EAGLES SOAR TO STATE TITLE! | Carr bids farewell with a masterpiece, a 84-49 win over Columbus for the 3A-DI state championship
SAN ANTONIO – When the postseason began Feb. 18 for the Tatum High School Eagles, there would be six doors standing between them and a state championship.
No one really knew who would be standing behind those doors, or what kind of challenge each would bring.
And if someone did know, it was likely Eagles coach Brett Carr, who saved his best for last.
As it turned out, it would be a nameless, faceless situation, as the Eagles kicked down one door after another, after another, after another, ultimately earning the University Interscholastic League (UIL) Class 3A, Division I Boys State Basketball Championship on Friday here at The Alamodome, an 84-49 win over Columbus to earn the spot as the No. 1 3A-DI team in the state of Texas.
It was fifth time’s the charm for the Eagles: three generations of the program have now played in state championship games. Carr, in his second stint as head basketball coach since returning to the program in 2016, had guided his Eagles to four previous state championship game appearances in 2003, 2011, 2014 and 2021. But it was THIS one, with a group of players who bought in – and sold their hearts out – to the Tatum program that ultimately brought home that big trophy, the Eagles’ first in boys basketball.
Carr has told many it’s his last year in coaching, and if that’s the case, what an unbelievable finish to a phenomenal career.
He was asked afterward if the win had sank in.
“Oh, yeah,” Carr said, with a laugh. “We were just waiting on it. It’ll probably sink in later tonight. I’m so proud of those guys. I mean, three years – they go back further than that, because they traveled with my other team that came down here, and they were the ball-boys and the water-carriers. And they were on a mission. You know, this is a hard thing to do. It’s hard to get here, and it’s hard to win it. I proved it’s hard to win it.”
Luke Sigler and JaCorie Bradley each finished with 26 points; Bradley had the game’s first basket, 12 seconds in, and 14 points in the first quarter, and Sigler kept coming strong throughout. Sigler was ultimately named the game’s most valuable player and finished with 26 points, as mentioned, on 12-of-17 shooting, seven rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot.
Bradley added five rebounds, three steals and two assists.
Tatum as a team finished with 18 assists, with assists on half of their field goals in the game.
Chambers had 13 points, 13 rebounds – and that likely felt like 30 to the Cardinals, as many as it seemed Chambers had – and five big assists.
Whiteus scored 11 points and added three rebounds and three assists. Nalayus Boyd scored six points and had three rebounds and a steal. And Cayden Tatum added two points, three rebounds and two assists.
Grayson Rigdon, an Arizona State signee in football that averaged 35 points a game coming into the state title contest, scored 31 points, but had 20 in the second half when the game had already been pretty much decided.
After the game, Carr asked how many points Rigdon had.
“I thought we did a good job overall. He got his calls and that stuff, you can’t do anything about that. It’s out of your control. But we told the kids going in: corral ‘em and try to frustrate them enough so that the rest of them will stand around and watch them.”
Also for Columbus, Camdon Pitchford had six points. Braylon Fisher, who fouled out late, had five points. Rylan Carruthers and Eddie Garcia each had two points, and Elijah Usher had one.
Columbus finished its season 17-3, and for the most part, didn’t have a non-district season. The Cardinals, coached by Troy Bohac, didn’t even begin basketball until Dec. 31.
And credit to them: they did put up a five-game winning streak that allowed them to match up with Carr’s Eagles.
But that was just not happening on Friday.
Bradley scored the game’s first points, as mentioned, but both teams set the tone for the game early: fast and physical.
When Chambers tied the game at the free throw line with 4:50 left in the first period, that seemed to spark the Eagles. Prior to Chambers’ free throw, the Eagles were 1-of-12 shooting, early in that first quarter.
They finished the game having hit 59 percent of their shots.
Right after Chambers’ free throw – as they were prone to do, not only in the playoffs but the entire season – Tatum went on a run to blow the game open.
Bradley hit back-to-back buckets with 3:43 and 3:19 left in the first, respectively, and after Rigdon hit a free throw to complete a three-point play with 2:48 left, Tatum SMOTHERED the Cardinals.
Bradley hit an old-fashioned three-pointer of his own, then Sigler scored for the first time in the game to make it 12-6 Tatum.
