December 31, 2016 Tenaha Special Events Center - Friday’s Eighth Annual Tenaha Holiday Hoops Basketball Tournament final round action saw five Shelby County teams still competing, four local teams fought it out for a chance at tournament trophies.
The Shelbyville Dragons Varsity Basketball team came away with a 65-55 win over the White Oak Roughnecks. This win gave SHS the tournament’s Consolation Bracket B Trophy.
The game was very close until the late stages of the fourth stanza. The Roughnecks had an 11-9 advantage with just two minutes left in the first frame, but a bucket by Dragon Cole Ferguson tied the game with 1:31 remaining. A 3-pointer by Dragon Jordan Boykins, with just 29 seconds left in the opening period, helped Shelbyville take a narrow 14-13 lead into the second quarter of play.
Two 3-pointers by Boykins in the second period helped Shelbyville stay close to White Oak but the Roughnecks held a narrow 35-34 lead at the midway break.
The Dragons lost a little ground to the Roughnecks in the third frame when WOHS outscored the Dragons 13-12 and took a 48-46 in to the fourth and final period of play.
The Dragons got 8 points from Boykins and 5 points from teammate Jakovian Buckley in the final frame to help themselves outpace White Oak 19-7 in the final period.
Trez Barnes and Jordan Boykins led the Dragons with 17 points each, Cole Ferguson had 14, Trae Polley 9, Corey Bearden 2, and Ryan Bailey had one point. White Oaks’ Cameron Bates and Andrew Hood each had 17 points.
The Joaquin Girls Varsity Lady Rams team fell in a narrow 44-43 loss to the Centerville Lady Tigers Friday in the Holiday Hoops fifth round title game. The Lady Ram held a 14-11 lead at the end of the first period after getting six points early from junior post Desere Cooper and four from senior post Hana Bonner.
Day’za Lane scored nine points for the Lady Rams in the second period which helped JHS outpace the Lady Tigers 12-9 on the way to a 26-20 halftime lead.
Centerville chipped away at the Joaquin lead and they led 34-32 with 1 minute left in the third frame. Lane tied the game at 34-34 with 41 seconds left but Lady Tiger Sara Stutzman hit a 3-point bomb for the last score of the period, which sent the game into the fourth period with CHS ahead 37-34.
Joaquin gained the lead with less than 1:30 left in the contest but a 2-point bucket with less than one minute left to play, by Tori Tollett, gave Centerville the final one-point advantage.
The Lady Rams were led offensively by Hana Bonner with 15 points, Day’za Lane had 13, Desere Cooper pitched in 8, Erica Davis 8, and Katelyn Jackson had 3 points.
Both Tenaha boys and girls teams reached the championship finals round of tournament play for the first time in tournament history. The Lady Tigers fell to the Martin’s Mill Lady Mustangs in a narrow 32-30 championship loss. Tenaha held a 9-6 lead at the end of the first period. Martin’s Mill fought back to gain a 14-13 advantage when the teams went into the locker room at the midway intermission.
Tenaha took a 20-17 lead with 3.29 left in the third stanza but the Lady Mustangs went back up 21-20 with a score on a fast-break for the final score of the frame.
Arlicia Roland put THS up to start the fourth stanza but MMHS made the next three scores and began to stall while leading 32-28 with just seconds remaining in the contest. The Lady Tigers were forced to foul. Arlicia Roland scored with just 6 seconds left in the contest but the Lady Mustangs were able to hold on for the narrow
2-point victory and hoist the championship trophy.
Only four players scored for THS, they were led by Arlicia Roland with 10 points, Shayla Parks 8, Bianca Davison 8, and Brooke McClure had four points.
The #6 Class 2A Tenaha Tigers’ Varsity Boys team faced off with the #1 ranked Class 1 A Lipan Indians in the championship round of the Hoops Tournament later on Friday. The Indians came out hot and jumped out to a 12-2 lead by the 2:30 minute mark of the first period. Tenaha went on an 8-2 run at the end of the frame and only trailed 10-14 going into the second period.
Trai Gardner hit a bucket to begin the second quarter but the Indians exploded during the frame and outscored THS 24-12 during the period. Lipan took a 38-22 advantage into the midway intermission.
Tenaha outscored Lipan 13-14 in the third quarter but still needed to gain more ground as they headed to the fourth stanza behind by a 36-51 margin.
The Indians once again outscored Tenaha, this time 27-19 during the final period, and they won the championship game by a 78-55 margin.
The Tigers were led by Trai Gardner who had 25 points and only trailed Lipan’s Tate Phillips who had 26 points. Other Tigers scoring were JaQualin Franks with 17, Jay Lloyd 6, Ladarrius Garret and Cody Foshee each had two points each.
The Joaquin Rams boys’ varsity team fought it out in a Consolation Bracket B round-robin match game with the Garrison Bulldogs. The Rams ultimately fell to GHS by a 70-59 margin after falling behind early and trailing throughout the remainder of the contest.
Four points each from Bulldogs Dayton Bell and RJ Johnson helped Garrison gain an 11-6 lead by the end of the first quarter of play. Three 3-pointers by Ram Eleazar Huerta helped Joaquin gain ground at times but GHS eventually outpaced the Rams 21-17 in the second frame. Garrison led 32-23 at the midway break.
Bulldog Justin Garcia exploded for ten points in the third frame which helped the Bulldogs gain a 53-41 advantage going into the final period of play.
Ram Tray Wilkerson hit three 3-pointers in the final period but Joaquin wasn’t able to gain enough ground as they outscored GHS but only 18-17 in the last quarter.
Each Huerta and Wilkerson led JHS with 16 points each, Nick Matthews 10, Justin Hooper 8, and Peyton Martinez had seven points.
