Indians fall to Sevier County in overtime

KINGSPORT — After Elijah Thomas extended Dobyns-Bennett's season by four minutes, Sevier County's Daniel Tarwater brought it to a crashing halt. Thomas hit a clutch 3-pointer with 17.5 seconds left in regulation to force overtime, but Tarwater scored the first five points of the extra period to help the Smoky Bears secure a shocking 55-51 victory over the top seed out of District 1 on Saturday night inside the Buck Van Huss Dome. Sevier County - the fourth seed out of District 2 - will advance to face Science Hill next Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the Region 1-4A semifinals at Maryville High School. "I really thought we did a great job in our matchup zone," said Sevier County coach Ken Wright. "They had to really work for their 3s." After building a 12-9 lead at the end of the first quarter, D-B got a 3-pointer from Jayden Thomas to stake the Indians to a 15-9 lead early in the second quarter. That shot ended up being the last made field goal for the Indians in the first half. The Tribe's offense grew stagnant against Sevier County's matchup zone. D-B coach Chris Poore said that while many of the shots his team missed in the second quarter were makable, there was no effort to penetrate the zone with a dribble drive. "We have to do a better job of getting the ball inside out," Poore said. "They just pushed us out and we started taking deep shots, really settling and letting them dictate our attack." While the Indians struggled to make shots, the Smoky Bears controlled the defensive glass and started generating some offense of their own. Sevier County closed the first half on a 19-0 run and took a 28-15 lead into halftime. To the Tribe's credit, they came out with great energy in the third quarter and engineered a 12-0 run of their own to pull within a single point with 3:15 left in the period. It started on the defensive end, where D-B forced six turnovers in the span of seven Sevier County possessions. "The third quarter, I thought we completely flipped the script and got the ball to the short corner, to the elbows, and we were able to kick it out and get much better shots," Poore said. "Our kids battled back, and I'm proud of them for that." The Indians closed the third quarter on a 9-0 run and led 36-33 at the end of the third quarter after Henry Hill canned a 3-pointer from the right corner with 10 seconds left in the period. Hill opened the fourth quarter with another 3 to push D-B's lead to 39-33, but Sevier County started chipping away from that point forward. The Smoky Bears retook the lead with 1:30 left in regulation when Nick Dougherty made a pair of foul shots. They pushed that lead to 46-43 on a Mason Ward layup with 33 seconds left in the fourth quarter. Elijah Thomas responded with a clutch 3-pointer with 17.5 seconds left to tie the game at 46, and the Tribe got a defensive stop at the end of regulation to force overtime. But Tarwater knocked down a 3-pointer with 3:35 left in the overtime period and added a fast-break layup at the 1:46 mark to put Sevier County up 51-46. A pair of free throws by Owen Brooks with 18 seconds left sealed the victory. "We cleared the boards," Wright said. "They didn't get second and third shots on us, and that was the big thing. They shoot it so well, but they didn't get a lot of offensive rebounds." Elijah Thomas led the way with 18 points for D-B while T.J. Maxwell scored 12. Kaden Cutlip added 10 for the Indians, who finished the season at 25-9 with all nine of those losses coming when they failed to score at least 60 points. Brooks scored a game-high 20 points to pace Sevier County, which improved to 17-9 on the year.