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Playing their second game in as many nights Tuesday, Brad Slaughter could tell his Santa Fe Wildcats weren’t as energetic as normal.

They got a lift in the second half of their matchup with host Zion Christian, as Auden Slaughter scored 13 straight points coming out of the locker room to provide some much needed breathing room in an eventual 72-55 victory.

Slaughter’s post-intermission surge came on the heels of his 10 consecutive points to close the opening half, giving the visitors a 33-30 lead, as he finished the night with 46 points – his second 40-point game of the Wildcats’ 5-0 season.

“We had a tough game (a 67-48 win at Cascade Monday). We struggled with our energy. We needed him to have that spurt,” said Brad, Auden’s dad. “You can kinda tell when he gets rolling. Early in the third quarter he perked up. I think the team feeds off him.”

The host Eagles gave Santa Fe fits early, on both ends of the floor, as freshman Ayden Glenn was matching Slaughter offensively and frustrating him and his teammates when they had the ball.

“They did a good job executing. That may be the most points we’ve had scored on us,” Brad Slaughter said. “They did some things that flattened our defense out.”

Glenn injured his right ankle battling for a loose ball in the early moments of the third period, though, and his departure was more impactful than Zion coach Sam Martin would have hoped.

“Any time the best player on the floor goes down, negative thoughts creep into your mind,” Martin said. “We let it consume us. As a team, we’re more than Ayden Glenn. We have to realize that.”

Zion Christian (4-3) opened the fourth quarter with a Brady Woolf 3-pointer to cut what had been a 12-point deficit to five, but Slaughter answered with a pull-up jumper in the paint, Austin Hazlett added a basket and Slaughter scored again in transition to get the Wildcat lead back up to double digits. The margin stayed at or above eight points for the remainder of the contest.

“Auden’s an unbelievable player,” Martin said. “It would have been fun to see how it worked out at the end with Ayden in there.

“We have guys that can step up. They’ve just got to believe it.”

Slaughter, who scored a career-high 50 points in an 85-74 win over Lewis County last January, knew he was “in a zone” but had no idea what he’d done Tuesday.

“The game’s kind of a blur,” he said. “We started making a few shots, our defense picked up. We knew we were going to take over the game.

“I feel I can get to my spots, feel myself get in a zone.”

He expressed his disappointment in Glenn being unable to finish the game as well.

“At the beginning, he started doing well, he was getting his team going, I got my team going,” said Slaughter, who’s averaging 34.6 points per game. “It boosts the energy on both sides.”

Glenn finished with 21 points to lead the Eagles; Landon Yates added a double-double (13 points, 13 rebounds) in the loss. Macon Adkison scored 16 points for Santa Fe.

Lady ‘Cats show improvement: Chaslyn Stewart, who missed most of her sophomore season after a December knee injury, scored a game-high 15 points as Santa Fe defeated Zion Christian 50-15.

“For us to be successful, Chaslyn has to be good,” first-year Lady Wildcats coach John Wild said. “She has to figure out she can be really good. She’s got to go hard continually, all the time – in practice, in games. She can’t take plays off. She’s got a chance to be special, and that’ll help her get to the level she needs to get to and the level I know she can get to.”

Stewart scored 11 of her points in the second half, as Santa Fe (3-2) built on a 19-9 halftime lead. Nora Kate Butt added 11 points, nine before the break.

“I love how we work together. We aren’t selfish,” Stewart said. “We don’t worry about who has points. That’s part of playing together since sixth grade.”

Stewart doesn’t take Wild’s praise – or challenge – lightly.

“It means a lot,” she said. “It means he sees something in me and he’s willing to work with me for me to be something special. If he’s telling me that, there’s a reason. I need to listen to him.”

Zion Christian (2-4) managed just six field goals in the loss.

“I thought we played hard and played some good defense,” Zion coach Doug Kennedy said. “We didn’t make enough shots. But we made them work for it.”

