Indians win back-to-back overtime games to take surprising first crown since the end of World War II.
When you're the nation's winningest high school basketball program, you expect to win. But state championships have proved elusive for
Dobyns-Bennett (Kingsport, Tenn.).
That's what made capturing the 4A state title so exceptional and why the Indians celebrated so enthusiastically. Their 69-60 overtime win Saturday over Bearden (Knoxville) secured the school's second state title and first in 77 years. It was their second overtime thriller in two days.
Dobyns-Bennett, which finished 32-6, now has 2,343 wins in school history, but only two have clinched state championship trophies. The last one was in 1945, when gas was 21 cents per gallon, an average home cost just under $3,000 and World War II had just ended.
Jack Browder was the hero of the historic win with 30 points and 13 rebounds. He was named the tournament MVP after making 9 of 15 from the field and 10 for 11 at the foul line.
Malachi Hale, the hero the night before, had 16 points and seven rebounds.
"This group just showed a lot of resilience," Dobyns-Bennett coach Chris Poore told reporters afterward. "They don't go down when they get punched. There is so much belief in each other that it's unbelievable."
Brady Stump's determined look reflects the resilience Dobyns-Bennett showed en route to its first Tennessee state title in 77 years.
File photo by Todd Brase
Poore, who just finished his fifth season with the Indians,
told MaxPreps a month ago his goal was to just reach the state's elite eight, something the school hadn't done in 12 years.
It had been 30 since they even reached the final four.
But these Indians got there with a 66-52 win over Coffee County Central on Wednesday thanks to 27 points from 3-point sharpshooter
Brady Stump and 15 by
Jonavan Gillespie. They trailed 25-22 at halftime.
Then it took a buzzer-beater by Hale in overtime to defeat heavily-favored Bartlett 70-69 in the semifinals on Friday to reach the finals, the first championship-game appearance in 49 years. Gillespie had 27 points on 9 of 10 shooting — 5 for 5 on threes — in the semifinals, Browder had 13 and Stump and
Carter Metz added 11 points apiece.
Hale made a jumper in the lane under heavy duress to set off a wild celebration.
"Malachi just made one heck of a play. I think I lost my breath that whole possession," Poore told The Times News after. "When he went up for the shot, it was like one of those blackout moments. … It's one of those things that you dream about and talk about, but you never realize that you're going to be in that situation."
Jonavan Gillespie, Dobyns-Bennett
File photo by Todd Brase
It got even better the following day after finishing the job with a state crown.
Poore had plenty of success at Jefferson County (Dandridge) before coming over to Dobyns-Bennett in 2017-18.
Since then the Indians have gone 135-37 and taken the national wins lead over
Centralia (Ill.) by 19 games, 2,343 to 2,324. That's all gravy to Poore after winning Saturday's state crown, something not entirely on his radar.
He told
The Times News Sunday: "I hesitated to go to sleep last night because I was afraid that when I went to sleep that I'd wake up from a dream. It's something that you really don't understand and you really can't fathom because it takes a lot of processing for it to set in."
Two states away, Centralia coach Lee Bennett hadn't learned of Dobyns-Bennett title. The two programs, understandably, monitor each other's success.
Centralia had a sensational season itself in 2021-22, going 28-4 while winning a regional crown.
"We had another great year, but I guess we fell further behind (in total wins to D-B)," Bennett. "We had our awards night last night and it was a nice, upbeat time in spite of having some injuries that hurt our season. Our boys did well and that's really all we're worried about."
