Courtesy Cody Morris, Tailgate TV
The Indians early seemed scared to play a fast paced game, and successfully slowed down the Tigers. Osceola found themselves in the driver seat with a 10-8 lead after the first 8 minutes.
In the second, the Indians would take back their place in the driver seat, and control the pace, again slowing down the high-speed Tigers offense. At the end of the half, the Tigers were still trailing with a score of 20-12. Rich Hill was held to just 4 points in the 2nd quarter as the combination of stout defense and a clock burning strategy.
Out of the break, the Tigers came out with a spark, and some sharp shooting. They nailed home 4 triples and scored 23 points in the 3rd quarter which propelled them to a 35-29 lead over the Indians.
Rich Hill was able to keep the momentum in the final period and bring home the 1st place trophy with a final of 59-50.
Dillon Coonce led all scoring with 24 points, 16 of which came in the 2nd half. Zane Becker recorded 15, all of which came in the 2nd half. And Gillis had 14 which were also all in the second half.
Osceola was led by Preston Listerud with 21 points and Skylar Wohlers with 13.
Both teams had a great tournament, and fought hard in the championship. They will meet again in just a few days, as they are scheduled to duke it out again at Rich Hill on Tuesday.
It was a tough start for the Bears as they went down 11-2 early, before Chandler rattled off 7 more points to make it 16-11 at the end of the first quarter. Versailles went on a little bit of a run in the second quarter after Triebel left the game with an injury. At the end of the half, the Tigers had a 35-23 lead.
In the second half, Coach Burch had his team fighting and clawing their way back, shrinking the deficit to 47-40 heading into the fourth and final period. The Bears were able to keep the momentum and fight back to tie the game 54-54 at the end of regulation.
By the end of the game, the Bears roster was depleted, with Mallatt still out with injury (DNP), Jesse Carter (Starter) and Dylon Triebel (Starter) both leaving the game with injuries, and then Senior Chase Payne (Starter) fouling out of the contest. The younger men for the Bears really stepped up and played hard, however the injuries would prove too much for the Bears to overcome as they would fall 62-57.
For the second year in a row the Versailles Tigers would just barley sneak past a severely depleted Butler team (last year the Bears ended the Versailles game with 3 players on the court).
Jake Chandler ended his night with a spectacular 34 points. Delozier, Grubb, Carter, Doll, Payne, and Davidson all recorded points for the Bears as well.
Despite the heartbreaking loss, the Butler Bears showed tremendous fight in the ballgame. Photo courtesy of Erin Dubray
The Lady Tigers jumped out to a 17-10 lead after the first period, however the Bears began to claw back into the game in the second quarter. At halftime, the Lady Bears had cut the Versailles lead down to just 6, with a score of 28-22.
However, in the second half, the Lady Tigers started to once again pull away from the Bears, and would claim a 69-50 victory over Butler.
Adyson Clover led the scoring charge for the Bears with 14 points, 12 of which would come from three-balls. Gabby Carmichael had 12 points, and Dubray had 11.
For Versailles, Kylee Richey had 19, Brokke Anderson ended with 17, and Ary Jones finished the game with 10 points. The Lady Tigers had a total of 9 ladies score on the night.
Butler will play next week in the Stockton Tournament. Photo courtesy of Erin Dubray
Individual results were as follows:
150-Kellen Long 1st place
138- Preston Mallatt 2nd place
190- Hunter Long 4th place
285- Chris Castro 5th place
113- phineas goert 6th place
165- Able Bryan 8 place
215- Logan Fuller 8th place
157- DK Woolace 9th place
