7th Grade Wins Tournament Championship

7^TH GRADE BOYS WIN SECOND TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONSHIP 

The Montgomery County R-2 7^th grade boys’ basketball team won its second tournament championship of the 2011-12 season last week, with 2 very exciting wins.  On Wednesday, January 11, they faced Orchard Farm in the first round game and won a close game by the score of 30-27.  On Saturday, January 14 they faced Warrenton (a team they had beat by only 2 points the week before) and came away with an exciting 28-22 win and the tournament championship.  With these wins the 7^th graders have a record of 10 wins and 2 losses.

In the Orchard Farm game the young Wildcats fell behind early as OF scored the first 7 points of the game, but R-2 closed the gap to 9-3 by the end of the quarter.  In the second quarter, the Wildcats continued to play good defense and their offense started working as they outscored OF 10-2, scoring their last basket near the end of the half to lead 13-11 at halftime.

OF outscored R-2 4-2 to start the second half and tied the game at 15-15, but the Wildcats hit two 3-point shots (one each by Logan Henke and Devon Oden) and a 2-point basket (by Chase Parrish) to open up a 23-15 lead at the end of the quarter.  However, OF did not give up and started a furious comeback. 

With 15 seconds left in the game OF had closed the score to 28-27 and was ready to inbounds the ball under its own basket for the possible winning shot.  The Wildcats played solid defense and kept OF from scoring, and then Parrish was fouled with 8 seconds left.  For the third time this season one of the young Wildcats made 2 free throws with less than 10 seconds left in the game to seal another exciting victory for R-2, this time by the score of 30-27.

Henke led the Wildcats in scoring with 12 points.  He was followed in the scoring by Parrish with 11 points, Daran Gaines with 4 points, and Oden with 3 points.  Brendan Hazel, Skyler Henson and Eric Biggs also played in the game but did not score.

The championship game against Warrenton was the “reverse” of the Orchard Farm in which the Wildcats fell behind early and had to come back, and the previous game with Warrenton in which the Wildcats never led in the game until the last 6 seconds.  This time the Wildcats took the early lead, and although the game was close throughout, they never gave up that lead and won the championship.

The first quarter actually ended up being the “decisive” quarter of the game, as R-2 had 4 different players score and took a 9-4 lead.  Warrenton was never able to get closer to R-2 than 3 points for the rest of the game.  Defense was the name of the game for both teams, as each possession was tightly contested and points were at a “premium”. 

The Wildcats outscored Warrenton 7-6 in the second quarter to gain a 16-10 lead at halftime.  Warrenton outscored the Wildcats 8-7 in the third quarter to cut R-2’s lead to 23-18.  Warrenton scored the first basket of the fourth quarter to make the score 23-20, but R-2 held Warrenton to only 1 more basket the rest of the game while scoring 5 points of its own to win the game and the championship 28-22. 

As has been the case for almost every game this season, a different player was the leading scorer for the Wildcats as Gaines led the team this time with 12 points.  He was followed in the scoring by Parrish with 6 points, Hazel with 4 points, and Henke and Oden with 3 points each.  Brendan Their, Henson, and Biggs also played in the game, but did not score.

This week the 7^th Graders play the last 2 games of their season.  On Tuesday, January 17, they play at Mexico along with the 7^th grade girls.  The girls’ game will start at 6:00, followed by the boys’ game.  Then the season ends on Friday, January 20, with a home game against