Keenburg and Central take Small School District titles

Published 11:42 pm Wednesday, January 22, 2020

By Allen LaMountain

BY ALLEN LAMOUNTAIN
STAR CORRESPONDENT
In a pair of high spirited, highly competitive games the Keenburg Tigers and Central Lady Comets each took the championship of Small School District. Noah Gill’s game-high 12 points led Keenburg as the Tigers held off Unaka 52-45 as he was named tournament MVP.
On the girls’ side, Juley Nieminski took the MVP honors for Central and she scored a team-high eight points in the Lady Cougars 30-22 win over Little Milligan.
Unaka fell behind in this one – trailing 25-23 at the break but Keenburg put on a third-quarter surge to take a 40-29 advantage going into the final period.
The Tigers led by as many as 11 with 4:04 remaining in regulation with a 44-33 lead but the Junior Rangers charged ahead.
The Rangers went on a 7-1 run to cut the deficit to 45-40 behind a pair of buckets from Jacob Nidiffer and a free throw from Brinton Salinas. T.J. Thomas hit a pair of free throws after one from Gill to make it a 46-42 contest.
Aiden Gross then hit three-of-four from the line for Keenburg before a three-point play from Thomas made it a 49-46 game with under a minute left to play.
Thomas then fouled Gill and was charged with a technical foul as well and Gill hit both free throws and a layup as the buzzer sounded for the final margin of victory.
“I just want to say that God has blessed us with a great group of kids,” Tigers head coach Jacob Hartley said. “They really played a tough game and executed well on offense and it was a good team win. Tonight was really special.”
Logan Lewis and Kaiden Benway each had 11 points to lead the Rangers with Thomas and Nidiffer each scoring 10. For Keenburg Gross had 11 points and Devin Dugger added 10.
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BOYS CHAMPIONSHIP
Keenburg 52-45
Unaka (45)
Lewis 11, Salinas 1, Thomas 10, Benway 11, Nidiffer 10, Peterson 2.
Keenberg (52)
Dugger 10, Linberg 6, Smalls 6, Gill 12, Gross 11, McKinney 7.
Unaka        6 17   6 16 – 45
Keenburg 12 13 15 12 – 52
3-point goals: U 2 (Lewis 2), K 1 (Smalls).
GIRLS
Central…………30
Little Milligan…22
Low scoring with lots of fouls was the name of this game but the Comets took command in the fourth period to pull away. The game was a near draw through three periods with Central clinging to a 15-14 lead but Nieminski scored six of her eight points in the fourth quarter and Makaela Green scored four of her eight in the stanza as well.
“I have five eight graders and they are all go-to players,” Lady Comets head coach Chelsea Anderson said. “It is just a different one every game.
“With our size differential, our posts really stepped up tonight. We have put three years into this team and they really wanted to leave it all on the floor tonight. We pride ourselves on hustle.”
Central led 11-7 at the break and went into the fourth quarter with a slim one-point lead. Green and post player Maliya Rollins each hit deuces for the Comets and Trinity Cornett answered with a pair of free throws for the Lady Buffaloes.
Nieminski hit a pair from the line and followed that with a deuce basket as Central pulled to a 22-17 lead with 2:54 remaining.
Cornett scored a deuce to break the string and make it a 24-19 contest, but the Comets had too much left in the tank and finished strong. Cornett led all scorers with 10 points with Katlin Campbell adding seven.
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GIRLS CHAMPIONSHIP
Central 30-22
Little Milligan (22)
Guy 2, Campbell 7, Cornett 10, Lee 2, Greene 1.
Central (30)
Harmon 5, Malone 3, Green 8, Nieminski 8, Rollins 6.
Little Milligan  0 7 8   7 – 22
Central            4 7 3 16 – 30
3-point goals: None.
GIRLS CONSOLATION
Keenburg..39
Unaka ……25
Bambi Nance had a game-high 26 points as the Lady Tigers whipped Unaka. Tiffany Dugger added eight points for Keenburg. Unaka’s Sadie Williams had 15 points while Callie Hardin added nine.
BOYS CONSOLATION
Little Milligan…27
Central………….22
Bryce Fagan scored a game-high 13 points and Tuff Robinson scored seven more for the Buffaloes. Ron Parker had a team-high nine points for Central.

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