Brainerd Set to Face Top Ranked CPA in State Tournament

It has been 23 years since Brainerd has won a state basketball title.

But the Panthers get another crack at it this week in Murfreesboro, although Brainerd will have a daunting task in their opening round game against CPA.

  At the start of the season, Brainerd coach Levar Brown says it was hard to envision the Panthers as a state tournament team.

Reporter-"Was the state tournament a legitimate goal that you had in mind?"

Said Brown,"I don’t think so. I don’t think so. We’re really young."

  Brown was likely more concerned with surviving district play.

"I really feel like our district is one of the toughest districts outside of Memphis. So I think everyone in our district prepared us to go here."

    The Panthers won the regular season district title, and they pushed through sub-state to punch their ticket to Murfreesboro.

Said forward Da’V Moore,"I feel good now. We’re here. Just got to make it through."

   Brown wants his team to have fun in Murfreesboro, but that’s not the number one objective.

"I don’t want us to be satisfied with just being there. I want us to go and make a real concerted effort to win it. I want to make Chattanoooga proud, and I want to make our alumni proud."

   If the Panthers win it all, they’ll get more than a championship trophy.

Said guard Kentrell Evans,"At Brainerd High, we have these pictures on the wall (of state champs) We always talk about how we want our pictures on the wall. We want to make it farther than the first round. We want to win it all."

   Brainerd opens up against top-ranked CPA, a team with a 14-year-old point guard.

Said Brown,"From what I understand, he’s the number one 8th grader in the nation, which should be a lot of fun for us. They also have I believe the top junior in the nation. I believe they’ve only loss to a Tennessee team once in the last three or four years, so we have a major task ahead of us. I told them if we can get Thursday at 1:15 cst and get that behind us, we can win it."