Under first-year head coach E'Jay Ward, Tyner may have had some inside knowledge going up against the team he served as an assistant coach for the last four years. But Brainerd seemed to have an inside edge, too.
It was Jessie Walker and Joseph Norwood. Those two combined for 40 points in the post and Brainerd came away with a 55-51 District 6-AA victory Friday in a high school basketball game at Tyner.
The win leaves the Panthers (5-0, 4-0) as the only 6-AA team left without a district loss. The teams are scheduled to play again at Brainerd on Feb 9, right before postseason begins.
"It's major," Brainerd coach Levar Brown said of the road win. "I think they're going to be fine. E'Jay is going to be a good coach. If it all plays out the way I think it is, we'll see each other a few more times."
When Brown was hired as head coach of the Panthers five years ago, he said the first assistant coach he called to hire was Ward. Ward, now in his first head-coaching position, said he coached a lot of the current Brainerd players when they were in middle school.
"We've got a new team this year," said Ward, a former point guard at Brainerd and Tennessee Wesleyan. "They lost a whole lot last year, so we've got many in new roles. We'll swallow our pride and just keep on moving. We know Brainerd is going to be there. They're the measuring stick."
Walker led the Panthers with 23 points and Norwood added 17. They teamed for 15 field goals inside the arc and 10-for-12 success from the free-throw line. Norwood was perfect in his five attempts from the line, and a few times underneath he was the recipient of dump passes from Walker at the high post.
"I think we won it in the second half," said Brown, whose team outscored the Rams 33-28 in the last two quarters. "We made it a point at halftime that we wanted Jessie Walker's hands touching the ball. He's very unselfish. He likes to pass - sometimes too much. We want to see him shoot the ball. He's a tough matchup for anybody."
The game was close throughout and was tied at 12 at the end of one quarter. Tyner (3-2, 3-1) led by one at halftime, and Ward felt it might should've been more.
The Rams missed all three front ends of one-and-bonus situations, plus missed a two-shot opportunity in the first minute of the second quarter. Jeremy Elston broke a tie at 22 with 1:04 to go in the half by making a free throw after he had missed the first.
"We missed 14 free throws," Ward said. "We missed a lot of one-and-ones. I felt good about the effort. We'll go back to work and just move forward."
Malik Hymon contributed 10 points for Brainerd, with nine coming in the second half.
Elston paced Tyner with 15 points and Amon Grace scored 11. Solomon Bridgeman and Michael Little chipped in eight points apiece.
Brown was missing another assistant coach Friday in Stephen Cook, who is preparing to graduate from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga today.
"I've known E'Jay for a long time," Brown said. "I know his family, and they're like my family. Us and E'Jay are probably going to all be sitting together at the graduation."
Contact Kelley Smiddie at ksmiddie@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6653. Follow him on Twitter @KelleySmiddie.