Santa Fe girls 50, Zion Chr. 15

SF 6 13 16 15 – 50

ZC 4 5 6 0 – 15

Santa Fe (50) – Chaslyn Stewart 15, Andie Repp 2, Lily Dodge 6, Aniston Slaughter 3, Kendall Massey 9, Nora Kate Butt 11, Zoe Crutcher 4

Zion Chr. (15) – Katelynn Langeland 3, Clara Martin 3, Marleigh McWilliams 9

3-pointers – Santa Fe 5 (Stewart 3, Massey, Butt), Zion Chr. 2 (Langeland, Martin)

Santa Fe boys 72, Zion Chr. 55

SF 11 22 17 22 – 72

ZC 15 15 12 13 – 55

Santa Fe (72) – Kaleb Hazlett 2, Austin Hazlett 6, Andrew Graves 2, Macon Adkison 16, Auden Slaughter 46

Zion Chr. (55) – Hampton Machado 7, Brady Woolf 5, Ayden Glenn 21, Landon Yates 13, Collin Kennedy 2, Matt Terry 73-pointers – Santa Fe 3 (Adkison 2, Slaughter), Zion Chr. 3 (Woolf, Glenn, Terry)

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Three-time state champion coach John Wild is leaving Williamson County and heading to Santa Fe to coach and serve as the athletic director at the Maury County unit school.

Wild won Class A basketball state titles at Bradford (girls), Moore County (boys) and Class AAA Riverdale girls. He is leaving Summit, where he's been the high school's girls basketball coach for four seasons, for the same coaching role for the Lady Wildcats.

However, it was the chance to be a first-time athletic administrator that grabbed Wild's attention.

"The last four to five years, I've really been intrigued with this athletics director position, like becoming an athletic director," said Wild, who was named to the role on Tuesday.

Wild said close relationships with current Williamson County Schools athletics director Darrin Joines and former Williamson County AD Jeremy Qualls led him to garnering interest after seeing them work in their roles.

"Just talking to them, I became intrigued about it and (Santa Fe) is going to let me be the athletic director. That's a big piece of it," Wild said. "I want to be able to mentor and organize. The basketball piece, the more I thought about it got me back to my roots. I went to a small high school I played at a small college.

"My first 10 years were at small school basketball. (Wife) Susan and my kids went to a small school. This isn't an oddity for me. I've been there before."

Wild has won more than 600 games as a head coach with various stops across Middle Tennessee, including Franklin for two years before going to Summit. He was also at Wilson Central, Franklin County and Lawrence County. And he had a stint as an assistant women's basketball coach at Lipscomb University.

Wild was inducted into the Tennessee Basketball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2022 and is an officer in the association.

ALL-STATE GIRLS:TSWA All-State girls basketball team for 2022-23 season released

ALL-STATE BOYS:Here is the TSWA All-State boys basketball team for 2022-23 season

Why leave Summit

Wild led the Lady Spartans to the region tournament three of the four years. He came to Summit the same season as boys coach Jim Fey, who also resigned after the 2022-23 season.

Summit finished 12-16, losing to Ravenwood in the District 12-4A tournament. He takes over a program that went 8-18 and lost to Culleoka in the District 10-1A tournament.

“We want to thank Coach Wild for his leadership the past four years and appreciate the relationships he built while here,” Summit athletic director Chad Kirby said in a release.

Attracted to small setting at Santa Fe

Wild said the small school setting and ability to help coach Santa Fe's girls basketball players at a young age was a key component for him to leave.

"In a setting like Santa Fe, you have access to your middle school kids. You have access to your elementary kids on the same campus," he said.

That's different in Williamson County, where the schools are on different campuses and coaches aren't permitted to have that same interaction due to TSSAA rules.

"The thing that became very frustrating to me (in Williamson County) was you have kids in your middle schools in the eighth grade, but are they going to a private school," Wild said. "Or are they going to try and get an out of zone exemption to get in a certain academic program at another high school?

"I just think at the smaller schools, you get to cultivate a relationship with kids at a younger age and really, really develop them. It's kind of a neat way to do things."

Reach Tom Kreager at 615-259-8089 or [email protected] and on Twitter @Kreager.

