By Thomas Sellers Jr.
Brighton’s visit to the 2015 Millington Christmas Tournament presented by Oseman Insurance Company got off to a bad start last week. In the Cardinals’ first game on the court of the William Osteen Gymnasium Dec. 21, Stan Gatlin’s flock suffered a 52-39 defeat to the Kingsbury Falcons. The Cardinals returned for Day Two action Dec. 22 in the tournament against the Memphis Metro Mustangs. And behind better shooting and defense, Brighton posted a 55-21 victory. “Defensively we played better,” Gatlin said. “Of course I tried to get some other guys some time to see what they can do. We’re getting close to district time. Yesterday wasn’t a good showing at all. “We shot the ball horribly,” he continued. “We’re still not shooting it great. We did shoot it a lot better especially in the two-point range. Three-point shooting, we’ve been abysmal. It’s been awful. It’s something that can be fixed if we get reps in and some practice.” Brighton got more shots in the final day of the tournament outlasting the Wooddale Cardinals to finish with a 2-1 record. Cardinal Taelyr Gatlin was named to the Millington Christmas Tournament All-Tournament team. Gatlin, Tramaine Cooper, Aaron Alston, Alex Malone, Zachary Lewis, Colby Butler and Ethan Bell all contributed to the pair of wins in Millington. Gatlin and the Cardinals will travel to Mississippi to play basketball to concluded the Holiday portion of their schedule. When Brighton returns to the Volunteer State, it will be time to jump into the District 13-3A schedule against rivals like Munford, Dyer County and Hardin County. Gatlin said besides winning, the purpose of the tournaments in Millington and Mississippi is to prepare for league play.
“Depth in my rotation,” he concluded. “I want my guys to build their confidence up. We need to learn our stuff and see different situations. They need to see different situations so we can execute in crunch time.”
