By Thomas Sellers Jr. MEMPHIS — Last year the Tipton-Rosemark Academy Rebels made history in this game. Fast forward to Friday night in the Lausanne Gymnasium, Head Coach Cedric Anderson and his Rebels were ready to repeat the feat of winning the West Regional Semifinal contest to earn at least a home game during this week’s Sub-State Tournament. Standing in their way was the FACS Crusaders. For one quarter the Crusaders were gamed taking an 11-10 lead. But the Rebels dominated the tempo and executed Anderson’s game plan to secure a 67-53 victory over FACS and a spot in Saturday’s championship game. “We said, ‘Contest every pass — contest every pass,’” Anderson said. “’Contest every dribble and contest every shot and make sure you block out. We need intensity the entire game.’ At one point it will wear our opponent down.” The Crusaders were ready to march step for step with the Rebels in the first 8 minutes jumping out 7-0. FACS fought to hold on to the lead with TRA finally getting on the scoreboard courtesy of Tysen Banks at the 3:37 mark. The Rebels outscored FACS 10-4 the rest of the first quarter. TRA took its first lead in the second quarter when Andrew Anderson hit a bucket. After the teams traded the advantage a couple of times with FACS leading 15-14, Banks hit a triple. That sparked a 20-12 run by the Rebels to take a 34-27 lead into halftime. During that stretch, Rebel big man Kam Collier hit a jumper, three-pointer and free throws. Banks nailed a triple right at the buzzer to give TRA a 7-point lead. FACS displayed some fight in the third quarter trimming the TRA advantage to 38-35. The Rebels were holding on to a 41-37 lead heading into the fourth quarter. That’s when the TRA pressure defense seized the day. The Rebels got rolling after a FACS turnover lead to an Andrew Anderson no-look pass to his younger brother Alex. The sophomore was racing to the rim as the ball met him for a layup in one motion. The score was 44-37 TRA outscored FACS 26-16 to cruise to victory and to the championship game. When the Crusaders made their run in the third quarter, the Rebels were prepared after enduring a season of showcase games. “It was by designed,” Coach Anderson noted. “We talked about it prior to the season beginning in June. We need to play a competitive schedule, get a lot of road trips so we’ll get used to facing adverse situations. And we did that earlier in the year. “The guys are battled-tested, not only this season but prior to the season,” he added. “In the summer we played a competitive schedule by going to college campuses playing the best teams in those areas.” TRA’s road back to the Division II-A West Regional Championship started almost 365 days ago. The Rebels were moments from victory when Banks went down with a knee injury. TRA couldn’t recover from the moment and dropped that contest.
“We’ve got to play until the buzzer sounds,” Anderson concluded. “We’ve got real close last year. We were a step away last year. We’ve got to finish that step. Our motto is believe — believe in TRA.”
