JEFF NEAL
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The Oakland Chargers dropped the consolation game in the TSSAA Middle School State Championships, 42-33, to Mt. Juliet at Rockvale High School ending to end their season at 20-2.
The Golden Bears jumped out to a 7-0 lead and extended it to 12-4 at the end of one period. Mt. Juliet’s length bothered the Oakland guards, who found it hard to get around, pass or shoot over them.
“Mt. Juliet is a long and athletic team and it took us a few minutes to figure out what we were going to do,” Oakland coach Eric Moore said.
Oakland went down double figures before half, with the biggest deficit being a dozen.
The Chargers couldn’t stop Hunter Hamilton, who scored 14 of his 21 points for the Golden Bears in the second half as they kept Oakland at bay.
The closest the Chargers got was five at 38-33 with less than one minute to play. In the end, foul shooting and turnovers did Oakland in as it had a dozen turnovers and shot 9 of 20 from the foul line.
“You have to make your free throws on a big stage like this and we didn’t make them,” Moore said.
BOX SCORE
Oakland (33): Brennon Thomas 12, Deangelo Kinnear 7, Kyreese Leavy 7, Titus Holloway 5, Maddox Lillis 2.
Mt. Juliet (42): Hunter Hamilton 21, Nolan Plummer 6, Vin Bell 5 Hunter Radley 4, Isaiah Norman 2, Ben Lamb 2, Carter Rivas 2.