Centertown continues to collect trophies in elementary basketball. The 7-8 grade Lady Warriors and Warriors picked up right where the 4-6 grade groups at Centertown left off, winning the preseason elementary tournament held at Morrison.
The Lady Warriors, last year's champs, continued to dominate local 7-8 grade hoops with a 34-11 victory over Dibrell in the girls title game. In boys action, Centertown shrugged off a cold start to top Eastside 40-18.
Coach Kelly Eckenrod has engineered a machine at Centertown that seemingly always produces talented teams in red and black. This year's group of 7-8 grade Lady Warriors are no different.
Even without Kinslee Jarvis, a key guard for the group, Centertown was able to dispatch a pesky Lady Wildcats team in the finals. Karsyn Mathis led the way with 17 points, while Reese Reinitz, named preseason tournament MVP, finished with five. Rylee Young also chipped in six as Centertown had waves of talented kids to run out in the finals.
Dibrell countered with four points from Addison Cantrell, while Kora Adcock hit an early 3-pointer that briefly gave Dibrell the lead.
The Lady Warriors proved too big, too deep and too talented in the second half though. Dibrell stretched a 17-9 lead at halftime into a double-digit blowout by the end, including holding the Lady Wildcats without a point in the third quarter and to just two points overall in the second half.
Mathis was a big key to Centertown's second-half surge, dominating the paint on both sides as she sent shots away on defense and cleaned the offensive glass for easy putbacks.
Briar Williams added a late layup, Kate Williams sank a fourth-quarter free throw and Charley Wilson went 3-for-6 from the line in the first half to round out Centertown's scoring.
In the nightcap, Centertown coach Josh Thaxton clearly found the right halftime speech to get his Warriors rolling. Centertown trailed 13-9 going into the break, but rolled the Bulldogs on the second half, ultimately enacting the running clock in the fourth quarter as they dominated the final 12 minutes.
Aiden Carter sparked the second-half run by scoring all eight of his points in the third quarter, including sinking a pair of triples. Walter Boon also came alive in the second half, six points.
Nolan McCormick led the Warriors with 13 points, including scoring all nine of his team's points in the first half to keep the game close.
Rounding out the Warrior scoring was Wesley Romzek with five, Rylon Smartt with four and Waylon Duggin and Jackson Kirby with two points each.
Eastside was led by 10 points from Amarion Verge. Braylon Burch also hit two 3-pointers in the first half to finish with six points and Aiden Caldwell added a third-quarter layup for the Bulldogs.
The 7-8 grade elementary season begins Monday with games at Centertown, Eastside and Morrison.
