HISTORY: Jackson County Advances To Class 1A State Championship Game With 54-49 Win Over Memphis Middle College

State Tournament coverage presented by Risher Roofing

Story by Noah McKay

MURFREESBORO – The Jackson County Blue Devils will play for a state championship for the first time in program history following a 54-49 win over Memphis Middle College in the Class 1A semifinals Friday at the Murphy Center.

The Blue Devils erased a 13-point third quarter deficit to advance to Saturday’s Class 1A state championship game.

“Just so excited for my boys,” said JCHS head coach Kevin Thomas. “This has been coming for three years. Just for our high school and our community. To know that my grandad coached there and the gym’s named after him and all the success he had… to get this team to the state championship game is just… I just can’t tell you how much it means to me.”

The first half saw MMC’s Matthew Manuel go 6-7 from the field for 15 points while the Blue Devils shot 6-15 as a team and the Bulldogs led 26-16 at halftime.

“We really didn’t play our best in the first half,” said Thomas. “I told them at halftime ‘we’re in a good spot because we got to dig a little deeper, and you guys have been here, we’ve been down before and it just starts one possession at a time.”

The Bulldogs stretched their lead to 31-18 with 6:25 to play in the third before Parker Patterson hit a three followed by a jumper by Class 1A Mr. Basketball Will McCrary to cut the deficit to 31-23. The Blue Devils then followed with a 10-0 run to take a 35-34 lead. MMC hit two free throws, but Patterson, Alex Meadows and Aden Netherton each scored to give JCHS a 42-36 lead after three.

The Bulldogs rattled off a 7-0 run to cut the lead to 44-43, but McCrary answered with four points. Another brief MMC run cut the deficit to 50-49 with 30 seconds to play, but Alex Meadows sealed the game with a steal-and-score followed by free throws by Patterson and Isaiah Thomas as the Blue Devils locked up the 54-49 win.

“What a game,” said coach Thomas. “We went a little triangle-and-two in the second half and I thought that helped us a little bit defensively. Man, the play Alex made at the end of the game… tremendous. People will be talking about that play for 50 years in Jackson County.”

McCrary led the Blue Devils with 21 points and 12 rebounds. Meadows scored 14 points with five rebounds.

“It’s awesome,” said McCrary. “We get to go to the state championship and have have a chance to win it all. It’s amazing.”

“We’ve been down before and we came out, changed defenses… and it went perfect against them,” said Meadows. “Defensively we stepped up and I feel like that’s what led to our points.”

Patterson tallied nine points and eight rebounds. Netherton scored eight points with six assists. Thomas scored two points.

The Blue Devils will face Humboldt in the Class 1A state championship game on Saturday at 6:30 at the Murphy Center. Humboldt defeated Eagleville 65-62 with a buzzer-beating three.

UCR will have comprehensive coverage of the game from Murfreesboro, presented by Risher Roofing.