Purple Tigers stand 21-9 overall —
COOKEVILLE — Watertown secured third place in District 8AA with a 56-54 overtime win over Cannon County Tuesday at Tennessee Tech University.
Upperman previously knocked off Watertown (21-9), and York Institute defeated Cannon County (18-13) in the district quarterfinals to set up the consolation match.
The Purple Tigers travel to face Cumberland County (17-11) Saturday at 7 p.m. in the opening round of the Region 4AA tournament. Cannon County will face Grundy County on the road Saturday night.
Upperman (27-2) captured the District 8AA tournament championship Tuesday with a 70-47 win over York Institute (21-8) — also at Tennessee Tech.
“We played well,” said Watertown coach Matt Bradshaw. “The kids did a great job of execution down the stretch and in overtime. All of our players made big plays during the course of the game that made a difference.”
Cannon County, coached by former Watertown assistant Jason Knowles, led 43-41 when Watertown’s Rayquan Verge hit a basket with 12 seconds left to tie the game, and the Purple Tigers’ defense held on to send the game into overtime.
The teams played to a 53-53 tie before Watertown’s Quantarrius Hughes-Malone hit a basket with 1.7 seconds left in overtime.
Both teams traded a free throw before time expired as Watertown picked up the win.
Watertown jumped out to a 10-7 lead at the end of the first period before Cannon County went on a 13-10 run to tie the game 20-20 at the half.
Cannon County went on a 17-14 run in the third to take a 37-34 lead, heading into the fourth.
Verge and Hughes-Malone, who were both named All-District, led all scorers with 15 points apiece.
CANNON COUNTY (54): Blake Bush 14, Gus Davenport 13, Luke Jakes 12, Lowell Rogers 9, Luke Alexander 4, Wade Love 2.
WATERTOWN (56): Rayquan Verge 15, Quantarrius Hughes-Malone 15, Elijah Williams 9, Brayden Cousino 9, Eli Scarlett 8.
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