February 22, 2019
By: Dwayne Page
The DCHS Lady Tigers will travel to Crossville tonight (Friday) to face Cumberland County in the quarterfinals of the Region 4AA basketball tournament.
WJLE will have LIVE coverage with the Voice of the Lady Tigers John Pryor. Tip-off is at 7 p.m.
Cumberland County (23-6) is the top seed from District 7 while the Lady Tigers (20-10) are seeded 4th from District 8.
Lady Tiger Coach Danny Fish said Cumberland County will be a challenge.
“I think it’s going to be a tough game for us but we’re used to tough games. We play in one of the toughest districts in the state with Macon County and Upperman but we have a pretty good feel for them (Cumberland County). We played them in camp earlier this year and it was a pretty tight game until the end and we played them last year too but they are a little bit different now and so are we so we’re looking forward to the challenge,” said Coach Fish.
“Cumberland County’s Gracie Dishman can score points and she will be up for Miss basketball this year. They play at a fast pace and they are long and pretty athletic. We’re going to try and do our best job on her (Dishman) and see where the chips fall. They are very good but if we shoot the ball well from the perimeter and we can get some interior aggressiveness to the rim and get to the free throw line we can cause them some problems. Their pressure is the key. They really sell out on the pressure so how we handle their press and their trap style defense is really going to dictate how we do tonight,” Coach Fish continued.
“If we win tonight we will probably meet Upperman again and I feel pretty good about that game. If we are good enough to get past Cumberland County tonight and get to Upperman I feel like we have a good shot of making it to the regional finals. We gained a lot of confidence when we played them in the district tournament. After watching film on that game we were really a lot closer than maybe some people thought we would be. We were a couple shots away from really putting them on the ropes and knocking them out. I like our chances in the next round and I feel if we can get to the regional finals we have an opportunity to go to the glass house because District 8AA and having Cumberland County in our region is like a gauntlet. You’re looking at some of the better teams in double A,” added Coach Fish.
Meanwhile Lady Tigers Kadee Ferrell and Lydia Brown were named to the All-District Tournament Team earlier this week.