Tipton-Rosemark Academy entered the DII-A West region tournament as the third seed behind top-seeded First Assembly Christian School and number two Evangelical Christian School, both of which swept the Rebels during the regular season.
That didn’t seem to matter.
Rosemark beat FACS 67-60 in the semifinals Monday and ECS 51-47 in the finals Tuesday to claim the region title. Their quest to get to the state tournament in Nashville will continue with a substate home game on Saturday against an opponent to be determined.
ECS, behind Kameron Jones, led 42-33 after three quarters before the Rebels went on a 10-0 run to start the fourth period.
Rosemark senior Alex Anderson, a South Alabama signee, took over in the fourth quarter. He converted a 3-point play with 2:36 left to give his team a 46-44 lead before making two key free throws.
Mr. Basketball semifinalist, Anderson led all scorers with 25 points.
Tyler Byrd added 12 points for TRA and Cam Donegan scored eight.
When Rosemark beat FACS on Monday it was the first loss of the season for the Crusaders.
Rosemark’s last appearance in the state tournament was 2019, when they finished runnerup.
The TRA Lady Rebels finished third in the region tournament and traveled to play Boyd-Buchanan yesterday (past deadline) in a sub-state game.
In other action:
• The Covington Lady Chargers continued their dominance of District 15-AA competition with a 64-40 semifinal win at home Tuesday over Millington.
Covington senior Kalynn Howard hit three 3-pointers and led all scorers with 21 points.
DaNiyasia Robinson had 15 points and 12 rebounds for Covington and CorTayza Flowers added 17 points. Felia Fayne scored seven points and grabbed six boards.
Covington will host Fayette-Ware Thursday night at 7 in the district title game.
Covington’s boys defeated Ripley 88-61 Monday in a play-in game and plays at top-seeded Bolivar today at 6 p.m. in the semifinals. Title and consolation games are Friday.
• In District 13-AAA, Brighton’s girls lost to Hardin County and Munford’s girls lost to Dyer County in Tuesday semifinal games. Munford and Brighton will play each other Thursday at 6 p.m. in Munford for third place in the district.
Brighton’s boys lost a semifinal game at Hardin County on Tuesday and Munford hosts a semifinal game against Dyer County today at 6 p.m. If Munford wins it plays Hardin County at home in the title game on Friday. If the Cougars lose they host Brighton in a consolation game, also Friday.
