Millington girls, Cordova boys win 14-AAA tournament

from Commercial Appeal

Millington’s Tiara Caldwell put on a one-woman show, and Cordova’s undersized Wolfpack boys team put on its usual exhibition of defense, hustle and guile before an ecstatic home crowd Tuesday night. The end result was a District 14-AAA title, the first in three years for the Trojan girls and the first since 2004 for the Cordova boys.

Caldwell had 21 points and 19 rebounds the Millington girls (15-14) dethroned Arlington (17-9) by a 53-39 margin. In the nightcap Cordova (17-9), with no player taller than 6-2, literally ran Craigmont out of the boys final with a 20-2 run that helped seal a 51-40 victory over the Chiefs (15-11).

“We just told ourselves we had to play harder,” said tournament MVP James Kilpatrick, who came back from a hamstring injury to score 10 points, including a bucket during the run where the Wolves turned a 30-24 deficit into a 44-32 lead with 2:57 to go.

Chester Hooker scored six of his 12 in the run, Jadarian Brown had four of his 10. Tyler Whitaker and Lorenzen Wright Jr. each had two baskets as Cordova outhustled a taller Craigmont squad, who got 10 points from 6-8 Malcom Taylor before he fouled out early in the fourth.

Cordova lost its tallest player, 6-3 senior Mike Wickliffe to an ACL tear last month. O’Keeth Barker had also been out with a ligament tear, but played Tuesday night, and hit a baseline jumper at the buzzer to give his team a 22-21 halftime edge.

“O’Keeth came to me in tears wanting to play. He gutted it out. Basically we had two guys out there on one leg,” said Cordova coach Terrance Scales, as his sixth-seeded team celebrated its accomplishment. “We aren’t a true sixth seed, but there were games down the stretch where we had four starters out with injuries. We play on guts.”

Two years removed from its improbable run to the state Class AAA title, the Chiefs once again finished second in their district, losing to a smaller team.

“We broke down in the discipline part of our game plan,” coach David Taylor said. “Instead of trying to use our size inside, we started jacking shots (from the 3-point line, where they had some early success).”

But he added Cordova’s defense, “gave us a serious dose of our own medicine.”

Girls tournament MVP Caldwell had seven points in the second quarter and Kendra Richardson (10 points) hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer as the Trojans opened a 30-18 lead at halftime, and withstood a mini-run in the third by the Tigers, led by freshman Torrie Sewell’s 20 points. Treasure Redding added a dozen in the winning effort.

“After they got their run we called time and I just told ‘em ‘We got this’,” said Caldwell, a UT-Martin signee. “I feel like we’ve won the Super Bowl – and we don’t even play football.”

Caldwell was all over the floor, hitting putbacks, getting rebounds through wild angles, diving on the floor for loose balls to keep the Trojans on offense.

“I’ll go back, watch Tiara on film from this game, and still not know how in the world she did some of the things she did tonight,” Millington coach Bruce Marshall said.

Arlington’s David Offerle said, simply, “She outhustled our whole team.”

The girls Region 7 tournament opens with quarterfinals Friday. Millington is home to Jackson North Side while Arlington welcomes Hardin County. Third-place Bolton is at Dyer Co., while Craigmont travels to District 13 champ Munford.

The boys get underway Saturday night. Hardin County is at Cordova, Jackson North Side at Craigmont, Bolton is at Dyer Co., while Arlington is at Munford, which swept both 13-AAA tournament titles.