Columbus called a time-out with 2:27 left, but that did NOT work to stop the bleeding.
Bradley hit another three, then a two, as Tatum went on a 10-0 run. Chambers hit a free throw, then after a rebound by Cayden Tatum and a pass, Sigler scored again (20-6).
Rigdon finally busted the run with a basket with 59 seconds left in the quarter, but Tatum was having none of it. Sigler, Whiteus, Cayden Tatum and Bradley all scored just after that – Bradley with two seconds left in the quarter – and Columbus, the 3A, Division I football state champions, looked befuddled, bewildered and bewitched at the end of the first quarter: a 28-8 Tatum lead.
Chambers, a Navarro College signee in football, played like a man possessed throughout the game, pulling down board after board, and contributing in both scoring and with assists. He lived at the free throw line, as the Cardinals kept fouling him, and when he hit 1-of-2 free throws with 2:33 left in the half, he had put the Eagles in front, 45-15.
Sigler sank a three-pointer with 36 seconds left in the half, and by the time the Eagles headed to the locker room for the halftime break, they led, 50-19.
It wasn’t all over but the crying, as Hank Williams Jr. sang, but for the most part, it was.
Rigdon, who had hit 66 three-pointers coming into the game, didn’t hit his first against Tatum until 4:53 remaining in the third quarter.
The Cardinals came out firing in the second half, with Rigdon scoring seven points in the first 3 ½ minutes. But Tatum’s lead would prove to be just insurmountable. And it was far from just the Bradley-Sigler-Chambers show: the Eagles had 14 team assists headed into the fourth quarter, and a 61-36 lead.
Sigler served notice that this baby was wrapped up with a three just 15 seconds after the start of the fourth, giving Tatum a 61-39 lead, and after Chambers and Rigdon were called for double-technical fouls with 5:24 left, Rigdon would go on to foul out with 56 seconds left in the game.
Whiteus fouled out with just over two minutes left, and after shaking hands with the Columbus coaching staff, he made a beeline to Carr for a hug.
Carr and the Tatum coaching staff began to pull the starters out, one by one, celebrating with each one until Sigler hit one of two free throws with 1:20 left. Sigler was the final one to come out, after scoring what would be the game’s final points. Tatum’s roster in their entirety held Columbus to under 50 points in the game, and without any points in the last 2:02.
For the record, Tatum went undefeated at home in the 2024-25 season, a 13-0 record. The team won the District 16-3A championship without losing a single district game (12-0). They finished with a 32-2 overall record, and got to avenge one of their losses (Jefferson). They won 18 straight games to end the season, including a 6-0 playoff run – and really, all six playoff games were blowouts.
Tatum creamed Mineola, 77-48, to open the playoffs with a bi-district win at Longview’s Lobo Coliseum.
Then, in an early-playoff, second-round matchup against previously-undefeated Liberty-Eylau, Tatum took down L-E, 69-53. Honestly, that game wasn’t super close, but it would end up as the closest final score of any of the Eagles’ playoff games.
In round three, it was a trip to Caddo Mills to face Ponder, who apparently didn’t Ponder enough, and went down, 73-53.
Round four saw the Eagles run into Jefferson again, a Bulldogs team that had beaten Tatum in Jefferson on Dec. 10 in double overtime.
Tatum turned that into a laugher at the University of Texas at Tyler’s Patriot Center, leading 24-2 at one point and moved on after a 70-42 victory.
That brought the Eagles to the 3A-DI state semifinals against Iowa Park at Mansfield Lake Ridge. And Iowa Park brought a huge crowd!
As it turned out, that didn’t matter, either. Tatum brought a big crowd, too – and they brought Whiteus, Bradley, Sigler, Chambers, Cayden Tatum, Nick D’Souza and the rest of the Eagles, who turned out to be WAY better that Iowa Park. In fact, they were 39 points better, a 77-38 win.
That punched the ultimate ticket, the ticket Carr had been waiting for three years to cash in: a trip back to The Alamodome for another shot, the Eagles’ fifth shot, at a state championship.
And this time, no one could deny them.
Joining Carr on Tatum’s coaching staff this season were (in alphabetical order) Jayme Bradley, Daniel Carr, Henry Brown and Clancy Parker.
