Tullahoma senior Marquel Hickerson is the school’s all-time leading scorer. Tim Lampkin photo.
The Siegel Stars raced to a 20-2 first quarter lead and never looked back on their way to a 70-50 win over the Tullahoma Wildcats in Murfreesboro Saturday night in the opening round of the Region 4-AAA Tournament.
The Stars are now 27-4 on the season and advance to the semifinals, where they will face Oakland, a 51-45 winner over Franklin County. The other semifinal match will features unbeaten and top-ranked Blackman, who beat Lawrence County Saturday night 77-35, against LaVergne, who won a thrilling 66-65 decision over Lincoln County. District 7-AAA swept all four games against 8-AAA.
The Wildcats (15-13) simply couldn’t get shots to fall in the first quarter, with Marquel Hickerson breaking a 14-0 run to start the game by the Stars with a basket at the 3:00 mark of the first quarter, which ended with Siegel leading 20-2.
Van Williams got Tullahoma started in the second quarter as the Cats outscored the Stars 16-12. Williams hit a pair of 3-pointers and joined Hickerson with eight points each in the first half. Tullahoma trailed 32-18, but had given fans reason to hope for a comeback.
But Siegel came out in the second half pounding the ball inside to their post player Damian Clark, who scored 11 second half points and had a game-high 19. The Cats hit all eight of their second half free throws but just couldn’t keep up with a deep, talented Siegel squad. The Stars led 52-32 after three quarters and enjoyed the fourth knowing their season would continue.
As the Wildcats season drew to a close in the fourth quarter, the reality set in. Every player who played for Tullahoma was a senior, meaning there will be a serious rebuilding in the future of Wildcat basketball. Sophomore Jonathan Stovall is the only returning player with any measurable playing time this season.
The tremendous career of Hickerson is over, and what a career it was. Marquel is the all-time leading scorer in the history of Tullahoma basketball, amassing 1,397 points to beat the old record by over 65 points. His 171 3-pointers is also a school record, formerly held by Adam Barnett. Neither of those numbers is official. He was the top scorer on back-to-back district champions. He takes his place as one of, if not the, best basketball players in Tullahoma history.
Hickerson led the Cats with 15 points, four rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocked shots. Williams added 12 points, while Tyler Fishback returned and scored nine points with seven rebounds and three blocked shots. Justin Hill scored eight, all in the second half, while Joseph London, Zane Price and Dalton Cox added two points each.
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