played everybody twice and we’ve all had time to make adjustments. I feel any of the top four teams in our conference can win on any given night. You never know what’s going to happen in the tournament and we’re going to have to play well.”
Burnett said WCMS, Franklin North, Shelbyville Harris, and Tullahoma East are the top four teams, in his estimation. He said Tullahoma East has a 6-foot-6 post who grabs immediate attention when he takes the floor and Harris has a 6-foot-4 player who can dunk.
Burnett said his main rotation is about six players deep. He has praise for his post players, Keyton Reno and DeShawn Adams, along with key contributors like Hector Marquez, Ayden Odineal and sixth-grader Luke Simpson.
Here’s the scoring from Monday’s win over Coffee County in Manchester.
WCMS – Carter Simpson 20, Keyton Reno 6, DeShawn Adams 6, Luke Simpson 3, Ayden Odineal 3, Hector Marquez 3 COFFEE COUNTY – Brian Summers 5, Levi Rollman 4, Tallan Crosslin 3, Laudau Abellana 3, Luke Campbell 2, David Lewis 2 GIRLS
The outcome wasn’t as positive for the WCMS Lady Pioneers, who suffered a 43-19 loss in Coffee County on Monday night to close their regular season.
WCMS was unable to contain Coffee County’s Natalie Barns, who finished as the game-high scorer with 19 points.
The Lady Pioneers enter thisweek’sCTCTournament as the No. 5 seed. They are scheduled to play Monday at 4 p.m. against Tullahoma East, the No. 4 seed.
WCMS – Maci McBride 9, Katie Betchel 4, Abby Graves 3, Aubrey Oleksik 2, Addison Steakley 1 COFFEE COUNTY – Natalie Barns 19, Ella Arnold 11, Jaydee Nagodula 5, Adalyn Clark 3, Hayleigh Harris 3, Kaysen Morgan 2.
