LEBANON, ILL. • Once the Nashville boys basketball team was able to adjust to Madison's quickness Tuesday night, the Hornets were able to play their patient style which enabled them to defeat the Trojans 48-38 in pool play of the 13th annual Lebanon Thanksgiving tournament at Charles E. Mandley Memorial Gymnasium.
Nashville (3-0), which lost to Madison in last year's title game, will now play for the championship Saturday at 8 p.m. The opponent will be determined tonight when Columbia (2-0) takes on Lebanon (1-1) at 8 o'clock.
The Trojans fell to 2-1 and will tangle with either Lebanon or Wesclin (1-1) in the third-place contest at 6:30 p.m. Saturday. Britt Bradley had 16 points for Madison and Torian Gregory added 10.
"We had to make a big adjustment early on," Nashville coach Brad Weathers said with a chuckle. "Early on, it was pretty obvious we weren't accustomed to that kind of speed and quickness. We struggled to score. I thought we guarded well even when we were down."
In the beginning, the outsized Trojans held an 8-2 advantage thanks to their helter-skelter style of play. But Madison couldn't build on its lead allowing Nashville to outscore the Trojans 17-7 and grab a 19-15 halftime advantage.
The Hornets then scored the first seven points of the third quarter to grab a 26-15 lead with 6 minutes 52 seconds to go in the quarter.
Scott Brown, who wound up with 12 points, while his brother Sam ended with a game-high 19, banked in a 3-pointer 13 seconds into the quarter from the left side to start the run. Fifty-five seconds later, Zach Feiber completed a four-point play after he made a 3-pointer from the left corner and was fouled by Corey Hardin.
Nashville widen the gap to 33-20 after Brown sank two free throws at the 4:11 mark.
The Trojans used an 8-2 run to end the quarter as they trailed 35-28 but couldn't get any closer in the final period.
"Like I told the kids, the effort was there," said Madison coach Jaime Cotto-Rodriguez, whose team made just 16 of 44 field goal attempts. "Defensively, we played well. For the most part, we did our jobs on the defensive end. We just missed a lot of layups and I thought that's where we lost the game."
Nashville was then able to hold its lead throughout the fourth quarter.
"I told (the players) it was an awfully nice win against a good ballclub," Weathers added. "To face that kind of quickness that disrupts us offensively, that was a real good ballgame for us just to experience that and have to adapt to it."
Alton Marquette 56, Freeburg 41: After losing to Nashville and Madison to start the season, first-year Explorers coach Steve Medford was relieved to get his first win as a high school head coach Tuesday night.
"As a coach, you're never satisfied with the way you played," said Medford after watching junior center Derrik Starrett drop in a game-high 18 points and sophomore guard Sam Scheiter add 13. "I think we could have played so much better than what we did tonight. But it is good to get that first one under your belt."
Medford landed at Marquette (1-2) after serving as an assistant at Alton under former Redbirds coach Layne Bennett. Bennett had resigned at the end of last season.
To start this season, Marquette had to face perennial Class 2A power Nashville and last year's Class 1A third-place finisher in Madison in pool play of the tournament. The Explorers, who play in the fifth place game at 5 p.m. Saturday, lost those two games meaning Medford had to wait until Tuesday for his first victory.
The game was close early on as Marquette led 10-9 as the first quarter was about to end. However, Jake Coddington was fouled while attempting a 3-point shot as time expired putting him at the free throw line. He made all three shots for a 13-9 advantage.
The lead swelled to 25-11 midway through the second quarter before the Midgets (0-3) used a 9-0 run to trim the deficit to 25-20 with 1 minute 19 seconds to play in the half after Justin Livers made two free throws. But Freeburg allowed Starrett to score on three straight possessions to end the half for a 31-20 lead.
"I was trying to finish strong (to end the first half) so we could get some momentum going (in the second half)," Starrett said. "Our defense wasn't playing too well. I think we could have played better."
The Midgets defense improved in the third quarter as the Explorers scored just eight points. Freeburg, though, managed to get just four points. Justin Diecker, who ended with 15 points, had one of the points in the quarter as did Miles Money, who also wound up with 15 for the contest.
"We played pretty good defense in the third quarter," said first-year Midgets coach T.J. Hoover, whose team will play in the seventh place game at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. "Our kids played 26-28 good minutes. Those 4-6 minutes really showed up tonight when you're more competitive in the game."
