REGION CHAMPIONS: Smith County Takes Down Cannon County 55-31 For First Region Championship Since 1991

By Michael Lindsay

The Smith County Owls (22-11) added more hardware to the trophy case on Thursday as they won their first region championship in 35 years (1991) via a 55-31 victory over Cannon County.

“It’s a surreal feeling to be a part of something like that,” said Smith County head coach Layne Bussell, who’s in his second season with the Owls. “To see the boys come out and play the way they did last night was awesome. It’s been a heck of a lot of fun.

“Something I really think has helped us for this moment is our schedule,” added Bussell. “We had 11 games against substate opponents across 4 classes. All of those moments led up to us being prepared for this. The growth and buy-in from year 1 to year 2 has been phenomenal.”

Smith County and Cannon County split their regular season matchups, but the Owls have owned the postseason as they defeated the Lions 62-58 in last week’s District 6-2A championship and 55-31 in this week’s Region 3-2A title game.

“We’ve seen Cannon four times,” said Bussell. “We’ve scouted them, they scouted us, and we know each other well. The boys executed the defensive game plan perfectly. Tyler Jones was on Miles Alexander, and Miles is a really special player, but had a hard time last night.”

Jones led the Owls with 20 points in the championship game along with 14 by Cooper Williams, who was named tournament MVP for his efforts. Lucas Cornwell, Morgan Sinclair, Cohen Rigsby and Jones were named to the all-tournament team.

“Cooper really stepped up,” said Bussell. “He made some tough shots early to get us going. Two of the biggest shots of the game were from Cohen Rigsby; he made back-to-back threes to extend the lead out to double digits.”

Thursday’s Region 3-2A championship victory secures a home game on Monday in the Class 2A sectional round against White House Heritage (26-6) with a Class 2A state tournament berth on the line.

“I’m expecting the community to show up in full force on Monday night,” said Bussell. “It could be a really wild atmosphere. White House Heritage has Avery Cole, who’s a 6’10” big, strong post. They’ve got multiple good guards that can really get to the rim and shoot the ball well. We’re going to have to be on our Ps and Qs, know the scout and be ready to execute.”