BY BRIAN T. SMITH
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER
Bristol, Tenn. – The 25th annual Arby’s Classic was not kind to Tennessee High.
After dropping their first round game to Archbishop Carroll (Washington, D.C.), the Vikings endured a nine-minute scoreless drought, committed 17 turnovers and scored just six second-half points before falling to Northview (Duluth, Ga.) 42-29 on Friday morning in a second round loser’s bracket game at Viking Hall.
Adding to Tennessee High’s woes, the Vikings shot 19.4 percent (8 of 42) from the field and connected on 18.8 percent (3 of 16) of their 3-point attempts.
Tennessee High coach Roby Witcher kept the Vikings’ locker room door closed for nearly 25 minutes following the loss. But when Witcher emerged, he didn’t paint a dark picture of frustration and defeat. Instead, Witcher saw Tennessee High’s losses as a lesson learned.
“We told them, ‘Hey, we could’ve gone somewhere else and played in a tournament, or not even played in a Christmas tournament and tried to get a few wins,’ ” Witcher said. “But we didn’t do that. We tried to play against good teams. [Dobyns-Bennett] got blown out. [Sullivan] East got blown out. It’s the same scenario. So we talked about let’s take a couple days off here, not think about this tournament, come in on Monday, and get ready for [David] Crockett on Friday night.”
The main factor in the Vikings’ (7-8) loss wasn’t their poor overall shooting or lack of scoring in the second half. It was the return of Titans (9-2) senior center Ralph Sampson III.
Sampson, 6-foot-11 and heading to the University of Minnesota, emerged with 19 points (7-of-9 shooting), eight rebounds, seven blocks and one steal after sitting out of Northview’s first-round loss to Science Hill on Wednesday due to bronchitis.
“Coming off the sickness, I had to adjust to how the game went and how it flowed,” Sampson said. “In the first half, I came out and tested the waters to see how the defense played. In the second half, I played a little more aggressively and was able to attack more.”
What didn’t show up in Sampson’s impressive stats, though, was his ability to completely shut down the Vikings’ game plan of penetrating the paint and then dishing out to open shooters on the perimeter. Sampson was a one-man show in the lane, and he prevented any traffic from moving through freely.
For Tennessee High, Sampson was poison.
“We couldn’t get anything to go in,” said Vikings senior forward Thomas Turnbull, who scored four points and grabbed five rebounds. “And with their big guy, he was just blocking shots everywhere and making it so our guards really couldn’t get good looks at the basket. It was just frustrating.”
Senior forward Dan Stryzinski added eight points (4-of-5 shooting), five rebounds and two steals for the Titans.
Tre Webb scored seven points and grabbed three rebounds and two steals for the Vikings.
The Vikings found early success by exploiting the Titans’ lack of height on the perimeter, and Tennessee High took an early 8-6 lead when Jeff Baker followed up a 3-pointer from teammate Taylor Harmon with one of his own.
The Vikings then jumped ahead 13-10 when Webb knocked down a 3 with 46.4 seconds left in the first quarter.
Yet Northview pulled within 23-21 just before halftime, thanks to a late second-quarter rally that was punctuated by a hard dunk from Stryzinski with 47 seconds remaining in the half.
A slow third quarter then came to life when Sampson converted on a reverse layup, and consecutive Tennessee High turnovers resulted in close, easy baskets for Northview senior guard Najja Nicholson and sophomore forward Robert Sampson.
The Titans closed out the quarter with a 9-0 run and outscored the Vikings 21-6 in the second half.
Tennessee High shot a combined 28.4 percent (27 of 95) from the field in their two recent losses, and hit just 15.4 percent (6 of 39) of their 3-point attempts.
When Witcher was asked after the game if he and his team were still on the same page, he smiled and replied, “Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. They understand this is a good team. They’re frustrated, but they also understand that there were some pretty good players out there. And when you go against them, sometimes you come up on the short end of the stick.”
Northview moves on to face Dobyns-Bennett at 9 a.m. today.
NORTHVIEW (42)
Ralph Sampson III 7-9 5-7 19, Stryzinski 4-5 0-0 8, Nicholson 2-6 2-2 6, Davidson 2-4 0-1 5, Robert Sampson 1-4 0-0 2, Rainford 1-5 0-0 2, Joseph 0-0 0-0 0, Patterson 0-1 0-0 0, Kubandi 0-0 0-0 0, Kim 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 17-38 7-10 42.
TENNESSEE HIGH (29)
Harmon 3-9 2-4 9, Webb 3-8 0-0 7, Turnbull 0-1 4-4 4, Baker 1-7 0-0 3, Cook 0-0 2-2 2, Canty 0-1 2-2 2, Young 1-12 0-0 2, Gilmore 0-4 0-0 0. Totals 8-42 10-12 29.
Northview 12 9 11 10—42
Tennessee High 15 8 4 2—29
3-point goals—N 1-12 (Davidson), TH 3-16 (Harmon, Webb, Baker). Rebounds—N 24, TH 26. Assists—N 6, TH 3. Steals—N 12, TH 11. Turnovers—N 14, TH 17.
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