Sophomore guard Denaj Kimber (4) and the Fulton Falcons defeated the Fayette-Ware Wildcats in a TSSAA Class 3A state tournament quarterfinal at Murphy Center on Wednesday, March 16, 2022, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. (Photo by Danny Parker)
BY JESSE SMITHEY
MURFREESBORO – Roughly two years ago, Tyler Lee, Denaj Kimber and Taj Kimber had the middle-school basketball ranks abuzz during an undefeated regular season at Whittle Springs. The then-eighth-graders also had the Fulton High School faithful excited about what could be in store for the coming years.
Well on Wednesday in Murfreesboro, that same trio and the Fulton Falcons took a large step in realizing those expectations.
“Last year was one of my more enjoyable years. I’ve never started three freshmen,” said Fulton coach Jody Wright. “I played four. It was so fun watching those guys grow.
“Now, they’re not getting bullied as much. Not getting pushed around as much. It’s been watching them grow and mature. The bigger the stage, the better they are. The bright lights don’t bother them.”
That’s the truth.
Lee and the even-keeled Kimber twins combined for 49 points and 22-for-35 shooting, as Fulton put on an absolute clinic against Fayette-Ware in a 78-57 win in the Class 3A state quarterfinals.
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Fulton (30-5) shot 55.7 percent from the floor, only turned the ball over seven times and managed to keep Fayette-Ware’s 6-foot-10 Mr. Basketball finalist JaSteven Walker relatively in check, despite not having a player on the Fulton roster above 6-4.
The Falcons advanced to the state semifinals for the first time since 2019 and will face Jackson South Side (24-3) at 11:15 a.m. Friday.
South Side finished as state runner-up last season in Class 2A and ousted Clinton on Wednesday in the 3A quarterfinals, 52-48.
Lee, a 6-4 sophomore, led Fulton in its opening-round win Wednesday with 20 points on 9-for-10 shooting. He also had eight rebounds.
Sophomore guard Denaj Kimber scored 12 of his 17 points in the first half, coming up big after Taj (12 points on 6-for-12) got whistled for two early fouls.
Fulton led by double digits for a majority of the second quarter and all of the third, but that fell down into single digits in the opening minute of the fourth quarter. Damarien Yates of Fayette-Ware scored in the paint, trimming the Fulton lead to 52-44 with 7 minutes, 50 seconds, remaining.
Walker’s two-hand slam cut Fulton’s lead to 55-46 with 6:51 to go. He added dunk off an inbounds pass to make Fulton’s advantage 57-48. He had 23 points on 11-for-16 shooting but just six rebounds.
Scores by Jalen Turner, Denaj Kimber and Lee negated all those Fayette-Ware plays, however, and kept Fulton ahead by 11 with roughly 5 minutes remaining.
Denaj Kimber’s 3 with 3:37 to go put Fulton ahead by 16. And Hatchett added a couple more baskets to bump the score to 74-54 with 2:28 to play.
Fulton finished five of 10 from the 3-point line.
“We’ve got good scorers,” said Wright. “We have five guys on the floor all the time who can score.
“For us, it was just: don’t settle on offense. Let’s get the basketball moving. Let’s get aggressive. … We did not have a whole lot of bad possessions. A few, but not a whole lot.”
Fulton took complete command of the contest in the early minutes of the second quarter. Marcellus Jackson hit a 3 at the 7:53 mark, Lee added a floater in the lane about a minute later, and Fulton led 21-12.
Desmier Hatchett, who had 15 points, buried a contested 3 from the corner to give the Falcons a 12-point lead with 5:28 left in the half.
Denaj Kimber’s first half, offensive, proved to be high quality. He went 2-for-3 from the 3-point line and 5-for-9 overall from the floor. His consecutive jumpers late in the second quarter gave Fulton a 13-point lead.
“When we first started playing, I said, ‘If I make my first 3, I’m going to score a lot,'” said Denaj Kimber.
That Fulton advantage swelled to as many as 16 in the second quarter.
But Walker had 11 points and three blocks in the first half for Fayette-Ware, and he scored just before the first-half buzzer sounded to cut Fulton’s lead to 34-22.
“I felt like we did a pretty good job (on him) the first 16 minutes,” said Wright. “Last two quarters, it felt like they just pounded it into the post.
“That’s hard to practice (for),” added Wright about Fayette-Ware’s height. “You don’t see 6-10 or 6-7 every day. You might see one. But it’s rare that you might see both. I just thought we had a lot of resilience. Tyler, giving up 6 or 7 inches, that doesn’t happen much to him. All in all, we played well. … we were pretty efficient with the basketball and could answer their runs.”
Lee scored three times in a 10-4 run out of the half for Fulton, which led by 18 points with 6:02 left in the third.
Fayette-Ware scored at the buzzer again, cutting Fulton’s once commanding lead to a more manageable one (52-42) with 8 minutes to play.
But nothing fazed the Fulton lineup, which is dominated by players with no previous state-tournament experience.
“The lights don’t bother anybody,” said Denaj Kimber. “This is our first year here. We didn’t know how it was.
“We just came ready to play.”
5STAR PHOTOS: Fulton Falcons vs. Fayette-Ware – Wednesday, March 16, 2022