And after Carr’s final game, in his final postgame comments if he does retire from coaching, he said this:
“They’re both unbelievable,” Carr said, when asked about the 52 combined points by Bradley and Sigler. “That five, that five that we start – I’m proud to have those five. They were unbelievable. Cayden Tatum has created all kinds of havoc for great players all year, and Cooper (Whiteus) and Jordan (Chambers) have been phenomenal. It’s been a phenomenal year, honestly.”
2024-25 TATUM HIGH SCHOOL BOYS SCHEDULE
REGULAR SEASON
| 11/22/2024 | Kemp | 85-61 (W) |
| 11/25/2024 | Redwater | 107-45 (W) |
| 11/26/2024 | Atlanta | 95-55 (W) |
| 12/3/2024 | Center | 80-64 (W) |
| 12/10/2024 | Jefferson | 73-85 (L) |
| 12/12/2024 | Palestine Westwood | 77-72 (W) |
| 12/12/2024 | Lufkin Hudson | 62-54 (W) |
| 12/13/2024 | Nacogdoches Central Heights | 61-32 (W) |
| 12/14/2024 | Hitchcock | 65-47 (W) |
| 12/14/2024 | Center | 51-40 (W) |
| 12/17/2024 | Gladewater Sabine | 78-53 (W) |
| 12/20/2024 | Arp | 97-52 (W) |
| 12/26/2024 | Timpson | 100-64 (W) |
| 12/27/2024 | Hooks | 64-39 (W) |
| 12/27/2024 | Ben Wheeler Martins Mill | 61-59 (W) |
| 12/28/2024 | Kountze | 68-69 (L) |
| 12/31/2024 | Nacogdoches Central Heights | 55-45 (W) |
| 1/3/2025 | Gladewater | 89-44 (W) |
| 1/7/2025 | New London West Rusk | 105-34 (W) |
| 1/10/2025 | Troup | 79-50 (W) |
| 1/17/2025 | White Oak | 100-33 (W) |
| 1/21/2025 | Gladewater Sabine | 93-57 (W) |
| 1/24/2025 | Arp | 90-62 (W) |
| 1/28/2025 | Gladewater | 120-48 (W) |
| 1/31/2025 | New London West Rusk | 86-19 (W) |
| 2/4/2025 | Troup | 92-47 (W) |
| 2/11/2025 | White Oak | 91-32 (W) |
| 2/14/2025 | Mexia | 79-74 (W) |
POSTSEASON
| 2/18/2025 | Mineola | 77-48 (W) |
| 2/20/2025 | Texarkana Liberty-Eylau | 69-53 (W) |
| 2/25/2025 | Ponder | 73-53 (W) |
| 2/28/2025 | Jefferson | 70-42 (W) |
| 3/4/2025 | Iowa Park | 77-38 (W) |
| 3/7/2025 | Columbus (State Championship) | 86-49 (W) |
2024-25 TATUM HIGH SCHOOL EAGLES ROSTER
| 0 Cayden Tatum (senior, 5-9 shooting guard) |
| 1 Luke Sigler (senior, 6-3 small forward) |
| 2 Grayson Lee (sophomore, 6-1 small forward) |
| 3 Kenneton Harrison (senior, 6-3 power forward) |
| 4 Nalayus Boyd (senior, 6-2) |
| 5 Quincy Davis (sophomore, 6-1 shooting guard) |
| 10 Carlos Hernandez (junior, 5-10 shooting guard) |
| 11 Namhun Kim (senior, 6-0 point guard) |
| 12 JaCorie Bradley (senior, 6-1 point guard) |
| 13 Nick D’Souza (senior, 6-4 power forward) |
| 15 Jordan Chambers (senior, 6-5 center) |
| 20 Koby Bridges (freshman, 5-9 shooting guard) |
| 24 DaMarion Tolbert (freshman, 6-2 power forward) |
| 30 Cooper Whiteus (junior, 5-9 shooting guard) |
| 35 Brandon Howard (sophomore, 5-10 point guard) |
| Gage Sparks | Manager |
| Braelon Cochran | Manager |
| Deadrian Bradley | Manager |
| Xavior Moore | Student Trainer |
| Jennie Spearman | Trainer |
| Robert Galloway | Statistician |