As witnessed by the ball he received prior to Friday’s game commemorating his 2000th career point, Auden Slaughter is an offensive gamechanger.

During Santa Fe’s District 10-A opener against visiting Culleoka, the junior proved equally disruptive on the other end of the floor.

After the visitors’ Eli Hardison went off for 22 second-quarter points, Slaughter drew the second-half assignment of slowing him down.

Hardison’s next basket came with 2:13 remaining in the contest, as the Wildcats rallied from a six-point halftime deficit for a 64-50 victory.

“After he got hot, I know I can defend a guy like that,” said Slaughter, who scored a game-high 35 points. “I knew I had to slow him down.

“We agree that defense is the most important thing. The reason we won by 14 is our defense.”

Defense wasn’t a problem for Santa Fe (14-1, 1-0) in a 22-9 start, but Hardison absolutely took over the contest in the second period, scoring all but three of Culleoka’s points as the Warriors went up 34-28 at the break.

“When you’ve got teammates that trust you, they continued to get me the ball, and the coaches trust me to take those shots,” said Hardison, who hit six of his eight 3-pointers in the quarter. “Shooters shoot. I found my groove.”

Slaughter found his own groove in the second half, scoring 21 points – including six in an 11-0 fourth-quarter spurt – and focusing on Hardison to help the Wildcats regain control of the contest.

“They picked the (defensive) intensity up, put Auden on Eli,” Culleoka coach Mike Lovett said. “And we had some ‘bunnies’ we missed. Offensive rebounds hurt us in the second half. We give up four offensive rebounds and Auden gets a 3 – that’s never a good defensive (possession).

“They’ve got that experience of finishing out games that we’ve been working on. All I was asking was that we show up and compete. I think we showed we can compete with anybody in the district.”

Santa Fe coach Brad Slaughter wasn’t surprised by the manner in which the game developed – though Hardison’s emergence as the offensive catalyst for Culleoka (7-9, 0-1) did take him aback.

“That’s as hot as I’ve ever had a kid get against me,” he said. “Auden did a good job of turning that around in the second half.

“When teams know each other as well as we and Culleoka do, we didn’t expect anything but a tough game. Starting 1-0 (in district play) was all we wanted to do.”

As pivotal as the younger Slaughter’s 35 points – or his defensive presence – were, his eight assists also played a part in Santa Fe continuing its early-season success. Andrew Graves finished with 13 points and Macon Adkison 11, both benefiting from Slaughter feeds.

“I was able to get my teammates involved,” said Slaughter, who visited with Alabama-Birmingham assistant coach Philip Pearson following the contest. “I’m proud of how we did.”

• Karlie Jones knocked down a 3-pointer to open the second quarter, giving Culleoka a three-point lead, and the visitors pulled away to a 52-29 victory over Santa Fe in the girls’ matchup.

Jones finished with a game-high 17 points, including five 3s, as the ‘Lady Devils’ improved to 6-9 (1-0).

“Defensively, we were connected, and Karlie hit some big 3s at the right time – timely 3s,” Culleoka coach Catherine Upshaw said. “It wasn’t just Maci (McKennon). It was everybody.

“We talk about how good they can be. We have all the confidence in the world in them. They’ve got to have it in themselves.”

McKennon, who reached the 1,000-point milestone earlier this season, scored 15 points and Kendall Reischman 10 in the win.

“We felt pretty good going in,” McKennon said. “We watched a lot of film, we knew who did what.”

Kendall Massey scored nine of Santa Fe’s 10 first-quarter points, on three 3s, but went scoreless the rest of the night. Chaslyn Stewart scored a team-high 11 points for the Lady Wildcats (6-9, 0-1), who managed just six points in the second and third periods combined.

“When you’re not making shots, you’ve got to do other things,” Santa Fe coach John Wild said. “I think we need to get a lot tougher – box out tougher, go to the offensive glass, grab balls with two hands, get on the floor (for loose balls). All that is ‘toughness’, and we’ve got to get it and get it quickly.

“They played hard, they competed harder, they were tougher. They did all the intangible things to win the game.”

