The Monmouth/Roseville Titans opened regional play on Saturday as they hosted the Sherrard Tigers in the Shoebox. In a very hard fought contest the Titans outscored the Tigers 46-40 to advance. This one started slow as pressure defense by both teams made baskets hard to come by. The Titans behind 4 points from CJ Johnson would lead 9-8 after one. The Titans would continue to hang onto the lead as neither team could buy a basket in the second quarter and the teams went to the locker with the Titans on top 16-13. The pace would pick up in the second half as the Titans looked to speed Sherrard up and take them out of their game. The Titans would build an 11 point lead at 27-16 behind 7 from Connor Thompson but the Tigers would pick up their intensity down the stretch in the third outscoring the Titans 9-2 to cut the lead to 29-25 after three. Sherrard would not go away and things got chippy down the stretch but the Titans hit enough free throws down the stretch to hang on for the win. Connor Thompson led the Titans with 17 points and 7 rebounds. CJ Johnson added 9 points while Caleb Copeland and Charlie Fletcher each had 7. Ben Anderson added 4 points and 6 rebounds and Derrick Chandler had 2 points. The Titans will advance to the Knoxville regional and will take on the host Knoxville Blue Bullets on Wednesday night at 7:30.
***Courtesy of Greg Hart, Sports Talks from the Hart on Facebook***
