By Mike Hutchens, UC Schools Communications Director
Union City, Tenn.–Make room in the trophy case for another Union City boys district tournament championship.
The Golden Tornadoes won the 40th such postseason title in their illustrious program’s history with a 54-36 victory over Bradford Monday night in the 13A title tilt at UT Martin’s Skyhawk Arena.
UC claimed its third straight district tourney championship, its sixth in the last seven seasons, and reached the 20-win mark for the ninth consecutive year with the triumph.
Victors in six straight and eight of its last nine games, the Purple and Gold (20-10) will now move on to regional tournament play and will host either Middleton or Trenton Friday night in the quarterfinals.
The complete bracket will be finalized Wednesday.
Union City bested Bradford at what it does best for the second time in less than three weeks after an earlier loss to the Red Devils, winning a physical bump-and-grind contest that many times had the characteristics of hand-to-hand combat instead of basketball.
The Twisters harassed Bradford into misses on their first 17 field goal attempts, the Redmen finally making a shot from the field with 43 seconds left before halftime on their way to a four-point first half.
UC, meanwhile, was efficient, if not overly impressive on the offensive end. After leading 17-4 at the intermission, the Tornadoes found some rhythm after the break and made 12-of-12 free throws during a fourth-quarter span after Bradford had cut a 16-point deficit to seven with five minutes to play.
Junior guard Ben McMillan – named the district Most Valuable Player in postgame ceremonies following Monday’s victory – scored a game-best 20 points and Nick Sanders had a solid 15-point showing to help give head coach Shane Sisco his ninth district tournament championship in 21 seasons on the Tornado bench.
Sisco, who led Union City to two of the program’s five state titles and has a program-best 497 wins after Monday, heaped praise on his troops for continuing the tradition.
“Those guys deserve all the credit,” the coach said, pointing to his bench after Monday’s game. “We never really had all the guys we were counting because of injuries and illness until after Christmas. They played a rigorous schedule, and they continued to work every day to get better.
“They were very driven.”
UC matched Bradford’s physicality on both ends, keeping their composure during the roughest of times and executing fundamentally throughout the contest.
The Tornadoes had just two turnovers despite being pressured relentlessly and harassed the Red Devils into 25.6 percent (10-of-39) for the game while making half of their 28 shots (50 percent) themselves. Union City also sank 23-of-31 foul shots (74.1), including the aforementioned stretch when things got tense in the fourth quarter with McMillan hitting six straight, Kaler Bobo bottoming four in a row and Sanders hitting a pair.
“That we were able to handle the type of pressure they put on us and had just two turnovers is just amazing,” Sisco added. “We knew we had to be physical ourselves, too, and we preach from the time fall practice starts until now that things will get a little rougher, a little more physical every day.
“We did a great job defensively of knowing where their shooters were and getting them off their spots. Then we were able to close the deal at the free throw line. It was just a good quality win for us playing a style that you have to be good at if you want to advance in the postseason.”
UC was up 17-2 late in the first quarter after McMillan’s deep triple and twice led by 16 in the third period when Carter Walton and McMillan dropped in back-to-back treys. Sanders’ follow shot just before the intermission buzzer had the count at 30-14 with the game half over.
Bradford finally found the range in the opening minutes of the final stanza, surpassing their point total in the first three quarters combined with a 15-point burst, capped by a Nathan Oglesby 3-pointer that capped a six-point swing after a Union City technical foul.
The difference was never smaller than that 36-29 count, though, as Bobo calmly canned four consecutive free throws and Sanders then scored six straight markers himself to restore order.
McMillan was also chosen for the all-tournament team. Both Bobo and Sanders made the all-league and all-tourney squads as well, while Brown was picked for all-tourney and the All-Defensive unit. Both Sam Theobald and Hudson Calfee were named to the All-Academic team.
DISTRICT 13A TOURNAMENT
BOYS CHAMPIONSHIP
BRADFORD — 36
Tevin Schover 12, C. Ogelsby 9, N. Ogelsby 6, Maclin 6, Taylor 2, Williamson 1.
UNION CITY — 54
Ben McMillan 20, Nick Sanders 15, Bobo 8, Brown 5, Walton 4, Theobald 2.
Bradford 2 2 10 20 — 36
Union City 11 6 13 24 — 54
Records: Bradford 21-9; Union City 20-10.
Next Games: Both teams play at home in the first round of the regional tournament Friday night. UC will host the loser of the Trenton-Middleton game, Bradford will play the winner of that game.