Mt. Juliet Middle sweeps sectional titles

LAVERGNE — The kings and queens of Midstate middle school basketball reside at Mt. Juliet after the Lady Bears and Golden Bears won the TMSAA Midstate Sectional on Monday at Rock Springs.
The Lady Bears won their fourth championship in eight seasons with a dominating 56-32 victory over Sycamore before Mt. Juliet's boys won their first with a 47-41 overtime triumph over Murfreesboro Central.
The Golden Bears trailed until Caleb Chowbay hit a fallaway jumper over two Tigers at the regulation buzzer to force overtime 38-38.
Corderius Burns scored five of his game-high 19 points on free throws in overtime for Mt. Juliet while Chowbay chipped in four of his 10 in the extra session. Aaron Simms supplied 13 points and five assists while Matt Hayes had three points and three steals, Austin Odom two points and four assists and Brandon Shepard five rebounds as the Golden Bears wrapped up a 25-1 season.
"I just reminded them of all the work we had done over the summer and fall to get to this point and we were just going to throw that all away," Mt. Juliet coach Eddie Rockensock said he told his team at the start of the fourth quarter with the Bears trailing 29-16. "I am so proud of the way they battled back."
Mt. Juliet trailed 11-4 following the first quarter and 21-14 at halftime as the Bears shot just 10 percent.
The Lady Bears needed no such comeback against a Sycamore team which handed them half of their four losses.
Coach Rick Johnson used big girls Caya Williams and Sarah Roberts to help break Sycamore's press and Briley Henderson as a box-and-one chaser on one of the high-scoring Bliss sisters. Katie Bliss totaled 20 points, but her sister had only three as the Lady Knights finished a 20-2 season with both losses coming to the Lady Bears.
Williams totaled 23 points while Roberts finished with 14 and guard Henderson 12. Helen Mitchner threw in three while Amanda Pennycuff and Allyson Hayes each had two as Mt. Juliet concluded a 25-4 campaign.
The Lady Bears led 17-13 following the first quarter and 27-20 at halftime before blowing the game open with a 16-3 third period to go up 43-23.