Van Buren County’s Caden Mills elevates for a third-quarter jump shot during Wednesday’s Class A quarterfinal against Knoxville Grace.
MURFREESBORO – For the Van Buren County boys basketball team, the second time was the charm.
After losing its opening-round game last season in its first state tournament appearance, the Eagles took the next step in picking up their first win 64-60 over Grace Christian Academy in Wednesday’s Class A quarterfinal at MTSU’s Murphy Center.
“I think maybe it was a little bit easier to focus on basketball this time instead of kind of looking around like, ‘Wow this is kind of cool,’” Van Buren County coach Dustin Sullivan said. “We talked about we wanted to more than just kind of hang around for a day and enjoy the moment.”
Van Buren County will have the chance to take its program even deeper into the state tournament with a spot in the final on the line in a 1:15 p.m. matchup with Booker T. Washington Friday in the semifinals.
Senior guard Drew Roberts led the way for Van Buren County early and spotted the Eagles seven points in the first quarter, but the two teams were locked at 14 after one.
Grace Christian freshman Grant Ledford nailed two 3-pointers and a pair of layups, but his points were all the offensive production the Rams would get in the second quarter as Van Buren County outscored GCA 15-10 to take a 29-24 lead at halftime.
“This kid’s a dang freshman and he was owning people out there,” junior Connor Arnold said. “I was amazed at what he was able to do.”
The Rams took a big hit early in the second quarter when Arnold, their leading-scorer, picked up his third foul and was forced to spend a significant amount of time on the bench.
Van Buren County coach Dustin Sullivan looks on during the second half of Wednesday’s Class A quarterfinal against Knoxville Grace.
Van Buren began the second half with a pair of 3s from Roberts and sophomore Caden Mills and when GCA narrowed the gap to 37-33, the two combined for another pair of 3s to push the lead to 10.
“I think if anybody on our team hits a 3 it just gets everybody really going,” Roberts said.
“You just want to make sure you hit the next one,” added Mills, who finished with a game-high 27 points. “You don’t want to slow the tempo. You just want to keep it going.”
The Rams would fight back to trim the lead to two, closing out the third on a 12-4 run to head into the final quarter trailing 47-45.
Van Buren would take a 59-52 lead late, but GCA came up with three steals and a 6-0 run in 1:11 to make it a one-point game.
The Rams would make one more layup, but the Eagles hit five clutch free throws late to ice the victory, finishing 23 of 28 from the free throw line.
“We actually did talk about trying to attack and get to the foul line.” Sullivan said. “We’re a good free throw shooting team and we kept it in the guys’ hands that can hit them.”
Reach Sam Brown at 615-259-8232 and on Twitter @SamBrownTN.