Summit stuns Brentwood with late run

By CHIP CIRILLO | Photos by STEVE WHEELER

After falling behind by 16 points midway through the fourth quarter, Summit coach Josh Goodwin considered pulling his starters.

Things were looking that bad.

“We just said if we don’t score this possession, we’ll starting pulling people and get ready for tomorrow night (at Franklin), and they scored and scored and scored,” Goodwin said. “That’s one of the craziest things I’ve seen.”

Seventh-ranked Summit made a remarkable comeback in a 63-61 win at No. 10 Brentwood in a Class AAA showdown Tuesday night.

After falling behind 57-41, the Spartans (17-2, 6-0 District 11-AAA) made a 14-0 run to pull within two points of the Bruins (18-4, 5-2).

Summit’s Tai Carter scored the last four points, including the winning layup with .8 second left after his brother, John, stole the ball after Tai tipped it away from Brentwood and fed him with a breakaway pass.

“(Coach Goodwin) told us in two minutes if we don’t change, he’s going to pull us,” Tai said. “So, I was trying not to lose by that much so I’m thinking about getting the ball in the bucket and playing defense.”

John Carter hit two foul shots to narrow the gap to 61-59 with 24.8 seconds left.

Brentwood’s David Windley missed the front end of a one-and-one free throw with 17.7 seconds remaining and moments later Tai Carter tied the score at 61.

John Carter, a Navy commit, led Summit with 25 points, including four 3-pointers.

He missed Friday’s win over Dickson County with a sprained left ankle and was icing it after the Brentwood victory.

“We weren’t thinking to win the game,” John Carter said. “We were just trying to fight and play tougher than we were the whole game because we weren’t playing basketball at all. We saw we were down six points and then we were like, ‘We can win this game.’ No matter how far down we are, we can always get ourselves back up.”

Tai Carter and Demontay Dixon both scored 14 points and Jaden Lewis added 10.

The Carter brothers combined to score 24 of the Spartans’ 29 fourth-quarter points.

“Brentwood outplayed us, out-physicaled us, outexecuted us – they out-everythinged us,” Goodwin said. “They were better than us in every aspect tonight and we were just better for four and a half minutes. I don’t know if I’ve had two kids I trust more with the ball and their toughness than John and Tai.”

Reed Smith led Brentwood with 24 points before fouling out with 24.8 seconds left. Kellen King added 23.

“Yeah, it was shocking,” Smith said. “A lot of late-game mistakes that we could have avoided, but give credit to Summit. They forced us into situations we didn’t want to be in, but at the end of the day we’ve got to be able to take care of the ball in a fourth-quarter situation like that.”

Summit led by two points before Brentwood took charge by closing the first half with a 16-2 run.

The Spartans swept two regular-season games with the Bruins, including a 48-46 win on Jan. 3.

The loss ended Brentwood’s five-game win streak.

First-place Summit widened its lead to a game and a half over Brentwood in the district.

UP NEXT

Summit visits Franklin on Wednesday.

Brentwood visits Ravenwood on Friday.