The Smoky Mountain Conference junior varsity boys basketball 2022-23 season ran through Cherokee County. Andrews finished in first place in the regular season with a 9-1 mark in conference and finished 15-4 overall, while Murphy came in just behind them at 8-2 in the conference and 18-2 overall.
In the conference tournament final, the Bulldogs avenged their two losses to the Wildcats in the regular season, besting them in overtime 34-33 on Feb. 16 to win the tournament championship.
“They were all ready to go from the get-go,” Murphy JV head coach Dawson Grizzle said. “They just had it in their minds they were not going to lose this basketball game, no matter what.”
The Bulldogs’ JV team this winter was made up of a group of freshmen who went undefeated at the middle-school level, as well as a group of sophomores who played hard last year but couldn’t get over the hump. They set high goals, and it didn’t take long to show this year could be different, as Murphy beat Gilmer, Ga., in overtime in the first game of the season.
Though they didn’t meet their goals of going undefeated or being regular-season champions, they did get the final one of being tournament champions thanks to a refuse-to-lose mentality.
“Our defense was the best we had seen all year,” Grizzle said. “To me, in their minds it seemed like it was ‘I’m going to die on this basketball court if it means we’re going to win this basketball game.”
Grizzle didn’t want to take too much credit for the group, saying they came in fundamentally sound, had good basketball IQ and were ready to learn. Practices were competitive from the start, with Murphy having a higher floor than most JV teams. It was an adjustment at times due to the higher level of competition than some were used to in middle school, but they continued to rack up wins.
Cale Harger, a 6-foot-3 freshman, provided mismatches inside almost all year, and was able to step outside and knock down the occasional 3-pointer. Freshman Ryan Payne was another standout player, and the coaching staff moved him to point guard, which was a new position, to see if he could fit there at the varsity level next year.
Sophomore Brady Golden was a lights-out shooter when hot, and his twin brother, Conner, held his own down low despite being undersized. Grizzle also mentioned freshmen Tyler Payne and Robert Turner were big energy guys, as Turner set the tone early in the year with the game-winning shot against Gilmer and Payne stepped up while battling injuries throughout the season.
“That’s a great group coming up,” Grizzle said. “Credit goes out to them. I didn’t do much. I just taught them plays and let them go.”
On the eastern end of the county, Maennle said he only had about “two or three” true basketball players on the junior varsity team, but they made up for it by being an extremely coachable group.
“Being at a small school a lot of times you have to coach a kid who’s just playing it to stay in shape (or) because they love playing with their friends,” Maennle said. “So you don’t get that private school or big school where they’re only playing one sport. That JV bunch did everything that was asked of them. They worked their tails off.”
Sophomores Eli Aguilar and Landon Greene were the main standouts, while Maennle said freshman Logan Shuler stepped up big time down the stretch as well. Maennle also wanted to credit the leadership of sophomore Everett Tatham, who he thinks may be the best leader in the entire school.
Maennle said one of the goals for his JV players was to gain some confidence, with several in roles they hadn’t been in before on the court. With sophomores Ty Clark and Kegan Ellis on varsity, other players had to take on roles like being the primary ball-handler or main scorer.
“There’s probably two or three of them who could’ve gotten minutes on varsity if I had them up all year,” Maennle said. “But I didn’t, and they got good minutes like they needed to on JVs and got better, and will be able to help us next year moving forward.”
It’s a group Maennle sees as helping Andrews stay competitive going forward, though he knows things won’t get easier.
There was a lot of youth in the conference at the varsity level.
“We have a lot of talent coming back, we have good leadership coming back,” he said. “We’ll still be pretty deep I think. Got a chance to be good but the conference ain’t getting no easier.”