How Hillsboro's Xavier Washington has MNPS close to TSSAA boys basketball state tournament breakthrough
MURFREESBORO — Hillsboro senior guard Xavier Washington waited until he was deep into a hallway in the belly of MTSU’s Murphy Center to release his emotions.
His scream said it all.
Washington made all five of his 3-point attempts and scored a team-high 20 points on perfect shooting from the field, and the Burros will play for a TSSAA boys basketball state tournament championship for the first time since 1956 after defeating Bradley Central 63-48 in the Class 4A semifinals Saturday at MTSU’s Murphy Center.
The celebration included a big bear hug from Hillsboro coach Rodney Thweatt when the starters went to the bench in the final seconds.
“We just put so much hard work in in the offseason … It was painful sometimes,” Washington said. “This was the moment when it paid off. I was just excited to get out of the game and see all my teammates smile, because we knew the hard work we put in finally paid off.”
Hillsboro (33-5) held off a late Bradley Central (25-9) run and now has a chance to break a long Metro Nashville Public Schools drought. The district has not produced a Large Class boys basketball state champion since now-defunct Pearl’s Class AAA title in 1981, and only two programs have won it altogether. Overton won the 1976 Class AAA title.
Many MNPS programs have tried — including talented Cane Ridge teams led by Charlotte Hornets forward Brandon Miller in 2021 and 2022 — and failed.
“It’s a lot of weight for the kids to carry representing an entire county or an entire city. But we’re going to represent Metro to the best of our ability,” Thweatt said. “Definitely the goal is to win it, and if we do we’ll accept all of that responsibility or praise for breaking through that streak, for sure.”
The Burros have been an established Large Class power under Thweatt, going to six state tournaments since his hire in 2006 — seven including the 2020 tournament that was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the Burros haven’t been to a state title game since Dwight D. Eisenhower was the president, and this is just their second appearance ever. They have never won the championship.
Cortez Graham-Howard scored 16 points on 7-of-9 shooting and Tyren Fisher added 13 points and eight rebounds for Hillsboro, which got out to a 20-9 first-half lead only to see Bradley Central go up 27-26 with 7:30 in the third quarter.
Washington’s 3-pointer moments later put Hillsboro up 31-27, and he put the game to bed with another trey with 4:08 in the fourth quarter to give Hillsboro its biggest lead to that point, 53-39.
Washington went through a cold stretch after the district tournament but kept coming in to the Hillsboro gym to shoot at 6 a.m. each morning.
“I get to work and he’s already at a basket,” Thweatt said. “That kind of commitment has to pay off at some point and it paid off in the second half. We didn’t doubt one of those shots going in.”
Tyler Palmateer covers high school sports for The Tennessean. Have a story idea for Tyler? Reach him at tpalmateer@tennessean.com and on the X platform, formerly Twitter, @tpalmateer83.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: TSSAA boys basketball state tournament 2025: Hillsboro defeats Bradley Central
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