Spartans' reserves play
tough when it counted
Commercial Appeal By Jason Smith March 21, 2004
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - White Station reserves Maurice Jones and Stuart Lott had rarely been needed during the Spartans' historic run to a third straight Class AAA championship game.
But on Saturday, in a physical state title game against Jackson North Side that saw a combined 50 fouls called and four players foul out, the victorious Spartans got some unexpected, yet much-needed help from the senior duo.
Jones, a University of Memphis football signee, and Lott, a bruising 6-3 forward, combined for 10 points and six rebounds to help White Station's bench outscore North Side's 18-4.
The amount of damage done by the duo, however, was far less important than when they did it.
"Maurice and Stuart played huge tonight. Weren't they great?" White Station coach Terry Tippett said.
Lott's offensive rebound and 3-point play late in the third quarter after North Side had cut an 11-point halftime deficit to 55-53 gave the Spartans a much-needed 5-point cushion heading into the fourth and ended a 12-4 scoring run by the Indians.
"Stuart is a tremendously quick jumper, and I said that this was a game that he could help us in," Tippett said. "He did, too. He got some big rebounds and got that big putback down there when (the Indians) were making a run."
Jones, who'd scored a combined two points in the Spartans' two previous tourney wins, scored five of his seven points in the first half, and his 3-pointer with 52.8 seconds left before the break gave the Spartans their first double-digit lead of the night at 40-29.
"He'd been off, and coach had told him, 'We don't need you to shoot.' " senior teammate Reiley Ervin said of Jones. "But when I saw him wide-open (in the right corner) I threw it to him and said, 'Shoot it,' because I knew he was pumped tonight.
"When we came to the bench, coach was like, 'We didn't need that, but I love it.'"
Jones and Lott said they'd taken personally talk that White Station's bench was less potent this season than in years past.
"We'd heard that stuff, but we couldn't listen to it," Lott said. "People have had something to say about our teams every year."
"Our role this year was just to come in and do whatever the team needed, rebounding or whatever."
Jones, in his first year with the varsity team, downplayed his performance Saturday.
"We just came out and out-hustled them and tried to keep the momentum up," he said.
Ervin, as usual, was a little more outspoken.
"Stuart was on the boards like I've never seen, and they were key rebounds," he said.
"I knew he was capable of that the whole time. Both of those guys (Lott and Jones) showed up when we needed them most."
- Jason Smith: 529-5804