Demonte Simpson

Classic battle between two of the state's top 16 and under squads.

Mid-State Ballerz Blue 71

Tennessee Flight 70

Skyler McBee (Rutledge) scored 14 points and the Mid-State Ballerz Blue survived a furious Flight comeback to escape with a sub-state title and an automatic bid to the state tourney in Nashville. The Ballerz pulled ahead 66-54 at the end of three on a sweet 3 pointer from point man C.J. Crittenton (Dyer County).

The Flight proceeded to systematically dismantle the Ballerz lead. Chase Jones (Austin East) scored a couple of buckets and made some nice defensive plays and finished the flurry with a nice high/low feed to DeMonte Simpson (Bearden) that put the score at 70-68.

With seconds left on the clock, Crittenton stepped on the sidelines and the Flight had a chance to capture the win but Gabriel Campbell (Bearden) misfired on his difficult drive to the bucket and the Ballerz came away with the victory.

McBee led the Ballerz with 14, he was joined in the scoring column by Crittendon with 11 and Derek Walker (Covington) with 10.

Simpson led the Flight with 13. Landry Stanton (Carter) finished with 12 on four threes.

For the tourney McBee led the Ballerz scoring at 15.6 per game and was followed closely by Sam Watson (Farragut) at 12.0.