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For Spring Hill, McDonald’s Shootout at Columbia Central ends long week





Quintaveous Simmons and the Spring Hill Raiders look to stop a nine-game McDonald’s Shootout skid Saturday when they visit Columbia Central. It’ll be the fourth contest in five days for both Spring Hill teams.TORI MCGRATH / MAIN STREET MAURY

Quintaveous Simmons and the Spring Hill Raiders look to stop a nine-game McDonald’s Shootout skid Saturday when they visit Columbia Central. It’ll be the fourth contest in five days for both Spring Hill teams.TORI MCGRATH / MAIN STREET MAURY

If Spring Hill is to reverse an overwhelming trend in the 24th annual McDonald’s Shootout, the Raiders and Lady Raiders will have to overcome a couple of apparent challenges.

In addition to facing Columbia Central at the Hardy Loyd Gymnasium in the Saturday doubleheader, Spring Hill will be playing for the fourth time in five days. Along with District 8-3A matchups Tuesday at Lawrence County and against visiting Tullahoma on Friday, there’s also a twinbill Thursday at Giles County.

“I’m not liking the January scheduling at all,” first-year girls coach Rod Ramzy said as the Lady Raiders will have played on back-to-back nights four times by the end of the month. “It doesn’t leave us much practice time to work on things between games. We already don’t have much depth.”

Spring Hill’s girls enter the week 5-11 and winless in four league contests, including their two most recent affairs, against Marshall County and at Lincoln County. They’ve also dropped the least two McDonald’s Shootout matchups – 49-42 on their home court a year ago and 52-41 in 2021.

 

 

“I’m anticipating a really intense game,” Ramzy said. “(But) with the experience of some of our older players, this far into the season, I think we’ll be OK. We’ve been in some tight games, and we’ve been in some blowouts, on both ends. (For) the amount of games we’ve played so far, I think they’ll be fine. Emotionally, I think they’ll be fine.”

Spring Hill boys coach Jimmy Young, now in his 26th season at the Raiders’ helm, has been on hand for every McDonald’s Shootout since its 1999 inception and echoed Ramzy’s thoughts regarding the atmosphere – if not his team’s upcoming schedule.

“It’s a great game for the community,” he said. “I hope the community comes out and supports both teams. The kids enjoy it, the student body enjoys it. I just hope both schools put on a good performance for the fans.”

Young’s Raiders (8-6, 2-2) have been riding an offensive wave of late, scoring 70 points or more in each of their last four outings – but dropping two of those, a 72-70 double-overtime effort against Page and a 94-88 triple-overtime heartbreaker against Marshall County.

Still, he’s not fazed by fatigue or preparation concerns over the next few days.

“It’s basketball. It works out that way. You play what’s in front of you,” Young said. “If you’re a basketball player, you’re ready to play. That’s the way I look at it.

“We watch film. We’ve got film on everybody, we’ll go over it in practice. There’s only so many things a coach will do. They’ll play ‘man’ or ‘zone’ (defense); we prepare for each one of those. You see it, you’ve got a call for it and you should be ready to go.”

Spring Hill’s deep rotation should offset any potential fatigue issues, Young said.

“They get tired, but we play 9 or 10 guys,” he said. “Some guys play a lot of minutes, but they’re in great shape. They’re young, they bounce back really quickly and they want to play.”

Columbia Central’s boys (6-14, 1-2 District 12-4A) and girls (9-9, 2-1) play a league doubleheader Tuesday at Independence, then host Hillwood prior to Saturday’s matchup. The Lions have won the last nine McDonald’s Shootout contests and enjoy an 18-5 advantage all-time, while Central’s girls have won 16 of the 22 meetings and three of the last four.

Festivities will include a men’s alumni game beginning at 2:30 p.m., followed by girls junior varsity at 4 p.m., girls varsity at 6 p.m. and boys to follow.

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