BY BRIAN HAMILTON KNOXVILLE – Bearden and Maryville both played up to the standard of state tournament teams all year, but when the Rebels were upset last Thursday night in the region championship by Sevier County, that changed everything. It sent Maryville, as the region runner-up, to Bearden on Monday night for a matchup that featured two teams with a combined five losses on the season — the type of game you usually see in Murfreesboro. “It was unfortunate that it ended up being that way and a lot of the crime committed there was the TSSAA aligning us like …
Smoky Mountain Sports Boys Basketball Top 10 Rankings (2/1/26)
Bearden (25-1, 9-0 Class 4A District 4) Maryville (19-3, 3-0 Class 4A District 2) Alcoa (14-9, 7-0 Class 3A District 5) Fulton (15-7, 9-0 Class 3A District 3) Austin-East (13-10, 5-1 Class 3A District 3) Gatlinburg-Pittman (16-4, 5-0 Class 2A District 2) Heritage (17-6, 4-2 Class 3A District 5) Sevier County (11-6, 2-1 Class 4A District 2) Farragut (18-7, 8-2 Class 4A District 4) Seymour (14-7, 3-2 Class 3A District 3)
Rebels fall to Cookeville 70-60 in first state tournament since 2015
BY BRIAN HAMILTON MURFREESBORO – Nobody expected Maryville to be here in November. No one, but themselves, that is. Maryville advanced to the state tournament in 2020, but with their game against Hillsboro being scheduled on March 18, they were unable to play due to the COVID-19 shutdown. Wednesday was the first time that the Rebels were able to actually play in the state tournament since 2015, when they fell to Blackman 65-45 in the Elite 8. The result was not much different nine years later, as the Rebels fell to a sharpshooting Cookeville team 70-60, in a game that …



