Pioneers Season over

By: Nick Kieser

CLEVELAND, TENNESSEE — The Vol State Pioneers season has ended in the NJCAA Region Seven postseason tournament. Roane State defeated the Pioneers 85-83 in the play-in game to get the tournament started. Overall the final record of the season is 6-20 when it's all said and done.

"We played hard but not hard enough. We fell short by two and it hurts a lot. This is a great group of guys and I really got to know them but now it's just all over," said Tim Goodrich following the season-ending loss.

Losing to Roane State Goodrich and Justin Goodson finished the year atop the score sheet. Goodrich dropped 26 points and Goodson had a team-high 29 points and went 5-7 for shooting three-pointers in the game. Jaden Chumley also had two three-pointers to keep the Pioneers in the game.

"We played probably some of the best defense we have all year and they just hit tough buckets. It's just something you can't really help," said Chumley postgame down under the court in the locker room.

Roane State will tip-off against Walters State at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 2 in the next round of the NJCAA Region Seven playoffs. Four of the Pioneer basketball players are sophomores and just played in their last game. Jabori Murphy, Chase Hawkins, Jordan Buchanan, and Jaden Chumley are the following players who are done playing in the Pioneer uniform.

"They hit a couple of unbelievable shots and they just played good. I'll be back next year and now I will just train," said Goodrich.

"I feel like I gave it my all. This group of guys is really special and we could've done something special this year it just didn't work out. I am just really happy I got to play with them," said Chumley.

The 2018-19 season has come to a close and the postseason tournament has just begun. Dyersburg plays Chattanooga, Cleveland plays Motlow and Southwest plays Columbia. Thank you for reading about the Vol State Pioneers basketball season.