March 17, 2009

KNOXVILLE (WVLT) -- In Thompson-Boling Arena, East Tennessee's basketball palace, a pair of high school teams prepare for the battle to become Tennessee basketball royalty.

"I know people talk about it a lot, saying it's great, but it really feels good, something you'll carry with you forever," Fulton junior Robert Boyd said.

"We always wanted to go to state," said Carter sophomore Lester Wilson." We talked about it before the season, during the season."

For the Carter Hornets, it's been a long road to Murfreesboro. It's the first time they've ever been to state.

"I was always told we weren't ever going to go to state," Wilson said. "But hey, we did it."

The Fulton Falcons fly back to Middle Tennessee, looking to defend their state title from a year ago... the school's first.

"I think once you've done it once, there's that addiction," said Fulton coach Jody Wright. "You wanna do it again. This team's been pretty driven."

"I think we deserve it, but nothing's given to us," Boyd echoed. "It would feel pretty good, though...pretty good."

It's funny. These teams have played each other four times... that's 128 minutes of basketball. But they're rooting for each other... that is, until the finals.

"I told Jody the other day, I said, I hope we meet up one more time," said Carter head coach Tony Buell. "Because if we do that we're in the state final and that'd be awesome."

Boyd agrees:

"Either way we're bringing it home... we're bringing it to Knoxville."

Tournament Schedule:
Wednesday
Class A
12:45 EST: Grace Christian (27-6) vs Chattanooga Baptist Academy (26-5)

Class AA
7:45 EST: Fulton (27-6) vs Sheffield (19-14)

Thursday
Class AA
11 am EST: Carter (21-11) vs B.T. Washington (27-2)

Class AAA
6 p.m. EST: Bearden (35-2) vs Northeast (26-6)