Culleoka girls 52, Santa Fe 29

C 10 10 13 19 – 52

S 10 4 2 13 – 29

Culleoka (52) – Kennedy Kloke 2, Karlie Jones 17, Kendall Reischman 10, Emilee Rochester 2, Maci McKennon 15, Izzy Hargrove 4, Andee Kelley 2

Santa Fe (29) – Chaslyn Stewart 11, Lily Dodge 5, Kendall Massey 9, Nora Kate Butt 4

3-pointers – Culleoka 6 (Jones 5, Hargrove), Santa Fe 7 (Stewart 2, Dodge, Massey 3, Butt)

Santa Fe boys 64, Culleoka 50

C 9 25 6 10 – 50

S 22 6 15 21 – 64

Culleoka (50) – Kasen Hoffman 7, Eli Hardison 28, Dalton Owens 8, Bob Holt 2, Parker McDonald 2, Isaac Hargrove 3

Santa Fe (64) – Austin Hazlett 5, Andrew Graves 13, Macon Adkison 11, Auden Slaughter 35

3-pointers – Culleoka 10 (Hoffman, Hardison 8, Hargrove), Santa Fe 4 (Hazlett, Slaughter 3)

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Averaging 34.3 points per game, with more 40-point performances than 20-point outings through his team’s 10-0 start, there was a good chance something special was going to happen before Auden Slaughter stepped off the floor Tuesday night at McEwen.

After converting a three-point play to open the fourth quarter, Slaughter’s steal and layup gave him the 2,000th point of his career, and the junior finished with 43 points on the night as Santa Fe picked up a 62-51 road win to complete a regular-season sweep of the Warriors.

The Wildcats junior had scored 1,964 points – already the most in program history – over 82 games, including 13 contests as an eighth-grader.

“I knew I was somewhere close,” Slaughter said regarding the milestone. “I didn’t do the math, but I knew I was getting there.”

Santa Fe coach Brad Slaughter, Auden’s father, considered informing his son of just how close he was to the mark prior to Tuesday’s matchup.

“I started to tell him. I’d have felt better about him getting if if he’d known,” said Brad, who began to second-guess his decision to not tell Auden as the guard struggled through a five-point, 2-for-11 shooting effort in the opening quarter.

“McEwen’s a really good team, but he’s historically done well against them. He had 35 or more against them twice last year.”

Additionally, Auden scored 38 points in the Wildcats’ 66-47 homecourt win against McEwen two weeks ago.

So it wasn’t a surprise that after his “rough” – by his assessment – start, he managed to score 18 second-quarter points and help his team to a 32-18 halftime lead.

“I wasn’t making anything. I was getting fouled a little,” he said. “But I started taking it to the hole, I focused on driving more, and I got rolling on defense. I got to the basket, got easy shots and went from there.”

Though he was oblivious, the Santa Fe cheering section was not – and with 23 points at halftime, the feeling was not if, but when, Slaughter would reach the milestone.

“The way the game was called kinda got him out of his rhythm,” Brad Slaughter said. “We got refocused at halftime – stopped anticipating the whistle, finished through contact.”

The younger Slaughter went 4-for-4 from the foul line in the final 2:30 of the third period, helping Santa Fe maintain a double-digit lead and giving him 31 points with eight minutes to play.

With the basket that put him at 2,000, Santa Fe went up 51-33 at the 7:37 mark of the fourth quarter, and the Wildcats went on to lead by as many as 21 before Slaughter went 5-for-6 from the line late to close out the win.

“I’m just glad he got it done,” Brad Slaughter said.

It was the fourth time Slaughter scored 40 or more points this season, following a 41-point effort at Fairview, 46 at Zion Christian and 41 last week against Perry County.

The mark was secondary to the win for Auden Slaughter.

“It’s been a hard first half of the season, but it’s amazing we’re 11-0,” he said. “We’ve improved from last season.

“I just hope to keep pushing and keep winning.”

