Five GRC Teams Capture Tournament Championships

 Five GRC Teams Captured Tournament Championships this past week.  On Friday at the King City Tournament, King City Girls and Maysville Boys both captured tournament titles.  On Saturday, Gallatin Boys won the Hamilton Tournament, and a pair of GRC Teams captured titles at Gilman City.  St. Joseph Christian captured the Girls Championship and Pattonsburg won the Boys Championship at the Gilman City Tournament.

King City 33 Northeast Nodaway 29 (Girls)

King City Wildkats won their own tournament for the first time in over 30 years by knocking off the Northeast Nodaway Blue Jays 33-29.  Both teams struggled on offense early with King City leading 7-1 after the first quarter.  Northeast Nodaway was only able to manage one field goal the entire first half with King City extending the lead 17-7 at halftime.  Northeast Nodaway closed the lead to 20-16 with 5:28 left in the 3rd, but the Wildkats were able to extend it back out to 9 with 4 minutes left.

King City went through scoring drought as Northeast Nodaway went on an 11-0 run at the end of the 3rd quarter into the 4th quarter.  A steal and layup by Baylie Busby put the Blue Jays up 27-25 with 4:54 left in the game.  The Wildkats finally ended the drought with 4:30 with Zoe Tunks hit a jumper from the side to tie it at 27.

From there, King City was able to push the lead out to 5.  Strong rebounding by Taryn Hunter and Tacee Catlett helped key the run for the Wildkats.  They were able to hold on to win 33-29.

King City was led in scoring by Zoe Tunks with 15.  Other scorers were Taryn Hunter with 11, Carleen Gilbert with 5 and Clare Staley with 2.

Photo Credit: Brent Johnson

Maysville 67 South Holt 56 (Boys)

Maysville played the South Holt Knights earlier this year without Tanner Evans and South Holt was able to knock off the Wolverines 63-60.  Evans was back for the championship game and was part of a balanced offense that helped Maysville get out to a 21-18 lead.  The Wolverines kept the offensive intensity in the 2nd quarter, but stepped up their defensive intensity to extend the lead to 12 at 39-27.

Maysville was unable to keep up the offensive pace in the 3rd, but they were able to extend the lead to 16 making the score 49-33.  South Holt cut the lead down to 10  with 2:24 left, but the Wolverines held on to win 67-56.

Maysville was led in scoring by Dillon Willis with 23.  He was a force down low with all of his field goals coming in the paint.  Other scoring for Maysville was Kristofer Gabbard with 13, Evans with 12, Kobyn Metzger with 11 and Kayden Gabbard with 8.

Photo Credit: Clifton Grooms

Gallatin 80 Higginsville 59 (Boys)

Gallatin was facing Higginsville (Lafayette County) in the championship game of the Hamilton Tournament for the 3rd consecutive year.  The Higginsville Huskers were able to knock off the Bulldogs each of the last 2 years, but both games were close.  Last year's game was a 2-point victory for Higginsville after the Huskers won by 6 the previous year.

In addition, Higginsville was coming into the game ranked #2 in Class 3.  Gallatin took the lead early and were the aggressors from the opening tip.  They were able to build a 45-22 Halftime lead aided by two early 3-pointers by Boston Bell.  The defense shifted to Isaac Bird and Payton Feiden which also allowed Durk Stout to get some early buckets as well.  

Isaac Bird led the Bulldogs with 28 points and captured tournament MVP. Payton Feiden added 27 for the Bulldogs.  Other scorers for Gallatin were Durk Stout with 11, Boston Bell with 11, Brett Hemry with 3, Layton Shubert with 2 and Jack Donovan with 2.

Photo Credit: Clifton Grooms

St. Joseph Christian 57 Princeton 53 (Girls)

St. Joseph Christian Lions won their second consecutive Gilman City Tournament title knocking off fellow GRC rival Princeton Tigers.  The Lions used a 10-0 run in the first quarter to help build a 17-8 lead after the first quarter.  Princeton was able to eat into the lead slightly to cut it to 6 with the Lions leading 25-19.  However, the Tigers were unable to take advantage at the free throw line, going only 7-17.

In the 3rd quarter, the Tigers had cut the lead to 26-22 and had the ball with a shot to cut the lead down to 2.  However, after a Princeton miss, Chloe Burnham took the rebound and went coast-to-coast for a layup.  The next Princeton possession resulted in another miss and Ella Bowman took the rebound and found Burnham for a wide-open three that made it 31-22 Lions.

However, the Tigers kept fighting with Addy Henke connecting on back to back buckets to make it 31-26.  Chloe Burnham then picked up her 4th foul with 3:53 left in the 3rd quarter.

Jaci Jorgensen hit a couple of buckets in the final minute of the 4th quarter after the Tigers had cut the lead to 2 to help extend the Lions lead back to 6 by the end of the 3rd quarter.

In the 4th quarter, the Lions were able to feed the ball inside to Ella Bowman.  Behind 8 points from Bowman in the 4th quarter, the Lions were able to extend the lead to 54-41 with 2:50 left.  They were able to hold on for a 57-53 win.

The Lions were led in scoring by Burnham with 22 and Bowman with 18.  Other scorers were Jorgensen with 7, Danika Wattenbarger with 7 and Madi Blevins with 3.  The Tigers were led in scoring by Henke with 31, Grace Kelly with 15, Klaire Bucker with 3, Randa Shahan with 2, Makenzie Dunkin and Gracie Allnut with 1 each.

Photo Credit: Heather Bowman

Pattonsburg 71 Gilman City 55 (Boys)

Pattonsburg Panthers were in the championship game of the Gilman City Tournament for the 2nd consecutive year.  They lost a tight game to St. Joseph Christian last year.  They found themselves in a tight game again this year against the Gilman City Hawks, but were able to avoid the same fate as last year.

The Panthers got out to a 32-20 lead with 2:38 left in the 1st half, but the Hawks would not go away.  They went on a 8-0 run to pull within 4 with 1:09 left.  Gilman City had a chance to cut it to one possessions, but turned it over,  Gage Iddings took advantage by hitting a 3-pointer with 10 seconds left in the half to put Pattonsburg up 35-28 at the half.

The 3rd quarter was even for the first seven minutes with the Panthers still holding on to a 7-point lead.  But then Brody Langfitt scored 9 points in the final minute to help tie the game at 49 points after 3 quarters of play.

With all the momentum on the Hawks side in front of their home crowd, the Panthers had to make defensive adjustments.  Langfitt was fouled on the first play and hit a free throw to put Gilman City up 50-49.  But Gage Iddings drove in for a bucket and was fouled.  His free throw put Pattonsburg back up on top 52-50.  From there, the Panthers controlled the game on the defensive end and pulled away to win 71-55.

Pattonsburg was led in scoring by Gage Iddings with 26.  Landon Woodward and Daltyn Sperry each had 16.  Other scorers were Sam Coin with 8 and Massen Weller with 5.

Photo Credit: Jeremy Benson

Postgame Recap and Interviews

You can hear post-game interviews with all of the winning coaches in the post-game recap on the GRC Blog