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David Russell

The Nolensville Knights thwarted the Page High School Patriots’ undefeated run through District 10-4A with a down-to-the wire, 40-38 upset Monday night at Ravenwood High School to win the district tournament title.

The decisive moment came when, with seven seconds left, Nolensville’s Nyla Johnson, the tournament MVP, hit one of two free throws to give the Knights a two-point lead. Page raced the ball up the floor and missed a layup at the rim, and Maisie Bushman’s putback failed to beat the buzzer, ending the Patriots’ bid for a district championship to finish a great season under district coach of the year Randy Coffman.

Nolensville (18-11, 10-5) — which Page (22-7, 14-1) defeated twice in the regular season 53-45 and 45-38 — led at halftime 25-13. Sara Breakfield came up big in the first half for the Knights, scoring seven of her nine points.

The Patriots stormed back in the third quarter, outscoring the Knights 15-5 to cut the deficit to just two going into the fourth.

The fourth quarter saw Nolensville extend the lead to nine on free throws by Johnson, who finished with a team-high 11 points, before the Patriots mounted a near-stellar comeback. Samantha Lee, who joined Nolensville’s Johnson and Leilani Washington on the all-tournament team, finished with nine points of her own and scored five quick points to pull Page within four. She finished with a game-high 16 points.

Miah Cabale drained the final three-pointer for the Patriots to slice the lead to one before Johnson’s free throw, but the comeback came up just a little short.

Both teams will advance to the regional tournament, which begins Friday.

They will be joined by Brentwood High School and Independence High School, who battled it out in the third-place game prior to the championship. Brentwood prevailed 62-41.

Junior Ella Ryan, the district MVP, led all scorers with 25 for the Bruins. She joined Johnson, Lee, Washington and Independence's Savanna Seay on the all-tournament team. Ryan also earned first team all-district honors alongside Washington, Independence’s Aaliyah Fleming, Summit's Quinn Johnston, Franklin’s Cecilie Brandimore, and Page’s Mary Fox.

Nolensville will host Columbia and Page will host Shelbyville in the first round of the region tournament on Friday at 7 p.m. Brentwood will travel to Lincoln County and Independence will visit Coffee County.