Tenth Annual 2018 Holiday Hoops Action Now Under Way

( Photo Album ) 

Joaquin Rams Gymnasium, Thursday, December 27, 2018 –

This year marks the Tenth Annual edition Of Tenahas’ Holiday Hoops Basketball Tournament. It is recognized as the state’s premier small classification invitational basketball tournament. Seventy-five games over three days in five great venues will take place. The venues for this event are the Tenaha Special Events Center at and Tiger Gym, Panola’s Johnson Gymnasium, Carthage; Timpson High School Gym, and Joaquin High School Gym. Go to tenahaisd.com and click on the Holiday Hoops tab to find out game times and locations. 

The Joaquin Rams boy’s varsity team kicked off local Shelby County action with a hard fought contest at Rams’ Gymnasium with the Sabine Cardinals. The game was close throughout the entire contest.

Eylan Goodwin gave Sabine an early 2-0 advantage with the first bucket of the game but Eleazar Huerta answered back with a 3-pointer for the Rams to give Joaquin a 3-2 lead with 6:10 left in the first quarter. A David Robinson 3-pointer regained a lead for the Cardinals at 5-3 but Lorenzo Lane answered with a Rams bucket which tied the game 5-5 with five minutes left in the opening period. Sabine outscored Joaquin 9 points to 2 in the remaining portion of the first period and the Cardinals took a 14-7 lead into the second quarter.

AJ Gresham hit a 2-point bucket early in the second stanza but Joaquin’s defense stiffened and held the Cards scoreless for the remainder of the first half. Huerta, Conner Bragg and Nick Matthews teamed up to scored eight points for the Rams and they cut the Cardinal’s lead to 16-15 by the halftime intermission.

The scoring floodgates opened up for both teams in the third frame and Sabine took a 36-33 by the end of the third quarter.

Four 3-point shots by the Cardinals during the fourth quarter proved to be enough to help them gain a four point advantage and to win by a 49-43 margin.

Two players from each team scored in double figures. Sabine’s Eylan Goodwin made 16 points, teammate David Robinson scored 13. Joaquin’s Eleazar Huerta led the Rams with 23 points, Nick Matthews added 13 points to the Rams’ tally.