The Oak Ridge Wildcats took on the Hillsboro Burros in the TSSAA Class 4A state championship game at the Charles M. Murphy Athletic Center on Saturday, March 22, 2025, in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. (Photo by Danny Parker)
BY JESSE SMITHEY
MURFREESBORO — Oak Ridge senior point guard Ray’Quan Watson gazed up at the Murphy Center scoreboard Saturday night, watching the last few seconds tick off of the Wildcats’ 57-42 loss to Hillsboro in the Class 4A Championship.
The stare looked to be a blank one.
But he had plenty going through his mind.
“I just felt like I let my city down,” Watson said. “I let my family down, let my friends down, let my teammates down. A lot was riding on this game. History. First championship at Oak Ridge since … segregation.
“So, I mean, I just had a lot on my mind. Just failure. I fell short. I was right there. I couldn’t reach it.”
Both Oak Ridge and Hillsboro entered the night looking for their first boys’ basketball state championship in more than a handful of decades, but Hillsboro took over in the fourth quarter to end its drought. The Burros (34-5) claimed their first title since 1956 by holding Oak Ridge to 21 percent shooting in the final 8 minutes of regulation.
The Wildcats (31-4) were back in the championship for the first time since 2014 and sought their first boys basketball title since 1963. They never led Saturday, though they tied Hillsboro twice in the third and cut deficits to one point three times in that quarter, as well.
“In a game like that, you got to make some plays. We’d been making them the past 2-3 weeks,” Oak Ridge coach Aaron Green said.
“We just didn’t make them tonight. That’s part of it.”
Watson, senior forward Cooper Williams, and senior guard Garrett Giles all made the 4A All-Tournament team.
Watson led Oak Ridge with 22 points and had Oak Ridge’s four 3-pointers. Williams finished with 11 points and six rebounds. Giles had four points and five rebounds Saturday.
Tyren Fisher of Hillsboro was the tournament MVP.
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Oak Ridge’s offense was cold to start the game. After having gone the final 10:44 of Friday’s semifinal win without a made field goal, the Wildcats shot just 16.7 percent in the first quarter Saturday.
Consider them fortunate to have only been down three (21-18) at the half against Hillsboro.
Watson had 10 points on 4-for-8 shooting at the break, hitting a pair of 3s to help the Wildcats stay in it. Williams had a three-point play with 1:30 left in the half to trim Hillsboro’s lead to 18-15. Malik Howard’s layup roughly a minute later trimmed the deficit again to three (21-18).
And then Watson’s 3 at the 7:00 mark of the third finally brought Oak Ridge even with Hillsboro for the first time since the opening tip. The Wildcats tied Hillsboro once more a minute later but could never snag its first lead.
The Burros got dealt bad news when star player Cortez Graham-Howard got his fourth foul with 1:07 left in the third. He had 16 points when he exited.
But the Burros took a 41-34 lead into the final 8 minutes, closing the third on a 5-2 run after Graham-Howard’s departure. That momentum spilled into the fourth, producing a 44-35 Hillsboro lead with 5:03 to play.
Graham-Howard re-entered with 3:52 remaining, his team still leading by nine. His layup with 2:30 left gave the Burros a 13-point lead. He finished with 20 points.
Meanwhile, Oak Ridge missed its first 10 shots of the fourth quarter. Williams finally got a layup in at the 1:31 mark of the fourth but the 50-37 margin proved to be insurmountable.
“I told the guys after the game that we just didn’t play well enough to win the game, especially offensively,” Green said. “Defensively, I thought we did a good enough job. But, we had a lot of open looks early in the game. They didn’t go in. I felt like the rim got a little smaller.
“It happens. Just a bad night.”
5STAR PHOTOS powered by Smartbank — Oak Ridge vs. Hillsboro (2025 Class 4A Championship)