March to 2,000

(games, total points, average)

2020-21 11 116 8.9

2021-22 31 679 21.9

2022-23 28 826 29.5

2023-24 11 386 35.1

Career 83 2007 24.2

• Santa Fe’s girls cut a 15-point first-quarter deficit in half by the middle of the fourth period, but stalled down the stretch and fell 57-46. Kendall Massey converted five 3-pointers and scored 18 points for the Lady Wildcats, with Chaslyn Stewart adding 11.

McEwen girls 57, Santa Fe 46

S 3 19 9 15 – 46

M 18 15 15 9 – 57

Santa Fe (46) – Chaslyn Stewart 11, Harper Fitzgerald 2, Aniston Slaughter 4, Kendall Massey 18, Nora Kate Butt 9, Zoe Crutcher 2

McEwen (57) – Ellie Littleton 12, Shana Bohanon 2, Chailyn Soule 8, Layken Dodd 9, Amberlee Hankins 19, Abagail Harrington 2, Ashton Davidson 5

3-pointers – Santa Fe 8 (Stewart, Massey 5, Butt 2), McEwen 7 (Littleton 4, Dodd, Hankins, Davidson)

Santa Fe boys 62, McEwen 51

S 15 17 14 16 – 62

M 6 12 15 18 – 51

Santa Fe (62) – Andrew Graves 4, Macon Adkison 15, Auden Slaughter 43

McEwen (51) – Carter Tolene 2, Caleb Coates 9, Hawkins Winstead 3, Dalton Williams 7, Case Greene 12, Cade Dreaden 10, Zeke Harrington 83-pointers – Santa Fe 5 (Adkison 2, Slaughter 3), McEwen 3 (Coates 2, Greene)

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As storms drenched Middle Tennessee, causing devastating floods Aug. 21 in Humphreys, Hickman and Houston counties, the halls and classrooms of Maury County’s own Santa Fe Unit School also began to fill with rising waters.

The heavy rains filled the school’s lower levels, pouring in through a pair of large doors that welcome students on weekday mornings and send them home on school buses every afternoon.

From the governor:‘Tragedy and hope’: Bill Lee on Waverly flooding

“The rain came faster than our system could carry it away,” assistant principal Jerry L. Potts told The Daily Herald.

“Every room on the lower end of our school, including the cafeteria, had water standing from the flood.”

The school serves about 600 students in kindergarten through 12th-grade.

Getting to work: 'A phone call away in any situation'

As the heavy rains fell upon the small, unincorporated community located on the rural northeastern edge of Maury County, school staff mobilized to mitigate the damage. That night, the school district's maintenance department, led by Murry Ring, got to work.

“Several members of the department showed up and five to six hours later, they had removed the water and mopped every inch of floor and set up numerous fans to help the rooms dry out, Potts said.

Recovery:'Inundated with supplies': Recovery effort continues in Hickman County following flood

About a dozen people cleared water out of Santa Fe Unit School classrooms and moved supplies and resources out of flooded areas at the school. Ring said the team removed about two inches of water from the cafeteria.

“I have a very willing team of men that is a phone call away in any situation,” Ring said.

Eric Perryman, MCPS assistant superintendent of facilities, and Dave Hall, director of facilities, also assisted the group.

“We can’t thank them enough for showing up late at night and getting it done,” Potts said.

Teachers, community members 'stepped up'

Teachers, staff and community members arrived to assist with the cleanups at Santa Fe Unit School on Aug. 22, ensuring that classes would continue the following day. Several faculty members worked until it was time to go to church. After church services, they returned to the school.

“Almost every teacher in that end of the building came out and finished cleaning and moving furniture back in,” Potts said. “Even faculty members who work in the unaffected sections of the school showed up.

More:'Life goes on': Pinewood community reflects as flooding cleanup moves forward

"The community stepped up as well. They helped in the classrooms, cleaned the areas in front of the building and brought water for everyone."

“As a result of the hard work of a great many people, Santa Fe School opened on time Monday morning and didn’t miss a beat,” Potts said. “Unless you knew what had happened, you would not have been able to tell.”

Reach Mike Christen at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @MikeChristenCDH and on Instagram @michaelmarco. Please consider supporting his work and that of other Daily Herald journalists by subscribing to the publication.