Power Rebounders: Class 2A Quarters
The 2A Quarterfinals featured both blowouts and nail-biters. These players provided key rebounds and/or rebounds by the sackful. Peruse the complete 2024 rankings. 70 East Nashville 52 Summertown 40 Power Center 39 Brainerd 66 Tyner Academy 59 Bolivar Central 62…
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Continue ReadingThe 2A Quarterfinals featured both blowouts and nail-biters. These players provided key rebounds and/or rebounds by the sackful.
Peruse the complete 2024 rankings.
70 East Nashville
52 Summertown
40 Power Center
39 Brainerd
66 Tyner Academy
59 Bolivar Central
62 Milan
55 York Institute
Nehemiah Bloodsaw Nehemiah Bloodsaw 6'2" | SG Tyner Academy | 2023 State TN (Tyner Academy)
The athletic power wing wrangled 15 rebounds in a wonderful win by the Tyner Academy Rams. Bloodsaw made his reputation as a slasher and defender a year ago into the June combine. During the win over Bolivar Central Bloodsaw crashed back against the defensive circle. Tyner Academy rebounded out of their 2-3 zone very well. Zone defense can be a detriment to the rebounding mission, as finding bodies to block out is a little squirrely from that formation. Bloodsaw was and is a bouncy player who used his physical gifts and his hunger to track down 11 defensive rebounds. His four offensive rebounds tied his teammate Keelan Jackson Keelan Jackson 6'4" | SF Tyner Academy | 2023 State TN for the game’s lead.
Keelan Jackson Keelan Jackson 6'4" | SF Tyner Academy | 2023 State TN (Tyner Academy)
Once again Keelan Jackson Keelan Jackson 6'4" | SF Tyner Academy | 2023 State TN played big. The swingman collected 13 rebounds, many with merely a single man battling against him. Bolivar Central worked, as a team, to get back in transition, and they did not crash the glass too often in the opening quarter especially. Keelan’s size advantage and big shoulders certainly helped to fend off any rivals to his rebounds. Jackson also finished with 17 points in the victory.
Andtrayvin Stewart Andtrayvin Stewart 5'10" | PG Bolivar Central | 2022 State TN (Bolivar Central)
Neither Andtrayvin nor Jamarion Anderson scored efficiently in their quarterfinal matchup. The 2-3/3-2 zone defense extended enough to hold Stewart and Anderson to 3-16 shooting from deep and that is their motus operandi. Still, Stewart did rebound quite well (8 rebounds), especially on the offensive end. Stewart is very, very quick and he tracked down a trio of offensive rebounds for the Tiger cause. Unfortunately for the Tigers, Stewart’s off shooting night really poisoned the pursuit of semifinal placement.
Nicolas Smith, Jonathan Heddings (York Institute)
York took a tough loss Tuesday. A silver lining to the failing was certainly the rebounding effort. Senior guard Nicolas Smith managed seven rebounds as a physical, left-handed guard. He is a very mature basketball player and, along with Heddings, he played the game wire-to-wire. Heddings also recovered seven rebounds in the loss. Smith pulled down a couple of offensive rebounds too, but overall York just failed to score the basketball with any kind of consistency.
art’s off shooting night really poisoned the pursuit of semifinal placement.
Jaylen Jones Jaylen Jones 6'0" | PG East Nashville | 2023 State #178 Nation TN (East Nashville)
The intent of this publication is to feature a wide variety of players, but Jaylen makes that difficult with his repeated world-beating performances. Tuesday morning Jaylen recorded a triple-double, an extreme rarity in high school basketball. Jones’ 13 rebounds was fantastic, even more so when coupled with the fact he scored 16 points and delivered 10 assists. Jones is the best player in Class 2A, and arguably the best junior in the state this month.