TN High School Girls Teams Try To Throw A Game...

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MURFREESBORO – Top-ranked Blackman was not in the District 7-AAA Tournament consolation final, but the Lady Blaze's presence was certainly felt even before they won the league title later on Saturday.

Smyrna and Riverdale faced off in a consolation final stalemate that drew intentional miscues and plenty of boos from those that paid $6 to attend the game and watched two teams try not to win for the better part of the 32 minutes in an effort to avoid Blackman in next week's Region 4-AAA Tournament. Eventually, the Lady Bulldogs scored a 55-29 victory.

This maneuver is of course assuming the District 7 teams can defeat the District 8 teams in Monday's region quarterfinals to reach the semifinals. Teams must win in the quarterfinals and semifinals to keep their season alive. Riverdale will travel to Tullahoma, while Smyrna will travel to Lawrence County Blackman will play host to Lincoln County.

Which team initiated the chess move to begin the slow play, free throws missed on purpose, and intended turnovers — via three seconds in the paint, five-second inbound, and 10-second timeline violations — is debatable.

"We both had our starters in. We were man-to-man straight up and saw they're not driving, they're not shooting. They're in a 2-3 zone and hadn't been in a 2-3 zone all year," Smyrna coach Shawn Middleton said. "What's going on? Are we going to play or are we not going to play?"

Added Riverdale coach Cory Barrett when asked if he was avoiding Blackman: "I'm not avoiding anybody, but I understand that we're going to play on Monday regardless, and the last thing we want to do is risk injury with any of our starters, our players.

"Not that we want anybody to get hurt, but we want everybody fresh. We've been off for four or five days. We get a couple of days of practice and still kind of out of shape, too. We planned on playing a lot of kids anyways. When (Middleton) subbed his out we figured there's no reason to play our starters anymore."

From that point in the first half through the remainder of the game, Riverdale's (22-8) starters stayed on the bench. Smyrna's (21-8) returned with four minutes left in the game and turned a 30-25 lead into the 26-point margin. Treasure Hunt led Smyrna with a game-high 17 points.

"The bottom line is it was obvious what was going on to everybody," Middleton said. "In the end, I didn't say a word to my girls. Was the game thrown? Was the game not thrown? Bottom line is, the smart thing to do would be, 'Hey, let's stay away from Blackman.'"

"In the end, I'm not going to throw balls in their basket and do all that stuff. So finally, I just looked at my bench and said, 'Let's go. Let's just play.'"

It got so egregious that the referee called both coaches to the scorer's table at midcourt with 54 seconds left in a third quarter that saw Smyrna score the only two points on an opening-possession basket.

"He said, 'We're not going to make a mockery of the game. I said, 'It's already there,' " Middleton said of the discussion with the referee, who would not grant a postgame interview. "The bottom line is, when all the subs got made, not only did the subs get made but both of us quit playing. So at that point and time you're thinking, 'What are we really teaching the kids?' "

Smyrna 55, Riverdale 29

Smyrna 20 6 2 27 — 55

Riverdale 15 9 0 5 — 29

Smyrna: Brooklyn Blanchard 7, Deja Murphy 2, Sha Roberts 2, Treasure Hunt 17, Allie Bolton 7, Luisa Correia 2, Kesha Brady 10, Makayla Kelly 3, Kiana Fletcher 2, Diamond Forrest 3.

Riverdale: Hope Hinson 2, Anastasia Hayes 5, Amanda Whittingham 2, Faith Lokey 2, Destiney Williams 3, Alexis Whittington 2, Brinae Alexander 6, Bryleee Puckett 2, Lexus Story 1, Dajah Messenger 2.

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Treasure Hunt led Smyrna with a game-high 17 points.

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Treasure Hunt led Smyrna with a game-high 17 points

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Treasure Hunt

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2 POS coaches. 2 POS teams.

That's how I feel. If you feel different, you are wrong.

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I just had a daydream that essentially the teams just switched sides and it was a normal basketball game in which each point scored went for the other team. I know there would be issues with backcourt, but that would ruin my daydream.

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