GLADEVILLE — Beech is back atop District 9-AAA

A year after finishing fourth in the league’s postseason tournament and a little over a week after finishing as its third seed, the Buccaneers hoisted the championship trophy after a 53-35 victory over rival Hendersonville Tuesday night at Wilson Central.

Beech, which won the 9-AAA tourney title in 2009 and 2010, turned a 31-27 advantage after three quarters into the 18-point margin it won by.

“We weren’t talking about second, we wanted to win the district title,” Beech coach Darrin Joines said. “But we’ve got bigger goals than this.”

The Bucs (24-6) will now play host Saturday night to District 10-AAA’s No. 4 finisher Kenwood, which lost its consolation game 70-66 to Clarksville in overtime on Tuesday night. Clarksville will travel to Hendersonville (18-12) Saturday.

Second-seeded Wilson Central defeated top-seeded Mt. Juliet 65-55 in the 9-AAA consolation final. Mt. Juliet will travel to play top-seeded Clarksville Northeast, a 55-46 winner over Dickson County for the 10-AAA title Tuesday night. Dickson County will play host to Wilson Central. All semifinal games and the finals will move to Clarksville Northeast after opening-round games.

Hendersonville, despite a poor shooting night, managed to stay in the game through three quarters by hitting 13-of-18 free throws and turning five Beech turnovers into nine points. It also did not hurt that Beech forced 10 turnovers through three quarters but managed just three points off of them.

However, an offensive board and putback by C.J. Cummings with five-tenths of a second left in the third quarter kick started a Bucs run that the Commandos never had an answer for.

“Huge,” Joines said of Cummings’ basket. “I thought the way the game was being played whichever team got up 8-10 points the game was over.”

It was Cummings’ fourth rebound and putback of the game, and it gave Beech that extra spark of momentum heading into the final eight minutes.

Over the first 3:29 of the fourth quarter, the Bucs went on a 12-0 run started by Rob Chamberlain’s third 3-pointer of the game. Rob, who finished with a team-high 14 points, added a free throw during the run; Ryne Chamberlain had four points and Cummings hit two free throws.

“We started to make a run in the third quarter,” Cummings said. “We did our job of boxing out and getting on the boards. Coach told us to go for the their throats in the fourth quarter and we just did that.”

Hendersonville, which came in as the fifth seed and upset Station Camp and Mt. Juliet en route to the title game, was 0-for-6 from the field during the fourth-quarter run with three turnovers.

Commandos coach Kerry West said the Cummings putback at the end of the third was a momentum changer in addition to the team’s poor shooting for the night. Hendersonville was 0-for-16 from 3-point range and shot 29 percent from the field on 2-pointers.

“You can’t shoot like that against an athletic and big Beech team and expect to win,” he said. “(Beech) hit the open 3s and started to pick up the tempo and we didn’t. It just wasn’t our night.”

Ryne Chamberlain had 12 points, while Cummings finished with 10 points. John Davis’ game-high 16 points led Hendersonville as the only Commando in double figures.

Cummings, Ryne Chamberlain and Seth Brown were named All-District for Beech, while Davis, Jeff Long and Ryan Brown earned the honors for Hendersonville.

— By Corby A. Yarbrough, Sports Editor