Hoops Roundup : Battle of the Woods, 1,000 points

by Marcus Stone

Friday night is chalked full of basketball action across the Williamson County area with two sets of rivalry matches in Brentwood.

The Battle of the Woods makes it way to Wilson Pike as Ravenwood hosts Brentwood. On the boys side, the Bruins (15-2, 3-0) look to remain on top of the Division 11-AAA standings while the Raptors (5-5, 3-1) look to climb into that position. Ravenwood wants a defensive struggle as they average 53 points per game while Brentwood on average hits 66. On the girls side, the Lady Raptors (9-3, 4-0) come in with a better district record while the Lady Bruins (12-2, 2-1) are better overall.The winner will have a stronghold on the district until their next meeting.

Across town on Granny White Pike, Brentwood Academy will try and keep momentum going for both the boys and girls squads against the usually powerful Ensworth. For the boys, BA (13-0, 1-0) looks to remain undefeated against a Tiger squad that has started slow. The Eagles have easily handled opponents this season, defeating teams by an average of 34 points. For the girls, the Lady Eagles (14-1, 1-1) will face one of their tougher tests of the year against a 6-1 Lady Tiger team that is undefeated in league play.

In Division 11-AAA, Independence will travel to Centennial and Franklin goes to Summit.

The Cougars (2-8, 0-3) will look to get their first league win against the Eagles (10-7, 2-1) who want to stay in the running with Brentwood and Ravenwood for the top spot.  In the early contest, both the Lady Eagles (3-11, 0-3) and Lady Cougars (4-4, 0-3) look to get their first win in 11-AAA play.

Summit (10-5, 1-2) will try to get back to even in district play against a competitive Franklin (4-5, 1-1) squad. The Spartans are a high-scoring group, averaging 65 a game while the Rebels sit at 51. The Lady Spartans (1-6, 0-3) are playing to avoid four consecutive losses in league play while the Lady Rebels (4-7, 1-2) look to get even in the standings.

A huge contest in Division II-A, both on the boys and girls side, is University School of Nashville traveling to Franklin Road Academy.

USN (5-5, 3-1) and FRA (12-3, 3-0) are both high-scoring, exciting teams. The Panthers average 67 a game while their opponent Friday sits at 61. Junior Kenny Cooper is two points shy of 1,000. Cooper is being heavily recruited locally by Belmont, MTSU, and WKU with offers from Lipscomb & Austin Peay. Cooper averages 19 ppg, 5 rpg, 6.5 apg, 5 spg.  For the girls, Friday will be the first blemish on one squad’s league record. USN (11-3, 5-0) and FRA (13-2, 4-0) both want to hold on to bragging rights longer into the season.

District 12-AA is still early in their league schedule, meaning the Spring Hill / CPA and Page / Marshall County matchups can get every team off to a fast start.

Marshall County’s boys (7-2, 1-0) seem to have a slight edge over Page (5-6, 0-0) while the Lady Patriots (3-6, 0-0) look to have a more complete squad than Marshall County (0-5, 0-0).

Christ Presbyterian Academy looks to be the cream of the crop in both 12-AA’s boys and girls standings.Both undefeated, boys 10-0, 1-0 and girls 12-0, 1-0, both look to run the table in 2015. Spring Hill’s boys (3-4, 0-1) have an uphill battle Friday as CPA has defeated opponents by a 25-point average this season. Spring Hill’s girls (2-7, 0-0) have an equally difficult night on the line with the Lady Lions outscoring opponents 60-38 so far.

Fairview looks for a difficult 11-AA night as the boys (1-9, 0-6) hosts a Waverly Central (11-3, 6-0) team that averages 30 more points a night than the Yellow Jackets. The girls game looks to be more even with the Lady Yellow Jackets sitting at 2-7, 2-4 and WCHS at 4-11, 2-5.

Father Ryan will travel to Chattanooga over the weekend to face Baylor in Division II-AA action. The guys team sits at 5-5, 0-1 while the girls are 8-4, 0-1.