Behind Tarris Bouie’s 40 points, Chambers boys stun Weddington in prep basketball playoffs
The play that cemented the win over Weddington and extended Chambers High School’s season happened late in the fourth quarter on Tuesday night.
With just over four minutes left, and with Chambers clinging to a five-point lead, Chambers guard Markus Kerr surveyed the court on the right side. Tarris Bouie, lingering uncovered in the opposite corner, pointed at the rim. And then Kerr floated a cross-court alley-oop that Bouie would use all of his 6-foot-5 frame to reach — and then the sophomore slammed it through.
Bouie screamed.
Four minutes later, when the final score read 78-68 in Chambers’ favor and after Bouie had notched 40 points, so did everyone else wearing Chambers orange.
Chambers (22-8) had handed Weddington (27-2) its second loss of the year — and is now headed to the state quarterfinals.
“It means that we can still play,” an exhausted Chambers head coach Brian Frasier said postgame, when asked what this win means. “It also still kind of proves to us who we are, and what we have, as a team. If we stay together, and play hard, we got an awesome team.”
The key to Bouie’s 40-point night?
“Cut to the basket, hit wide open shots, play a better game,” the sophomore guard said.
Said Frasier: “He’s a supreme athlete. He’s just a sophomore, but he’s able to do a lot of things offensively and defensively, block shots, shoot 3s, get to the basket. ... He’s got an all-around game for a sophomore.”
The game didn’t always appear like it’d be a double-digit Chambers win. Weddington jumped out to a 5-0 lead and started the second quarter on a 7-0 run that extended the game to 21-11. Weddington looked sound, determined, unperturbed by the moment — a product of being of a state championship pedigree from two years ago, beating Chambers that year along the way.
But Chambers proved resilient, thanks to a second-quarter 10-0 run spawned by seven straight Bouie points and a Malik McCotter 3.
The halftime score was 30-29, Weddington. Chambers then would seize a 40-31 lead and virtually wouldn’t look back. Every Weddington comeback attempt would be met with a crowd-quieting response: a Kerr 3 here, a McCotter 3 there, a Maurio Hanson II offensive-rebound-turned-muscled-in-layup everywhere.
Beyond Bouie’s 40 points, Chambers saw scoring from a bunch of others, including Hanson (17), McCotter (9), Kerr (5), Jordan Patton (4) and Jayden Terrell (3).
“Exactly, that’s what he was,” Frasier said of his 6-foot-7 Hanson, when asked by a reporter how he played like such a “monster” Tuesday. “He played tremendously well. He stepped up big, rebounding, making all the impressive plays, scoring inside the paint and making the extra pass.”
Weddington was led by senior Grant Hamilton with 23 points, KJ Younger with 23 as well and Jack Ellyson with 18. Head coach Gary Ellington said he was proud of his team and his six seniors postgame.
“Obviously upset,” Ellington said. “The guys worked really hard this year for us to be able to put ourselves in this position. Our six seniors who have given a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to this point, I’m hurting for them, you know what I mean? Because I thought we were certainly good enough to make a run.
“We just didn’t make quite enough shots tonight and weren’t able to match all of the physicality underneath. But our guys fought tonight.”
This story was originally published March 5, 2024 at 10:24 PM.
