STARKE-Day 2 of the 2017 Lake Region McDonalds Kiwanis Holiday Tournament at Bradford had a few surprises for everyone there.
The most anticipated game of the tournament turned out to be a dud as Gainesville easily handed Creekside its first loss of the season. Gainesville will play host Bradford, a 58-49 winner over Santa Fe in the other semifinal game, in the title game 8:30 p.m. today.
In a battle of winless teams, Stanton surprised many by throttling Union County to pick up their first win of the season and will play Madison County in the fifth place game today.
Here is a run down of what happened in last nights action.
Game 8: Bradford 58, Santa Fe 49
Santa Fe led early on but Bradford battled back quickly to take the lead and never let go of it.
Both teams started the game with a shooting clinic as both went back and forth in a tightly contest first quarter.
Santa Fe led 14-12 near the end of the first quarter before a three pointer at the buzzer at the end of their first quarter gave the Tornadoes their first lead of the game.
From that point on it, Bradford took control of the game as Chris Cummings nailed back-to-back three’s and Jordan Lee thundering dunk brought the crowd to its feet as the Tornadoes established a 10 point lead with 1:15 left till half time.
Going into the break, Bradford led 33-25 and had all the momentum going into the second half.
Santa Fe wouldn’t go away though cutting the lead to three midway in the third quarter thanks to a half court trap; however Bradford caught them napping on defense on consecutive trips and cherry picked them twice for easy Tally Chandler layups and it was back to a ten point lead 51-41 at the end of the third quarter.
Bradford (9-1) advances to the title game tonight at 8:30 to play Gainesville, while Santa Fe (3-4) plays Creekside at 7 p.m. in the third place game.
Game 7: Gainesville 69, Creekside 58
Two of the hottest teams not only in the tournament but in the area faced off in the first semifinal in a highly anticipated matchup between two highly ranked teams.
Creekside entered the tournament as the the top ranked team in The Prep Zone boys basketball poll, while Gainesville entered at No. 7 this week.
Despite coming in undefeated the Knights came into Bradford short handed as its head coach Will Mayer was serving a three game suspension for an undisclosed incident in the Dec 19 win over Bartram Trail.
Gainesville came ready to play though and perhaps get a little payback too for a preseason loss to Creekside back in November.
Behind a scrappy defense and hot shooting offense, the Hurricanes shocked the packed crowd jumping out to a 10-4 lead early on.
The Hurricanes half and full court press at times forced way to many Knight turnovers and the quick up tempo offense was to much to handle for the Knights as well.
Gainesville led 21-6 at the end of the first quarter, bringing a loud applause to half the fans and complete silence on the other end of the gym.
Back-to-back threes by DJ Dumas and Noah Lippy cut the lead to 21-12, but the Hurricanes quickly responded back to back up 11 on back-to-back threes by Christian Miller-Cardwell.
Gainesville took a 31-24 lead into the half and looked well on its way to advancing to the title game and sending the Knights their first loss of the season.
However, the Knights came out in the third quarter with a lot more intensity and better defense as the Knights quickly erased the 7 point lead cutting it down to two points at 31-29 with 6:58 left in the third quarter forcing Hurricanes coach Kelly Beckham to call a quick timeout.
Out of the timeout, the Hurricanes quickly responded as Cardwell landed two three-pointers in between two J’michael Plummer layups to extend the Hurricanes lead to 41-33 midway through the third.
Lippy was fouled on a three point attempt and made two of the three free throws to cut the lead to 41-35 with 2:56 left in the third but that was as close as the Knights got.
The Hurricanes went on a 10-2 run to extend their lead to 51-37 and Diamond Smith thundering dunk was the exclamation point on the game with a 15 point lead with under a minute remaining.
Gainesville (7-2) will play host Bradford tonight at 8:30 in the championship game, while Creekside (8-1) will play Santa Fe at 7 p.m. in the third place game.
Game 6: Stanton 67, Union County 47
Jumping out to an early lead not only drew several high fives and loud cheers it also drew a rarity.
For just the second time this season, head coach Rob Burnett and Stanton actually had a lead and for the first time they held on to it.
The Blue Devils were led by sophomore center Nick Nist who scortched the Tigers for 30 points, including 17 in the first half.
Other contributors were sophomore guard Colby Cummings with 14, sophomore forward Wasaun Augustine with 12, senior forward Kevin James with 6, senior forward Owen Shea with 3 and junior guard Rex Valencia with 2 points.
Stanton (1-7), which ended a seven game losing skid, advance to the fifth place game at 5:30 where they will take on Madison County.
Game 5: Madison County 75, Landrum (SC) 70
Down by as many as 14 midway through the fourth quarter, Landrum cut the lead to three at 72-69 with 1:06 left in the game before Madison County finally pulled away.
Junior guard Travis Jay (15), sophomore Demarvion Brown (15), junior Vincenta Mitchell (14), senior guard Ken Hawkins (12) and Devin Norwood (10) led the Cowboys in scoring.
Senior forward Tre Adams contributed with 6 points, while senior forward Bailey Browning added 3 points.
Madison (4-2) moves on to the fifth place game and will play Stanton (1-7) at 5:30
Landrum, South Carolina entered the tournament undefeated and for the second straight night fell in a tight affair despite big nights from Trey Smith (24) and Foster Biggs (21).
The Cardinals (7-2) will play Union County in the seventh place at 4 p.m. today.
Saturday
Game 9: Landrum (SC) vs Union County (7th Place), 4
Game 10: Madison vs Stanton (5th Place), 5:30
Game 11: Creekside vs Santa Fe (3rd Place), 7
Game 12: Gainesville vs Bradford (Title game), 8:30
Thursday
Game 1: Santa Fe 61, Stanton 32
Game 2: Gainesville 62, Madison 44
Game 3: Creekside 69, Landrum 62
Game 4: Bradford 75, Union County 45
